Fairy Houses, Foodies, Harry Potter Day, Chalk Walk, and Chowdah: Top New England Events for Sept 17-23, 2014

Apples! Apples! MORE Apples! 

We know—you can’t get enough. Neither can we! With apple season getting a little farther along every week, we have even more varieties popping up and ready for PYO.

We’ve begun posting our “9 Expert Tips for Apple Picking in New England—With, or Without Kids” series so stay tuned to our Facebook page for surefire strategies (yep, sometimes you need a strategy) for getting best and most from your orchard adventures this fall.

Last weekend New England Fall Events ventured to the Salem Spice Festival, the Slater Park Fall Fest, and the Vermont Mac & Cheese Challenge. We’ll be posting our wrap-ups over the next week about our wonderful (and creamy, cheesy delicious) weekend. 

Where is New England Fall Events Headed this Weekend?

We’re headed to the Portsmouth, NH Fairy House Tour—the largest event like this of its kind! With over 200 fairy house tours on display and—wait for it—you can BUILD YOUR OWN fairy house at the end! [mind blown]

Tracy Kane, the award-winning author and illustrator of the Fairy Houses Series® (which served as the inspiration for the Portsmouth Fairy House Tour), will be at the festival on both days to meet your little fairies (tall and small!) and sign her books. The Southern NH Dance Theater and the NH Theatre Project will be treating you to performances throughout the day at the Prescott Park stage. 

Here are the details on the Fairy House Tour happening on Saturday and Sunday, September 20th and 21st. 

Then we’ll be swinging (or flying on our fairy wings!) over to Salem, MA to tag along on a foodie adventure with Salem Food Tours! We caught up with Karen Scalia of Salem Food Tours at last weekend’s Spice Festival and we are thrilled to discover more about local restaurants, foodie finds, and learn more about local food producers. New England Fall Events and Salem Food Tours share the same passion and mission in doing our part to support local farms, farmers, New England food producers, and small businesses. Check out Salem Food Tours.

New England Foliage Report from our favorite foliage tracker Jeff-Foliage:

Iconic covered bridge in Northfield, VT

This week Jeff Foliage give us a Fall Foliage report from Bethlehem, NH:

"Autumn colors are starting to spring up around every corner here in the northern White Mountain region. While still primarily green across the countryside, splashes of yellow, red and orange are appearing on the…"
 Click here to read Jeff's full report.


New England Fall Events' Top Recommendations for this Weekend's Fall Fun
With so many wonderful events and festivals going on this weekend it keeps getting harder to pare down to a handful of top picks across the region.

Remember, these are just a few of the dozens of terrific and worthy events listed on every New England state’s Fall & Activities guide and Food & Harvest Festival Guide.

Here are our recommended activities for Sept 17-23:

10th Annual Portsmouth NH Fairy House Tour
Portsmouth, NH   Click for event details.
Saturday and Sunday, Sept 20th & 21st, 2014

Harry Potter Day at Escobar’s Highland Farm 
Portsmouth, RI   Click for event details.
Saturday, September 20th, 2014   (rain date: 9/21) And here's a coupon! 
Read about our adventure at Escobar Farm this month.

Taste of Local Apple Edition at Lanni Orchards – FREE
Lunenburg, MA  Click for details.
Saturday and Sunday, September 20th & 21st, 2014

Newington CT Waterfall Festival and Chalk Walk – FREE
Newington, CT  Click for event details.
Saturday, September 20th, 2014 (rain date: 9/27)

FirstWorks Urban Carnevale - FREE
Providence, RI  Click for event details.
Saturday, September 20th, 2014

NH Highland Games and Festival 
Lincoln, NH   Click for event details.
Friday, Saturday & Sunday, Sept 19th – 21st, 2014

Bethel HarvestFest and Chowdah Cookoff
Bethel, ME  Click for event details.
Saturday, September 20th, 2014

Soule Homestead Harvest Fair and Joe Davies Folk Festival
Middleborough, MA  Click for event details.
Saturday & Sunday, September 20th & 21st, 2014

Williston VT Chowder Challenge 
Williston, VT  Click for event details.
Sunday, September  21st, 2014

Heading out apple picking this weekend? 

New England Fall Events has done all the work to bring you complete guides, features, maps, and contact info for your local or vacation-area New England PYO apple orchards. Here are your quick links to the apple picking guides:

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. 

Need help mapping out where to go? New England Fall Events’ state page maps are handy for scrolling and spotting farms near home or near your road-trip destination. Orchard and fall attraction maps for Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Remember, always call ahead before heading out to PYO as some farms will adjust their hours for weather or they close to allow more time for fruit to ripen.