---

STAFF WRITER

NORTHBORO

"I got one! Myself!"

With that one comment, from my 6-year-old niece, Madisyn, came the reminder that family fun is undoubtedly one of the best ways to spend a fall afternoon.

You see, there's an art to apple picking. I didn't know that, but I, Madisyn, and my brother Adam, Madisyn's stepfather, learned that art and a few other things last weekend when we trekked to Tougas Family Farm. The latest of our 50/50 trips, the day involved a nice drive through Interstate 495's red-, yellow- and orange-speckled trees, a "hay ride," apple picking, pumpkin picking and a chance to take in the farm's other features.

And we did all of this, the three of us, by traveling less than 50 miles from home and spending less than $50 for the entire outing.

Acres and acres of orchards

Tougas Family Farm, according to its Web site, has been a family-owned and operated farm since 1981, when Maurice and Phyllis Tougas bought 53 acres of peach and apple orchards. The couple raised their three children on the farm and their oldest, a son named Andre, is now back at the farm fulltime. The family bought a neighboring farm in 2001 and added 35 acres of new fruit crops.

Sitting at the top of a long, but not terribly windy, hill on Ball Street off Route 290, the farm was 46 miles from my mom's house in North Attleboro, where we set out for our trip.

The nearly hour drive, which Madisyn and I enjoyed with a series of car games, provided an opportunity to take in some fall foliage along Interstates 495 and 290.

Though there weren't, as far as we could tell, any chances to get out and see the leaves up close, it was at least a brief peek into nature not always found in our busy schedules.

Tougas Family Farm was easy to find, with clearly marked signs and arrows abundant from the highway exit. Getting into the parking lot, however, was a bit less manageable. We waited nearly 20 minutes from midway up the hill just to get in and this left an anxious 6-year-old a bit deflated.

But all that vanished once we exited the car and immediately were greeted with a great waft of favorable fall scents.

"I smell donuts!" Madisyn exclaimed. (Oh, the enthusiasm of a first-grader.) She was right. The farm's kitchen is famous for its apple cider donuts, though we didn't care to wait in the winding line to get into the kitchen since it would have taken a chunk out of our walking time.

The entrance to apple picking took us across the farm's main entrance area where we spied wooden wagons that would take us on a hay ride to the orchards after we plopped down $15 for a 10-pound (one peck) apple bag.

In truth, it's not so much a hay ride (there's no hay) but a way to add a little something extra to the day and show us the entire orchard before we started picking. (You can also just walk to the orchard through the pumpkin patch but that's not nearly as much fun.)

Off the hayride and into the orchards we went, after a quick how-to on apple picking.

Among the tips we were learned was the tidbit not to pull or yank the apples off their stems, but to lightly pull the apple upward and twist it from the stem.

It's easy to get carried away and want every good apple you see, but Adam had to remind us to, as we were instructed, carefully select which apples we wanted.

"That's right," Madisyn said. "We want our bag perfectly filled."

The orchard workers encourage a sampling of each apple type you're looking to collect so you know it has a desirable flavor.

We took advantage of this, testing a Gala apple and eventually a Red Delicious.

(Adam was adamant at getting those Red Delicious apples for some applesauce.)

Apple picking was an adventure. We walked every row of apples they had, taking great care to only pick ones we deemed perfect for Madisyn's bag.

At first I was a little skeptical that the bag could only hold 10 pounds of apples, but by the time we were done, it was heavy enough to confirm its advertisement. We ended up with a lot of Gala and some Empire, Golden Delicious and McIntosh.

From there, it was straight to the pumpkin patch.

Or not so straight. We took a minute to visit with the farm's pygmy goats, which live on the barnyard playground. The farm bills its playground as an authentic farm play yard for elementary school age children, with an antique tractor (where the kiddies can climb a bit to take pictures), swings, slides and balance beams.

It sure looked like a good time with the mass of kids on the equipment, but we were content to watch the goats up close while they had a pumpkin snack. Adam was particularly fascinated that they had a pathway to climb from one end of a petting spot to another.

The pumpkin patch was sizable and the farm sells pumpkins based on size.

It took us a good while to find suitably sized pumpkins to take home for ourselves, plus the other members of our households to carve, but we did pause quite a few times to take some pictures and to let Adam chase Madisyn through the patch with a worm-clad pumpkin.

(She secretly loved it.)

For five pumpkins, we paid only $21 and each of our party had another afternoon's activity to look forward to. Adam was already mapping out his design and the sight of his own pumpkin brought a big-kid grin to my boyfriend John's face when I returned home.

Since we had decided to skip the kitchen store, we wandered into the mini-stand, which was, to our assessment, as good of a deal.

Thirsty from our time outside, I scooped up a lemonade drink and Madisyn chose a mini apple cider. Adam and I each grabbed a half gallon of apple cider to take home.

(It must be noted that I had a good amount of the cider later that night and it was among the best I've ever had, extremely clean and refreshing.)

We spent only $10 (which brought our day total to $46) and also picked up a free recipe book, which the farm has titled "Now What Do I Do With All This Great Tougas Family Farm Fruit?" I haven't tried anything inside yet, but the recipes looked easy to follow.

We had a fun, family day outside with an apple snack, a peek at some goats, a bag full of apples and some pretty pumpkins to take home.

All I have to do now is look forward to a visit to Madisyn's house to try out some apple sauce and see what she cooked up for a pumpkin face.

REBECCA KEISTER can be reached at 508-236-0336 or at rkeister@thesunchronicle.com.