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Apple Orchard Field Trip Ideas: Apple Activities and Crafts for Kids

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Please read our Policies for more information.
Updated: July 22, 2021 Published: August 24, 2018 2 Comments

Going to an orchard to pick apples is a wonderful fall activity for kids and families.

This apple orchard field trip guide for kids contains everything you need to know to enjoy harvesting apples with your classroom or family this autumn. Below you will find links to a harvesting guide, how to find apple orchards and “pick your own” farms in your area, apple crafts and activities, apple book recommendations, and a bunch of awesome apple recipes that make it FUN to enjoy the fruits of your labors!

Go on a field trip to an apple orchard this autumn for a class field trip or a fun homeschool family adventure! Going to an orchard to pick apples is a fun activity for kids and families to try in the fall. Even though we have a few of our own apple trees on our property, our family likes to visit an apple orchard each fall as a part of our daughter’s homeschool education. For more fall field trip ideas check out Pumpkin Patch Field Trip Ideas and Corn Maze Field Trip Ideas!

The Best Apple Orchard Field Trip Ideas for Kids and Families

Visit a pick your own apple orchard this fall! Use these handy tips to make a plan to take your family or class apple picking this harvest.

Apples are typically ripe for picking from Mid-June to Mid-November depending on the variety of apples. The most common varieties are just beginning to ripen at this time of year.

The post is a part of the Get Outside and Connect Series. Click on the link to learn more about it.

How to Find an Apple Orchard Near You

Organic apple orchards are recommended, but harder to find. Check your local newspaper, a family resource guide, or do a Google search for a “Pick Your Own” apple farm near you!

Make sure you call the apple orchard Before you visit to ask Questions:

• When the smallest crowd is expected.
• If the branches are low enough for small children to pick. Odds are you won’t want to be holding your child up all day or hauling a ladder around with you.
• Do they have wagons available or if they allow you to bring your own.
• Is there is food available for purchase or if they have a place to sit and eat if you bring your own picnic.

Apple Orchard Field Trip Ideas: Bring Your Own Apple Picking Basket

The apple orchard will most likely have bags available for picking, but we recommend bringing your own baskets and/or reusable bags. My favorite free trade baskets for farmers’ markets, and pick your own farms can be found at the following affiliate link.

Apple Activities for kids

Before and after you go to the apple orchard you can extend children learning at home or the classroom by trying some of these fun autumn apple activities!

1. Teach your children about the parts of an apple; Core, seeds, flesh, skin, stem, and leaf.
2. Lay an apple on its side and cut into thin sections. Show the child the star in the center of the apple around the core.
3. Peel apples for many of the recipes found below using an easy countertop apple peeler and corer . Peeling and coring apples is a wonderful practical life activity for food preparation that kids LOVE!
4. Print out this Apple Life Cycle Printable by The Stay at Home Educator.
5. Learn how an apple grows with this Preschool Apple Science Activity from Little Bins for Little Hands.
6. Try this easy Apple Science Experiment by Pre-K Pages.

Apple Crafts for Kids

Try your hand at a few apple crafts at home or in the classroom this fall!

1. Make an Apple Hedgehog using a real apple. Using toothpicks to make a hedgehog is an easy fine motor apple activity for kids.
2. Craft a Clove Apple Pomander from Crafting a Green World.
3. Make an Oak Apple Nature Craft
4. Try your hand at a few apple crafts. Craft an apple button tree (with glue) or sew your own apple button tree. Click on the links to learn more!
5. Weave an apple onto a paper plate using this fun apple craft idea from Easy Crafts for Kids.
6. Try apple stamping art. Cut apples in half and dip them in tempura paint to make apple prints! Have a look at THIS printmaking project for tips!
7. You can find a few more fall apple crafts HERE.

Awesome Apple Recipes

Wondering what you’re going to do with all those apples? Have a look through the awesome apple recipes listed below to enjoy the fruits of your labor. I highly recommend making some applesauce or apple butter as a part of your apple activities. A countertop apple peeler makes it easy!

• Apple Pie Oatmeal Breakfast Recipe
• The Magic of Caramel Apples | Sally’s Baking Addition
• Apple Crisp (Substitute Apples and add a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/3 cup of OJ to this gluten-free recipe)
• Easy Recipe for Applesauce | Teaching 2 and 3-Year-Olds
• Cinnamon Apple Zucchini Muffins | Arts and Crackers
• Apple Squash Bread | Sunny Day Family
• Baked Apples with Walnuts | Totally the Bomb
• Slow Cooker Apple Butter (No sugar added!) | Bakerita
• Baked Cinnamon Apple Chips | Sally’s Baking Addiction
• Apple Fritter Monkey Bread | Bren Did

Apple Book Recommendations

To extend children’s learning even further, you can read some of these wonderful books about apples with your children both before and after you go to the apple orchard. For more of our fall favorites check out Autumn Stories Children LOVE!

Books About Apples for Kids

The Best Apple Learning Toys and Games for Children

For even more fun, try some of these apple toys and games for children!

Apple Orchard Field Trip Ideas for Kids

An outing to an apple orchard can be the beginning of a wonderful autumn harvest celebration for both schools and families. Visiting an apple farm is a fun activity for a class field trip or a family adventure whether you homeschool or not.

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Before You Start an Apple Orchard

Every year orchards are purchased or planted by people who have no experience in growing apples. For some, an orchard will be a challenge and a source of personal satisfaction and profit. For others, it may be a source of frustration and a bad investment. It’s important to become familiar with the business of producing and selling apples before investing your time, energy and money. Here are points to consider if you are thinking about starting or purchasing an orchard.

