Aspetuck Valley Apple Barn

I am now officially blowing my cover. For years I have bought frozen apple pies at Aspetuck Valley Apple Barn and passed them off as homemade. I guess I should be ashamed, but another way of looking at it is that my guests were spared the leather-crusted mess that I make on my own. Everyone would rave and I, with faux humility, took the credit.

Aspetuck Valley Apple Barn is a picture-perfect barn on a picture-perfect road in beautiful Easton, Connecticut. The drive along Route 53 to get there goes past historic old houses and big swaths of the reservoir. It is beautiful in every season – even in New England’s fifth season, aka Mud Season, when the dreary snow melts off and people hang buckets on maple trees for the sap.

You will find my “homemade” pies in the freezer case at the back of the barn. Each pie seems to weigh five pounds, as it is chock full of fruit. Choices vary with the season, although you will always find plain apple, crumb topped Dutch apple, and a rugged “country” apple. There also are raspberry, apple raspberry, apple cranberry, pumpkin, peach, and fruits of the forest to just name a few.

Aspetuck Valley Apple Barn also sells pound cakes and apple dumplings and, of course, freshly picked fruits and berries. Another special and peculiar treat is the selection of amazingly strange jams, jellies and fruit butters. Every farm stand sells strawberry but only at Aspetuck can you buy such oddities as Scoppernong, Mayhaw, and Muscadine jelly to slather on your toast. They also sell my favorite mint jelly, packed with the real leaves of the plant and glowing a gorgeous green.

Note: There is no place to eat on premises.