Twin Star Orchards and Farmers Choice: Two Reasons to Love New Paltz

Some pairings just make sense. In New Paltz, one of the best is barely two miles long: Twin Star Orchards on North Ohioville Road, and Farmers Choice just down the way at Thruway Exit 18. One is an orchard that turned pizza night into a Hudson Valley tradition. The other is a farm stand that happens to sell cannabis. Locals have been chaining the two together all summer, and once you have done it, you will understand why.

The orchard end of the road

Twin Star Orchards is what a family-friendly orchard looks like when it grows up without losing the plot. Brooklyn Cider House bought and revived the orchard in the spring of 2015 to grow its own fruit, and today more than 50 acres of trees supply most of the apples in its ciders. Wood-fired pizza comes out of the oven all afternoon, cider pours in the tasting room, and the lawn between the picnic tables fills with lawn games, kids, and leashed dogs doing their best to help. Come fall, the u-pick rows take over and the whole place smells like apples and woodsmoke.

It is the kind of afternoon that does not need a plan. You show up, you eat something excellent off a paper plate, and you stay until the string lights come on.

The farm stand a few minutes away

Head back toward the Thruway and you hit the other reason this corner of New Paltz is worth the trip. Farmers Choice New Paltz runs on the same farm-stand logic as the orchard: wooden crates, hand-lettered signs, real people who know what is fresh this week. The difference is what is on the shelves, lab-tested flower, edibles, and infused beverages from licensed New York growers, sold by Farm Hands who will happily talk you through all of it.

The store sits at 1 Old Route 299, open daily 8AM to 10PM, with parking at the door. Order Now from the New Paltz menu before you leave the orchard and your pickup is usually bagged before the pizza settles. For drive times and more on the area, see our page on the dispensary near Twin Star Orchards.

How do you visit Twin Star Orchards and Farmers Choice in one trip?

There is no wrong order, but the classic loop looks like this:

1. Afternoon at Twin Star. Pizza, cider, lawn time. In the fall, add the u-pick rows and leave with a bag of apples you absolutely did not need.
2. Swing past the farm stand. It is on your natural route back to the Thruway or into the village. Browse the shelves, or grab an online order at the counter in a few minutes flat.
3. Home for the evening. New York does not allow cannabis use in a vehicle, so everything from our shelves rides home sealed and gets enjoyed there, never at the orchard, which is a family place. Our guide to New York cannabis laws covers the details.

Visitors heading back toward the city often flip the order, farm stand first, orchard second, so the pizza is the last taste of New Paltz before the Thruway ramp.

Two farm stands, one neighborhood

What makes the pairing work is not the two miles between the doors. It is that both places are run by people who love feeding their neighbors, literally in one case, figuratively in ours. New Paltz has always been a town where the good stuff comes from a stand on the side of the road: sweet corn in August, apples in October, and now a different kind of harvest, grown in New York and checked by a lab before it ever reaches the shelf.

If you are building a bigger day around the visit, our Hudson Valley summer bucket list maps ten more stops within a short drive, from sky-lake swims to rail trail rides.

When are Twin Star Orchards and Farmers Choice open?

• Twin Star Orchards: 155 N Ohioville Road, New Paltz. From April through November, open Friday noon to 8PM, Saturday 11AM to 8PM, and Sunday 11AM to 7PM, plus holiday Mondays, with shorter weekend hours in winter. Summer and fall weekends are busiest; go early for a picnic table.
• Farmers Choice New Paltz: 1 Old Route 299, New Paltz. Open daily 8AM to 10PM, 845-419-2420. A valid 21+ government-issued ID gets you in the door, no medical card needed.

Two stops, two miles, one very good afternoon. That is New Paltz doing what New Paltz does.