Experience

If you have had no previous experience in orchard management, consider working for a successful orchardist for at least a year to learn about the operation. If that’s not possible, be certain that a competent manager or qualified consultant can be employed before you decide to purchase an orchard.

Orchard size

Apple production requires a lot of labor. A permanent labor supply for spraying, pruning and general maintenance must be available. Additional seasonal labor will also be needed for harvesting and packing the fruit. Although every farm system is unique, 10 acres could be considered a minimum size for a commercial apple-growing enterprise. A 10-acre operation is large enough to use equipment efficiently and implement a continuous orchard renovation program, yet small enough that one person can take care of most of the work. Larger orchards can make more efficient use of machinery and equipment, but more hired labor, and thus more management skill, will be required.

Management

Apple growing is an enterprise that requires a great deal of knowledge on the part of the orchard owner or manager. Making a profit growing apples in Minnesota (or anywhere else) can be done only with intense management, from variety selection through planting, training, controlling pests, thinning fruit, harvesting, handling and marketing. If you are considering orcharding as a career or a business opportunity, you must be willing to learn about and keep up-to-date with production practices.

Start-up costs

Apple growing requires a very substantial capital investment. Many potentially successful orchards have failed simply due to lack of sufficient operating capital. Be sure you have the capital to purchase and operate an orchard before signing any agreement or sale contract. From the year of planting until the year that crop returns equal or exceeds annual costs, the apple grower will make a large investment. Dwarf trees may begin bearing a small crop their third year in the ground; these trees will not reach full productivity until the sixth or seventh year after planting.

Establishment costs per acre

Penn State has several worksheets in their 2012-2013 Pennsylvania Tree Fruit Production guide (http://extension.psu.edu/plants/tree-fruit/tfpg) that can be used to help estimate costs for the following:

• Land preparation
• Orchard planting
• Maintaining a productive apple orchard

The Penn State worksheets assume slightly lower tree densities than is probably optimal. If dwarf trees are planted at 8-foot by 14-foot spacing, there will be 388 to the acre.

These cost estimate sheets do not include costs for tree stakes. A permanent stake should be provided for each dwarf tree, so this cost should be added to your planting budget. Planting year costs include trees, tree guards, stakes, labor to plant and train trees, fertilizer and pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides and/or bactericides).

Nonbearing year costs include pesticides and the labor for pruning, training, mowing, and pest control. Remember, after the fifth year, production costs will increase while yields and income are also increasing. As the trees get larger, they will require more pest control chemicals to achieve good coverage, and more pruning, and it will be more time-consuming to harvest the fruit. Expect costs of $4,000 to $5,000 per acre.

Hiring honeybee hives and thinning fruit are additional costs in bearing years. Advertising and packing costs will vary depending on how the fruit is to be marketed. A pick-your-own orchard will not have high harvest costs, but will pay workers to do things that other orchards don’t, such as drive the customers on wagons around the orchard, or entertain crowds to attract them to the orchard. This kind of orchard is also likely to have higher insurance costs.

Deer fencing

One site preparation expense not included in these worksheets is that of fencing the orchard to keep deer out. Fencing costs vary considerably, depending on type of fence chosen, materials used, size and layout of orchard. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources can help you design a deer fence (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/livingwith_wildlife/fences/index.html) for your orchard. Deer fencing should be considered essential to successful apple production in Minnesota. Young trees in particular are attractive to deer, and can be killed in a single season of heavy browsing. Hanging bars of soap, human hair, or other repellants in the trees might be effective, but you can’t always count on repellants.

One alternative to deer fencing could be keeping guard dogs in the orchard; however, there will be additional costs associated with this method of pest control. Do not plan to simply shoot the deer “as needed.” Special permits for killing animals harming your crop are available from the DNR; however, no matter how many deer you kill or have killed, more will soon replace them, and continue to damage your trees.

Income potential

You could expect to have income from the trees after the fifth year. Yields from dwarf trees planted at a density of 300 to 400 trees per acre in Minnesota range from about 300 bushels per acre to 500 or more bushels per acre. Figuring that a bushel of apples weighs about 40 pounds, an acre of trees at this density should produce at least 16,000 pounds of fruit, and on a good site, with favorable climatic conditions and excellent management, as much as 20,000 pounds.

Not all of the production will be saleable; figure about 60 percent packout when you make income projections, and somewhat less for pick-your-own, since customers will not be as thorough pickers as hired harvesters, and they may eat a significant amount of fruit without purchasing it.

Prices for fruit will depend on how it is marketed: pick-your-own, pre-picked on-farm sales, farmers’ market sales, or wholesale in bulk to a packer. At some pick-your-own orchards in Minnesota, many varieties sell for about $1 per pound; pre-picked fruit costs about $1.25. The same fruit, wholesaled to a packer, might be worth only 10 cents per pound.

Some varieties command a higher price than others, prices will vary from year to year, and yields will also vary. Don’t assume that planting lots of Honeycrisp and no lower-value apples will allow you to beat the average. The only way most Minnesota orchard businesses make money is by retailing the fruit, and by having a diverse business that includes a bakery, a cider pressing operation, entertainment, or all of the above. Some orchardists grow other fruits and/or vegetables as well as apples. Many of these profit-generating activities were not part of the original plan for the orchard, but grew out of necessity.

It makes good business sense to draw up a marketing plan with assistance from a consultant before you plant the first tree. Figure out who will buy your apples and how you will sell them. Decide what will define your orchard and make people want to come to your farm or farmers market stand rather than going to someone else’s or going to a grocery store.

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