Dog-Friendly Apple Picking in Northern Virginia + DIY Apple Dog Treats

What says fall more than apple picking? Some of my fondest memories growing up were going to visit the local apple orchard. Now that the weather has cooled down slightly in the Northern Virginia area, our family has been trying to enjoy more outdoor activities with Navy.

Depending on where you live, there are different varieties of apples grown that ripe at different times of the season. Typically, the best time to visit apple orchards in the U.S. and Canada are mid-September and the beginning of October. However, with all the warm weather we’ve been having this fall, many orchards are still open towards the end of October.

Most apple orchards, or pick your own fruit farms are not dog-friendly for a number of reasons. First, for sanitary reasons. Often times, fallen fruit is considered free to taste at orchards or it is used for baking purposes. Second, many farms have working farm dogs. Their jobs are to protect the farm and livestock. Farm dogs could see it as a potential threat if your pet dog was brought too close to their turf.

After doing quite a bit of research we were able to find a wonderful apple orchard in Northern Virginia with policies that allows for dogs on their property, Mackintosh Fruit Farm. Mackintosh Fruit Farm is located a little over an hour outside Washington, DC in Berryville, VA. We’ve also heard Hollins Farms in Delaplane, VA is dog-friendly.

Our family decided to make an afternoon of this trip. Honestly, I really wanted to bring home a bag of apples to bake Navy some apple dog treats…and take some adorable photos of her. We were surprised to see the farm not only has apples to pick, but also pumpkins, fresh flowers, and a number of other vegetables. However, we stuck to the pumpkins, apples, and Zach picked a couple of peppers. 

The farm had a lovely little market filled with fresh fruit, homemade desserts, homemade dog snacks (!), and other amazing food to snack on. Both Zach, Navy, and I loved the hot dogs! There is a patio just outside the market to sit down, relax, and eat your food. If you prefer to stay indoors, there are a few tables inside the market.

As we were walking through the orchard we were afraid Navy would have a field day trying to eat all the fallen apples. Lucky for us she did not touch them…until I baked them into biscuits for her.

I used to bake a lot…like a LOT. In college I was known as the “cupcake queen” for all of my crazy concoctions. Unfortunately, I am no longer a Division 1 athlete so I cannot snack the way I used to. With that, my title of the cupcake queen no longer applies. Fortunately for Navy, I transferred these baking talents into making homemade treats for her.

If you read any of our previous posts on making DIY fall inspired treats, or Fourth of July treats, you’d realize I like to simplify recipes, especially when they are for dogs! Sometimes I will read through dog treat recipes that have a list of ingredients longer than my homemade lasagna! Nevertheless, this DIY Fresh Apple Dog-Treat recipe only calls for 4 ingredients:

1. 1 medium apple
2. ¼ cup of peanut butter
3. 1 egg
4. 3 cups oatmeal or oat flour
5. ½ tsp cinnamon (optional)

I first grounded my 3 cups of oats to make oat flour. As I mentioned in our DIY fall inspired treats post, this is so incredibly easy and takes less than 30 seconds to grind  in our Nutribullet. Cinnamon is optional, but I sprinkled my ½ tsp into the oat flour. I saved about ½ cup of the flour to use for rolling out the dough.

After washing the apple I diced it into small, ½ inch pieces. Adding the apple with the 1 egg and ¼ cup of peanut butter, I blended the ingredients in the Nutribullet. Let me warn you, it does NOT look appetizing.

I folded my mixed  wet ingredients in with the flour and using a rolling pin I rolled the dough out to about ¼ inch in thickness. You can dust your rolling surface (I use a clean counter top) and your rolling pin (or clean wine bottle 😉 if you don’t have a rolling pin) with the remaining oat flour to prevent sticking.

I picked up a $1 apple cookie cutter from Michaels to cut out the treats. After cutting, I placed the 20 treats on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and popped them into the oven at 375 F for 20 minutes. I was feeling a little extra and warmed a small bowl of peanut butter to drizzle over the finished cookies. After cooling, these apple treats are good to go. Enjoy!

Don’t have time to pick your own apples this year? Pick some up at the store to make these yummy, incredibly easy, DIY apple dog treats.

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