1. Go All-out at a Local Orchard
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Fill your bushel bags — and celebrate more than 100 years of apple harvests — with Golden Delicious and Winesap apples at Yorktown Height’s Wilkens Fruit & Fir Farm, or pick Honeycrisps at Stuart’s Fruit Farm in Granite Springs. Grab a few gallons of heirloom-apple cider at Thompson’s Cider Mill in Croton-on-Hudson. Then, inhale a bag of warm donuts during a hayride along the pumpkin patch at North Salem’s Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard in North Salem.
2. Make a Reservation for Restaurant Week.
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photo by Meaghan Glendon |
The biannual Hudson Valley Restaurant Week returns on October 30 with 14 days of lunch and dinner deals at more than 200 restaurants (100+ will be participating in Westchester County). At $32.95 for dinner, you can afford to try a few.
3. Dine Fireside
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Chilly fall evenings call for rich food and a roaring fire. Embrace old-school romance at La Vista in South Salem, go contemporary in the fireplace-flanked dining room at The Inn at Pound Ridge by Jean-Georges, or keep things convivial with a few pints by the hearth at Village Beer Garden in Port Chester. Looking for the ultimate date night? Turn a cozy firelit dinner into an overnight at Chappaqua’s Crabtree’s Kittle House or the Bedford Post Inn.
4. Revisit a Classic
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Pumpkin-spice lattes, donuts, and desserts are everywhere right now, but we think you should show a little love to the classic pumpkin pie (it’s the OG iteration of pumpkin spice, after all).
5. Dip Into Some Cheese
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If there’s one dish we’d cross the county for this fall, it’s the fonduta at Exit 4 Food Hall in Mount Kisco. There’s literally nothing more comforting than drawing a crisp slice of toast through this skillet of melted fontina and herbs drizzled with truffle oil and topped with a runny egg yolk.
6. Celebrate Oktoberfest
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The ultimate beer fest, local celebrations of German brews range from totally traditional to, well, not. Mount Kisco’s Little Drunken Chef will host an Oktoberfest celebration on October 7, while Bear Mountain’s annual fest runs weekends through October 29. (Click here for a list of local celebrations.)
7. Toast the Season with the Hard Stuff
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Stop by North Salem’s Hardscrabble Cider for a sampling of their small-batch hard ciders. (They also stock a curated selection of NYS spirits and wines, including apple brandy from Westchester-based Neversink Spirits.) Or check out the Tipsy Birch O’ Lantern — Grey Goose, ginger beer, Ancho Reyes chile liqueur, and pumpkin-chai syrup — served in a mini-pumpkin at The Birch Collective in White Plains.
8. Check Out a New Restaurant
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Several new openings have us stoked this season. Chef Constantine Kalandris (273 Kitchen) will open PopoJito in mid-October, serving Mediterranean-meets-Mexican cuisine near the Scarsdale Metro-North station. While the team behind Purdy’s Farmer & the Fish will open Hudson Farmer & the Fish, a waterfront location in Sleepy Hollow, on October 13. The Whitlock, a new Katonah restaurant from The Cookery alums Christina and Matthew Safarowic opened last week with a menu of dishes like tomato salad with lardo and caviar-topped tater tots. Also slated to open soon: Mr. Koo’s Kitchen in Irvington, where Brooklyn Chef Ben Pope plans modern, fun takes on Chinese cuisine.
9. Pre-order a Better Thanksgiving Turkey
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It may seem like it’s way too early to be thinking about Thanksgiving, but if you want something better-testing than a Butterball (and more ethically raised), now’s the time to book. John Boy’s Farm in Pound Ridge and the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills will have heritage breeds, while Hemlock Hill Farm in Cortlandt Manor will sell more 2,000 traditional Broad Breasted White birds this holiday season.
10. Donate a Meal to a Family in Need
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With 1 in 5 Westchester residents dealing with some form of food insecurity, the holidays can be a difficult time. A donation of just $25 to the Food Bank for Westchester’s ‘Feed a Family’ campaign can put a holiday meal on a family’s table.
11. Warm Up with Hot Chocolate
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Swap your hot apple cider for an ultra-decadent cup of molten chocolate. At Rye’s Blue Tulip, owner Diane Holland blends imported chocolates to create the county’s richest cup, while Bread & Cocoa in Larchmont does a Black Forest version with raspberry syrup.
12. Enjoy the Arrival of Beaujolais Noveau
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The third Thursday of November sees the release of this French vintage every year. Get a free taste of some of this year’s bottles at Zachys on November 17. Or celebrate the occasion in White Plains at the Alliance Française de Westchester’s annual Fête du Beaujolais Nouveau.