Hale’s Apple Farm

No charm, fruit was not great…
I used to live in Sebastopol in a house with a small apple grove. Unfortunately my favorite apple farm (Twin Hill) has gone out of business, so I was in search of another…
There may be an apple farm attached to this business, but what is open to the public is really just a fruit stand. It’s located right on the highway. Not the fun farm experience I wanted in Sebastopol unfortunately.
In the end of October all which was available were pumpkins, gourds and apples. I settled on a couple of types of apples. $ 3 a pound is the going rate for organic, which was fine, but the apples were old tasting! They were picked a while ago, probably no cool storage, so they are mushy and mealy. Disappointing!
Whole Foods in downtown Sebastopol had much better local organic apples for the same price!

The apple selection here was good. They had about 6 varieties for sale today beautiful and also a pallet container seconds, so we got a big box for our apple dehydration project. You can look at the orchard, but it’s not set up to visit. This October weekend they have a nice selection of pumpkins, squash, and gourds. We picked up a butternut, and admired all the different types of pumpkins, variety is the spice of life! 8 – 10 year olds loved it!

Friendly service and delicious apples! I loved all the heritage varieties and it was so nice to be offered samples. Looks like a cute place to go back for pumpkins too.

I bought pink pearl apples from Dave at the Marin farmers market a few months ago and have been meaning to make it out here since then. I was told when I met Dave that if I ever buy a mealy apple it is because the farmer doesn’t understand how to grow a proper apple. Good to know because between you and me I hate mealy apples. I tend to shy away from trying new ones in order to avoid the dreaded result.
Thankfully at Halle’s that is not a concern because you can sample all available apples for purchase. Everyone I tried was crisp and delicious! Some were slightly sweeter than others, but I loved each one I tried. I ended up with Primms, black beauty, and two others (bad Unilocaler for not remembering now).
This time of year is also a bounty of squash to pluck on site. There are all shapes and sizes of gourds and pumpkins to choose from. It was beautiful to see all the colors and mounds of squash between the hay stacks and fabulous fall leaves. Truly a perfect fall site.
If you have munchkins and want to avoid the hubbub of farms like Petaluma this is a great quant little spot just off the highway. However once inside you are tucked away into a little farm world.
Prices are decent at $ 3 pound for apples. For organic and farm fresh it is average and at least you know the farmer as opposed to whole foods.
Pumpkins are priced by which bucket they fit into. I grabbed little ones at $ 2 an $ 3 each.
Overall a fun place to kill some time on a fabulous fall day.

Quite the quaint roadside stand in Sonoma. Proprietor is 5^th generation farmer, farming the same 40 acres! Open this afternoon, sporting at least 6 – 7 varieties of apples to buy? It was such a treat to see this farm after leaving Guerneville and making our way to Sebastopol for lunch. Beautiful place that has exceptionally fresh apples. However, no Gravensteins spotted.
Fresh, large amounts of pumpkins galore, gourds, etc for sale…
Fresh apple juice for sale!!!
Hello to a total gem!!! Couldn’t patronize them for any apples because minimum purchase of 10# there. If one wants to buy just 5 – 7, as we d d, they charge $ 3/​lb. could not do it.
Go and pay them a visit… good for pies, baking, and caramel apples (uh, yeah… I’ve a sinful sweet tooth).