This 'Sopranos' filming location became a pick-your-own farm by accident. Here's the story

Rose Hill Farm, established in 1798, is one of the few fruit farms of its age still operating in New York.

If you're a fan of "The Sopranos," it's also the real-life location of Pat's Farm in season five.

Located in Red Hook, the farm was operated by the Fraleigh family for six generations until 2015, when they switched ownership.

The new owners, Bruce and Holly Britain, purchased the farm with their family, and have strived to keep the Fraleighs' vision alive, while also breathing new life into the farm through updates, orchard management practices, selling wines and ciders, as well as opening their taproom in August 2020.

Next month, Rose Hill Farm, along with many other farms and orchards within the mid-Hudson Valley, will be welcoming the public for the pick-your-own season. Rose Hill Farm will be featuring cherries in mid-June and many other fruits as the summer progresses, but they also want you to know there's more they have to offer.

Rose Hill Farm's practices and pick-your-own season

Orchard manager Kevin Clark has been with Rose Hill Farm since 2017. He describes the farm's practices as all-encompassing, taking into account the entire ecosystem of the farm, and tending to each aspect of it, such as creating and maintaining habitat for the pollinators and birds.

"Orchards are where nature and culture intersect... It's where humans and nature get to interact," Clark said.

For the pick-your-own season at Rose Hill Farm, Clark said they plan to have cherries ready to pick around the third week of June, blueberries to pick starting around the Fourth of July and peaches in August. They will have a limited supply of other stone fruits including plums and apricots, and will have special days arranged for picking those.

Rose Hill Farm became a pick-your-own farm back in the ’90s. People started to show up to what used to be a wholesale apple orchard, Clark mentioned. Two decades ago, the Fraleigh family listened to their customers' requests and changed the farm model, subsequently implementing additional fruit crops.

More: Things to do in the mid-Hudson Valley this June for food, music and art lovers

The farm has run with that idea, and now produces a wide range of varieties of each crop they grow. Clark noted it's one of the things that makes them unique, and they've expanded the offerings immensely this year alone.

The farm has about 56 varieties of plums, 20 varieties of peaches, 24 varieties of apples for pick-your-own, as well as almost 200 apple varieties on the farm. For the apples that aren't in the pick-your-own sections, Clark said they have 70-plus varieties of cider apples used only for their cidery, along with what they call "Wonderland," a collection of over 50 kinds of crab apples and specialty apple varieties Clark is working on.

Rose Hill Farm's ferments, taproom and upcoming events

During the warmer months, they'll be open Thursday-Sunday, and Matthew Sanford, Rose Hill Farm's winemaker, said they're planning the kick-off for the summer season on June 6, with their first burger night featuring Misto, a local Red Hook restaurant, along with Perry Foster, who is playing music in the taproom.

You'll typically find pop-up food trucks or food vendors at the farm, Sanford said, including Misto, along with Fat Apple Farm, which offers smoked meats on Fridays, and Brooklyn Oyster Party, who are often at Rose Hill Farm on the weekends during the high season.

Rose Hill Farm is more than just a place to pick fruit, Sanford said. Customers can plan a day there. They get fruit, grab some lunch, have a few drinks with friends, and on the cooler nights, build a fire in the fire pit.

The farm also has a new series of spring foraging walks with herbalist and ecologist Hannah Smith Schiller of Foliage Botanics starting May 26.

In the meantime, you can visit the farm's taproom from 3-8 p.m. Friday, noon to 7 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, where they sell Rose Hill Farm's wine, cider, co-ferments and dessert cider, as well as other New York State alcohol products.

They make their wine, cider and co-ferments using a low-intervention method. "Our goal is to try to go from fruit to bottle with as few steps and as few additions as possible," Sanford explained.

For their wines, they source their grapes from like-minded farmers across the state, and use their own crops for their ciders, co-ferments and dessert ciders. All their products have an ingredients list on the bottle, even though it's not required, to be transparent with their customers, and to set them apart from conventionally made wine and cider, Sanford noted.

To stay updated on the pick-your-own fruit season at Rose Hill Farm and future events, take a look at their Instagram pages, @rosehillfarm_ny and @rosehillferments. Check out their website, pickrosehillfarm.com, to see their events calendar and learn more about the farm.

This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: Hudson Valley U-pick farm boasts 100 fruit varieties: How they grew