By Jill

If, like Torontoist, you spent the first third of the fall season desperately clinging to the last brittle twigs of summer, you may have awoken this morning, panicked that the best of autumn has already passed you by. They gave away the pumpkins last week. Thanksgiving is over, and you were too busy pretending to enjoy that last windblown, patio beer to even notice. What of your dignity? Why did you not cling to that instead, you may be asking yourself?
Well cringe no more! Emerge from the nightmare of Toronto’s soggy creep into winter and understand that many breeds of apple, including Fuji, Mutsu, Red Delicious, Northern Spy, Golden Delicious, Idared and Crispin peak in late fall and stay peaked to winter and beyond.
And since you’re not one of those crazies who spend late October weekends addressing Christmas cards, you can still fire up that car sharing membership and drag the family apple picking at one of the GTA’s fine pick-your-own joints like Chudleigh’s Farm in Milton, Whittamore’s Farm in Markham, or Brampton’s The Big’r Apple Farm where the pick-your-own season still has a few crispy weeks left in it.
Call ahead before you go to be sure that your chosen farm is open, and use Torontoist to keep an eye on the weather. Torontoist only wants you rosy-cheeked and flush with the excitement of wrenching your own fruit from the branch. Damp and miserable, muddy up to the knees, we’ll leave to some other blog.