Located in Red Hook, NY, Rose Hill Farm is a historic family owned Pick Your Own fruit orchard established in 1798. We grow cherries, blueberries, peaches, apples and pumpkins. Whether a tradition or a first-time visit, we look forward to seeing you at the farm and sharing our beautiful and peaceful slice of the Hudson Valley.
Peter Fraleigh purchased this land in 1798 and established Rose Hill Farm in 1812. Six generations proceeded him and in 2001, the New York State Agricultural Society honored Rose Hill Farm and then owners Dave and Karen Fraleigh, as the only fruit orchard among the state’s ten Bicentennial Family Farms.
Annual Ripening Schedule:
- MID TO LATE JUNE – EARLY JULY: SEVERAL VARIETIES OF SWEET AND TART CHERRIES.
- JULY – AUGUST: SEVERAL VARIETIES OF BLUEBERRIES.
- AUGUST: (TYPICALLY WE HAVE PEACHES, PLUMS, PRUNES AND APRICOTS BUT THE APRIL COLD SPELL DAMAGED THE MAJORITY OF STONE FRUIT IN THE HUDSON VALLEY).
- LATE AUGUST: GINGERGOLD AND PAULA RED APPLES
- EARLY SEPT: HONEYCRISP, GALA, MACINTOSH, JONAMAC, SPARTAN
- MID SEPT: HONEYCRISP, GALA, MACINTOSH, JONAMAC, SPARTAN, EMPIRE, JONAGOLD, CORTLAND, FUJI
- LATE SEPT: GALA, JONAGOLD, EMPIRE, RED DELICIOUS, SHIZUKA, TWENTY OZ
- EARLY OCT: EMPIRE, RED DELICIOUS, MACOUN, SHIZUKA, GOLDEN DELICIOUS, MUTSU, NY 428
- MID OCT: MUTSU, GOLDEN DELICIOUS, CAMEO, ROME, FORTUNE, NORTHERN SPY
- LATE OCT: FUJI, ROME, GRANNYSMITH, GOLD RUSH, LADY APPLE
Orchard Practices
We are doing things differently at Rose Hill Farm. At the beginning of the 2018 season, we augmented our Integrated Pest Management system with a Holistic framework. Simply put, our mission at Rose Hill is to grow the healthiest, most flavorful and nutritious fruit possible while also being responsible stewards of the land. It has become our primary tenet to foster the health of the whole orchard ecosystem. To reestablish a natural balance in our orchard, we focus on soil fertility, tree health and improved biodiversity.
What specifically is different about our holistic orchard management practice?
We focus on the health of the orchard as a whole. Rather than a formulaic approach to applying synthetic fertilizers, we spend much of our time fostering a diverse, nutrient rich environment by building levels of organic matter in the soil, promoting a rich fungal under-story for our trees, providing nutrition through applications of organic materials, and encouraging the growth and development of beneficial microorganisms on our trees and in the soil. While conventional orchard management systems are effective, they typically focus on removing the bad, rather than encouraging the good.