"The Gasper is the first apple that has ever made me sit down in a field. Coming back with my brother." Ruthanne P., three-time visitor
Fourth generation. Nobody will say which generation it started going wrong.
Pick your own weird apples.
Odd Orchard is a family apple orchard growing 27 varieties you will not find anywhere else, and in most cases would not look for. Fist-shaped baking apples. Apples that taste like hot dog water. Apples that come with the worm still in residence. You walk the rows, you pick what you dare, we weigh it at the stand.
Now picking:
Something is always ripe here, which is not a boast so much as a condition. Full seasons on the picking calendar.
How picking works
First
Grab a basket
Baskets and jars are at the stand. Jars are for the Old Mushy rows, where a basket would be a mistake you only make once.
Second
Walk the rows
Every row is marked with what grows there and what to expect from it. Rows 9 and 12 have extra paperwork. The signs are honest because the lawyers asked.
Third
Weigh out at the stand
Pecks are weighed resident-inclusive. If you picked something you regret, leave it in the regret bin by the scale. We compost, or we listen.
The Estate Series
Most orchards spray so you never meet the wildlife. We went the other way. Estate Series apples are grown, inspected, and sold with their original resident on board: a codling moth larva, an apple maggot, a plum curculio, or in one memorable row, earwigs.
Choose from four occupied varieties. Codlin's Share carries one larva and one tunnel, The Railroad maps its maggot's whole commute through the flesh, Curculio Crescent wears its weevil's signature scars, and Earwig Hollow keeps its residents where you least want them, which is the stem well.
"We don't have pests. We have tenants, and they pay in character."
Meet the residentsOpen all twelve months
Regular orchards close in November. Our varieties never got the memo. The Permafrost Pippin ripens at nine degrees in January, Mud Season carries the spring, and Old Mushy simply refuses to stop. Winter pickers get a chisel, a mallet, and our respect.
See the year-round calendarThe farm store
Everything in the Odd Shop starts as one of our apples and ends as something your pantry was not expecting. Apple pasta milled from Knuckle flour. Apple jerky. Apple-Water, which is water that has met an apple. Old Mushy applesauce, jarred more or less where it fell.
All of it ships, or you can buy it at the stand while you wait for your peck to be weighed.
Shop the Odd Shop
What pickers are saying
"My son named the larva in his Codlin's Share Gerald. We now own the apple and cannot eat it. Five stars." Dana K., Estate Series customer
"Picked a peck of Permafrost Pippins in a whiteout. The chisel rental is fair and the mallet is honest. This is what winter is for." Walt F., Year-Rounder pass holder
Visit the orchard
4 Orchard Hollow Road, Crabapple Notch, Vermont. Turn off Route 9 at the sign shaped like a fist. If the apples start looking normal, you have gone too far.
Hours
Open every day, all year, dawn to dusk. In January, dawn to the warm part. The stand closes ten minutes after the last picker gives up.
Picking prices
Admission is five dollars and comes off your fruit. Standard pecks are $14, Estate Series pecks are $18 with residents included. Full pricing is on the farm store page.
Good to know
Wear boots in Mud Season, both the month and the row. The Fermenter requires ID. Waivers for row 12 take about a minute and are worth reading.