Blake's Cider Mill, Winery, and CiderHouse

Last night we visited Blake's Orchard & Cider Mill.  It's a great place that started as a small farm, then grew to a large farm, and now offers a "pick your own" orchard with dozens of types of apples & pears, and lots of other kinds of veggies and fruit.  They also have tons of squash and pumpkins to choose from.


They now offer 3 locations and have opened up the Blake's Winery & CiderHouse.  Yum!

I went with my friends Donna & Joe.  Donna got the flight of wine, which she said was way too sweet and wasn't impressed with (and this is coming from a woman who drinks Reisling!)  I ordered the flight of ciders. They didn't have the specialty ciders, and they told me the guest cider was just like the Gentleman's, so I basically had their 3 normal ciders.

The Semi-Sweet was pretty flavorless.  It tasted like a cross between a dry wine and sparkling water.  Seriously.

The Original Gold & Delicious was good, and reminded me of Woodchuck Original.  The sweeter of the 2 I had left.

The Gentleman's Dry was delicious.  It was perfectly crisp and apple-y, with just a hint of sweetness.  I had every intention of bringing home a 6-pack, but they only sold wine bottle sized for $12.99.  To be honest, while I love to support local businesses, it tasted just like Woodchuck Crisp, and I can get twice as much in a 6-pack for $10.99

To add to the Halloween fun, they also have Spookyland (not super spooky) with some great props that talk and sing, a petting zoo, corn maze, 3D house, tunnel of terror (warning: Vertigo), and some play lands.  For an extra price, there is also a 3-story haunted barn, haunted hayride, and Zombie Hunt (shoot live zombies with paintballs). 

If you are planning on going to any of these haunted attractions, let me give you some tips:  1) Blake's website says EVERYTHING closes at 6.  It does not.  The farms do, but the haunted activities don't go on SALE till 6.  Then I would make sure you are in the attraction line early.  They start at dark, which was about 7:30.  2)  There is an option to buy VIP, which is $15 extra and a separate line.  If you are going late, buy this.  For the zombie ride there were 20 people per cart.  They took 15 VIP and 5 regular tickets per cart.  If you can get in line early (we were first) - don't buy it.  It won't get you in that much faster. 3) If you are with kids, there is haunted stuff at both Armada locations, even though the first one told us that ALL of the haunted activities was at their barn.  But the second location only provided a kiddie haunted house.

This is me getting ready to shoot zombies:

And to top it off, on my way home late at night, I saw 2 lit jack-o-lanterns in my neighborhood.  It was the first I've seen and it made me very happy!  As soon as I have an hour, I am sooooo carving mine!

Petrified.  Lurking.  Spooky

(peace. love. serene)