VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Fall is here, and for some, that means apple-picking season is here! Well, you don't have to travel nearly three hours to Charlottesville to do it.
Megan Herbst of Virginia Beach knows that first, she's grabbing her first apple at Cullipher Farm in the Pungo section of the city.
"I just think it's a fun experience," she told me. "I've never actually picked apples before, so I thought it would be fun to do it ourselves."
Her husband Matt joined her with their young son. "It's awesome to get out here and just to get a smell of the orchard and actually get to handpick and look at all the different kinds of apples," he said.
Matt is so right about the varieties out at the farm — they have more than a dozen types, some with some rather interesting names.
Jeb Cullipher pointed to various apples while taking us through the family farm, and when I asked the name of a specific apple, Jeb said it was called "Ludacrisp" with a straight face.
I asked, "If I bite into one of these, will bust out rapping?"
"It's possible," he responded with a smile.
I had to ask whether he was joking. He wasn't. I took a bite — the Ludacrisp does offer a crisp, great taste.
Jeb, a seventh-generation farmer, said they've had the Ludacrisp apple for a few years and it originated out of the Midwest. He told me he suspects the name is no accident and a little marketing strategy was at work.
"But you get Honeycrisp, you get Evercrisp...ok," said Cullipher. "Crimson Crisp is a really bright, bright stark red and it's a nice crisp, crunchy—but like, Ludacrisp? You're like, going for it there—you're doing something, like, somebody was trying to do something with that one."
And then on the other end of the apple spectrum at Cullipher Farm, Jeb points out another variety.
"These are Spitzenberg, which is an old historic heirloom variety, but it's known for being Thomas Jefferson's favorite variety, and he actually had several of them at Monticello in his lifetime. It doesn't have that pretty, shiny red that you're looking for," but Jeb says it has a little something else. "There's history. It's old; it's a Virginia apple."
So, yes, at Cullipher Farm, you can pick one of Thomas Jefferson's favorite apples or you can go down a few rows down and have a Ludacrisp.
"Well, we try to be really diverse and we try to give everybody a little something, you know," Cullipher said.
Jeb says apple picking at their farm is usually good through the end of October.
For more information on Cullipher Farm including directions and hours, click here.
