Apple season is well underway, so why not take a trip to the farm and pick your own? While most of the apple farms in the North Bay are clustered around the western Sonoma County town of Sebastopol (which is rightly famous for its apples), you can actually pick apples right here in Marin County at the beautiful Chileno Valley Ranch.
Located in West Marin's Chileno Valley, this ranch offers u-pick apples on Sundays from 10 am to 4 pm from Labor Day through the month of October. Owners Sally and Mike Gale also raise grass-fed beef, heritage pigs, goats, and chickens on the ranch, and there's a lot to see and do there for apple picking families.
The centerpiece of the ranch is its meticulously restored Victorian farmhouse, which is surrounded by flowers, vegetable gardens, and an apple orchard. Chileno Valley Ranch offers several heirloom apple varieties, including Orin, Pinova, Molly's Delicious, and Jonathan's Pride. All apples here are organically grown and are blind taste-test winners. They also sell them at local outlets like Toby's Feed Barn in Point Reyes Station and the Organic Farmstead at the Marin Art and Garden Center in Ross.
