The chill of fall seems to have come quickly this year. As I stood with my husband and other parents at my son’s football practice, we commented on the brisk air and early sunset.

“We should start planning our trip to Lafayette,” I said to my husband.

“Isn’t it a little early?” Eric said. “We have plenty of time.”

I, having planned many an outing to pluck the succulent fruit from orchards to the south of Syracuse, know that many of the popular varieties of apple are picked early – my favorite, Cortland, picks in mid-September. One variety – the Honeycrisp – is usual only available for picking a couple of days out of the fall.

After informing him of this, Eric said, “This year, I want to pick Red Delicious apples.” This is actually a bone of contention between us, as I think the RD apples are, by far, low on the must-have spectrum. In my opinion, they look pretty, all shiny and bright, with that wonderful, rich red color, but don’t have the taste to back up their showiness. There’s no tartness to them, and they are a bit dry in texture.

The Red Delicious actually pick a bit later in the season, according to the Internet, so we’re OK there.

But what of my other varieties? The juicier, sweet-tart apples such as Jona Mac, Granny Smith and MacIntosh? My daughter came up with an easy solution.

“We’ll have to go twice this year,” she said. I wasn’t surprised to hear this suggestion from Cassidy, since both she and my soon-to-be-eight-year-old son Jacob have been happily visiting the orchards to the south of us since birth. With much to offer besides the obvious enjoyment of riding or walking out to the trees to do some picking, the apple farms have always catered to children.

With everything from pony rides to apple milkshakes, bouncy houses to pens full of animals to visit, the orchards know how to keep the kids entertained and happy, something that is helpful for parents trying to enjoy autumn while keeping their sanity.

Making the kids lunch later that night, I grabbed an apple I had bought at the grocery store and inspected it prior to putting it in the lunchbox. It was small, a bit bruised and, well, sad. When we go to pick apples I will definitely make sure to get a whole bunch just to put in their lunches. I found it’s easy to store them out in the garage during the cooler months of autumn; they keep quite well and are out of the way.

Then there are the other uses for the apples: apple pie, apple crisp and apple sauce. I’m thinking this year we might make our own candy apples – both the red kind and ones dipped in caramel. In fact, it’s even easier to just buy the caramel apple dip, which is low in fat and calories and very yummy – with no work, something I enjoy.

So though my favorite season is at an end, I find myself looking ahead to fall with a light heart. There’s much to look forward to, and not just Halloween.

Jennifer Wing is Managing Editor at Eagle Newspapers. She can be reached at [email protected].