This time of year, a great place to go is to the apple orchard. At an apple orchard, you can pick your own apples. A lot of apple orchards in and around McHenry County have other things you can pick, too. For instance, you can pick red raspberries through Nov. 15 at Grace Farm Studios (2719 Franklinville Road, Woodstock). But, if your heart is set on apples, not only is this a great time of year to pick apples, but there are a lot of varieties of apples to pick.

Here are some of the varieties of apples you may want to pick:

• Honeycrisp
• Ruby Jonathon
• Cortland
• Sweet Sixteen
• Crimson Crisp
• Golden Delicious
• Red Delicious
• More 

When you pick your own apples, you get apples that are about as fresh as they come. There’s also something about picking our own food that gets us back in touch with our agrarian roots.

While taking a drive to pick apples is a worthy venture in its own right, there are other reasons to go out to the orchards this time of year; they’re ready for you. Orchards are prepared with things to see, do and taste that go far beyond just picking apples.

There are apple orchards with corn mazes, petting zoos, pony rides, face painting, wagon rides, live music on the weekends and plenty to eat and drink, including pies, cookies, donuts, apple cider, hot chocolate and more. Here are some of the orchards in McHenry County:

• Tom’s Farm Market, 10214 Algonquin Road, Huntley
• All Season Apple Orchard, 14510 Route 176, Woodstock
• Homestead Orchard, 11802 Charles Road, Woodstock
• Lang’s Orchard, 17411 Secor Road, Woodstock
• Meadowmoor Orchard, 1517 N Route 47, Woodstock
• Prairie Sky Orchard, 4914 N Union Road, Union
• Royal Oak Farm Orchard, 15908 Hebron Road, Harvard
• Woodstock Country Orchard, 17015 Garden Valley Road, Woodstock

Check with the orchard for their hours and the best times to pick different varieties of apples and for a list of the amenities they offer along with apple picking. And, if you miss your chance to take a drive out to the apple orchard, you’ll soon have a chance to pick some pumpkins for Halloween.

Drive safe and have a wonderful autumn.