Core of Apple Country

OAK GLEN, Calif. —  My husband and I wandered through the apple orchard, taking turns carrying a bushel basket and steadying the ladder for each other as we followed instructions on how to pick the ripe fruit: Push up and lift off so the branch isn’t damaged.

Our basket of apples tipped the scale at 23 pounds, a sizable haul and, at 85 cents a pound, a bargain too. On a two-day visit to Oak Glen farms, we experienced much more: comparing apple varieties, making our own cider from antique presses, and digging into fresh-from-the-oven apple pie fragrant with cinnamon and brown sugar, a scoop of rich vanilla ice cream melting on top.

The apple harvest started this month in this community of 600, tucked in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains about 70 miles east of Los Angeles. Butch and I caught the tail end of the season last November, enticed by more than a dozen farms that invite visitors to pick apples, gather sweet corn off the stalk or graze through rows of raspberry bushes.

Because we both work Saturdays, Butch and I planned an overnight getaway that started Sunday morning. Our son, his wife and their three kids, ages 4, 8 and 10, drove from San Diego to meet us in Oak Glen, along with our daughter, who was celebrating her 40th birthday. At the last minute, my sister and brother-in-law joined us too. They wanted to see the town’s annual Civil War reenactment.

On the morning drive to Oak Glen through the foothills of Beaumont and Cherry Valley, oaks and sycamores dappled the hills with gold and orange. We stopped at the Creekside Kitchen on Oak Glen Road for breakfast. The apple specialties were tempting, but I ordered eggs, country ham and flaky biscuits with gravy. Butch loved the huevos rancheros and apple-pecan coffee cake.

Choosing which of the 14 farms to visit was difficult. We started at Riley’s, which not only has an apple orchard but also treats visitors to some living history. The farm looks much as it did when Joseph E. Wilshire bought his homestead in 1871 for a saddle, a chicken, a jug of whiskey and $8.

According to the farm’s current owners, “Old Joe” supposedly was a cousin of H. Gaylord Wilshire, for whom the Los Angeles boulevard is named. Old Joe grew potatoes, then apples, eventually bringing the rest of his family to help on the farm.

Ray Riley and his son, Dennis, bought the land years later, and now five branches of the Riley family tree carry on with life on the farm: hayrides, hoedowns, banjo-and-fiddle performances and hands-on children’s activities such as churning butter, candle making and fetching water from an old-fashioned pump.

The packing shed has been turned into a restaurant and general store with Mason jars of apple butter and pear preserves, cast-iron cookware, wooden toys and sunbonnets. Containers of rock candy, beef jerky and dill pickles line the shelves, and crates of apples stand along one wall.

Each year, Oak Glen farms grow about 60,000 bushels of apples, including five dozen varieties of varying textures and flavors. At the general store, we sampled the differences between the fleshy Rome Beauty, sweet Delicious and tart Granny Smith.

In a clearing behind the shed, locals as well as visitors from around the country were dressed in 1860s civilian and military attire, the scene set for Oak Glen’s annual Civil War reenactment. (This year’s event is scheduled for Nov. 10 and 11.) Union soldiers packed powder into their muskets by a tent encampment while a Confederate troop drilled in a pumpkin patch. Spectators lined the cornfield to watch as both sides took positions and the battle began. Cannons fired, filling the sky with smoke, and a cavalry charged over a hill.

When the dust settled, two of my granddaughters were eager to see a log house where a woman in frontier dress showed children how to make candles. We were disappointed that the farm’s hayrides were canceled for the day because of the war reenactment, but my third granddaughter cheered us as we drove down Oak Glen Road to Oak Tree Village, where the Small Animal Park offers pony rides and piglet races.

The village, spread across 14 hillside acres, kept everyone happy. One granddaughter fed baby goats with a bottle. Another went panning for gold with her dad at a miner’s shack, where the sluice boxes are seeded with gold flakes daily. My husband and daughter were content to sit on a log and listen to the Barn Door Band warm up on banjo and washtub bass. Crafts booths and artisans’ shops with art, jewelry and pottery kept the rest of us occupied.

The Bit of Country Restaurant squeezed all 10 of us into a large corner booth for lunch. The house specialty that day was a hollowed sourdough loaf filled with wonderful chunky potato-corn chowder. The roast turkey and stuffing also were good, followed by a French apple pie with candles aglow to celebrate my daughter’s birthday.

Our next stop was the Oak Glen Schoolhouse, where the names of its first students are printed on the original slate blackboard. When the school opened in 1928, 25 cents bought eight pounds of apples. With small wooden chairs set around a wood-burning stove, it was easy to envision youngsters reading from the primers now displayed in a case along a wall.

Around 4 p.m., the rest of the family left for home, so Butch and I checked into the Snowline Circle Inn, an Oak Glen B&B; hidden in tall pines. The inn has four guest rooms, ranging from $90 for our Garden Hideaway, which had hand-painted birdhouses decorating one wall and a queen bed with flower applique quilt, to $150 for the Candlelight Suite, with a private deck and indoor Jacuzzi. We were so tired from the day’s activities that we skipped dinner and went to bed after snacking on brownies and other complimentary baked goods at the inn’s evening reception.

In the morning, we lingered with other guests over a breakfast feast: fruit compote, scrambled eggs with sausage, and a delicious baked granola confection with--what else?--warm spiced apples.

It was a short walk from the inn to the Snow Line Orchard, where we sampled three types of cider and picked some of the sweetest raspberries we’ve eaten. Butch and I filled three pint baskets ($8.75 total) and probably grazed on the equivalent of a fourth. Snow Line is especially proud of its Jonagold, a cross between the Jonathan and the Golden Delicious apple.

The tang of apple cider was still on our tongue as we drove up the road to Los Rios Rancho, another farm where visitors are welcome to pick apples. I tried to calculate how many pies I could make with 23 pounds of fruit, then decided to share the apples with neighbors.

The rest of the afternoon we browsed village shops, munched on caramel-and-nut apples and wished our grandchildren had been able to enjoy another day here. We reluctantly headed for home, winding back down Oak Glen Road to Wilshire Apple Shed for one more treat: a final piece of apple pie.

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Budget for Two

Snowline Circle Inn, one night--$98.10

Breakfast, Creekside Kitchen--16.36

Lunch, two days, Bit of Country--39.26

Admission, Civil War reenactment--10.00

Admission, petting farm--4.00

Fruit, snacks--36.80

Gas--10.00

FINAL TAB--$214.52

* Snowline Circle Inn, 39196 Snowline Circle, Oak Glen, CA 92399; telephone (909) 797-7309, Internet https://www.oakglen.net/snowline/.

* Riley’s Farm, 12261 S. Oak Glen Road, Oak Glen, CA 92399; tel. (909) 790-2364, https://www.rileysfarm.com.