We took advantage of what might be our last chance for a foliage drive in Northern New England for this year with a trip out the Mohawk Trail to Williamstown, then north through western Vermont as far as we could go. It was a great trip! I got way too much foodie goodness to record in one post, so there will be another later this week with more. 

The ride up the Mohawk Trail was leisurely and beautiful. In the higher elevations, the foliage was past peak, but the river valleys had plenty of color, and the vistas from the high ground were definitely worth the trip. Our goal was on the far side of the mountains, so we knew that we would see some bare trees on the way.

Route 2 meets Route 7 in Williamstown, MA. From Williamstown we turned north along Rte 7 through Bennington, VT and on to Manchester.

In Manchester we stopped at the great Garden Arts Fresh Market where I got some pasture-raised pork for this weeks lunches, and a bag of Deano's Jalapenos for sustenance on today's drive.

From Manchester we took Rte 30 up past Dorset and through the Mettowee Valley, where the foliage was glowing golden against slaty clouds coming from NY. We stopped at Southwind Farm in N. Rupert for their Raclette cheese, then pressed on to Shoreham and Douglas Orchards.

One of the best things about this trip is that it combines pleasant driving and glorious scenery with my favorite apples. Northern Spy and Golden Russet are, in my opinion, two of the finest apples for pie making. They are both very late apples, not ripe until late October. I can find them closer to home (C.N. Smith Farm has them and they are a whole lot closer) but then I wouldn't get the great late-fall drive up the Champlain Valley!

That was a pretty full day, but we had more adventuring to go, including some exciting discoveries. I will have to describe them in a later post and skip to dinner. We had dinner at Pauline's Cafe, a Vermont Fresh Network locavore place in South Burlington that we really like. I had the Vermont Cheese plate (all from the valley!) accompanied by the fabulous WhistlePig award-winning straight rye whiskey, from Shoreham, where my apples came from!