Following the Yankee tradition that considers frugality a religion and entertainment a spare time pursuit of thrift, apple picking is the quintessential autumn activity in the state of Maine.

Apple orchards scatter the countryside, their sweet and tangy aromas beckoning Mainers and “from away-ers” alike as they hurry from their cars and get lost among the trees.

The Lakes Region offers at least four apple orchards that are open to the public, providing families with a place for a weekend outing and schools with a popular field trip destination.

And Randall’s Apple Orchards was just the place to be recently for children from the Blais Nursery School in Westbrook.

As they wove their way through the trees, they were drawn by the easy pickings from branches bent low with their loads of apples. Though not the most efficient of harvesters, these children delighted in the end-of-summer sun, the freedom they had to wander unhindered and the sweet reward of those crisp red spheres that quickly filled their bags. With so many apples to pick, the word “mine” was never uttered – the preschoolers had no trouble sharing the bounty.

Michelle Blais, the nursery school’s owner, plans to make applesauce with the children and to halve some of the apples for them to dip into paint and make apple prints.

With this year’s soggy spring and dry summer, Lakes Region orchard owners say, although the apple crop is adequate, individual apples are smaller and later than usual.

“This was the worst spring I’ve ever seen,” said Rick Devinnell, owner of Meadow Brook Farm on Route 85 in Raymond.

Devinnell, who grew up on a farm, bought Meadow Brook 19 years ago because he was looking for a place to raise his children. With its scenic views of mountains and lakes as well as the orchards and farmland, it seemed like the perfect spot.

Besides offering his visitors picking rights to many different varieties of apples, Devinnell offers hayrides on Sundays and sells cider, vegetables, baked goods and pre-picked apples as well.

Moulton Orchards on Route 35 in Standish is owned by Will Moulton and operated by Don Ricker, whose family has been in the orchard business for 202 years.

Moulton’s offers 10 acres of pick-your-own apples, as well as a corn maize and pumpkins. Ricker’s secret to growing good apples is to “stay on top of it,” spraying when necessary to keep pests and disease to a minimum.

Ricker says the excess spring rain prevented bees from doing a thorough job pollinating the blossoms, causing the harvest to be only two-thirds its normal size. Even so, he says there are plenty of apples for all their visitors that he estimates to be in the hundreds on a good day.

Over in Sebago, on a pristine hillside off of Route 107, sits a smaller, pick-your-own site called Douglas Hill Orchard. The spot offers about 400 trees on almost eight acres.

As they pick, visitors have a perfect view of the White Mountains in the distance; on a clear day, even Mount Washington is visible.

John Lucy, who teaches technology at Lake Region High School, has owned this orchard for the past 15 years. But he says this year is a bit different for him – not only because his apples are smaller due to the weather, but also because he is the proud father of a brand new set of twins, in addition to two daughters he and his wife already have.

Lacy says the anticipation and preparation for the twins’ arrival have kept him a bit preoccupied. But, even though he has not yet put out the picnic tables that he usually provides his visitors, or harvested as many pumpkins as in other years, his orchard provides a perfect fall day trip for many families who enjoy spending an afternoon picking apples, picnicking and hiking up Douglas Hill.

Randall’s Orchards in Standish is steeped in tradition with its owner, Dick Randall, being the third generation to own and operate the site.

At 100 acres with between 8,000 and 10,000 trees, Randall’s is also the largest orchard in Cumberland County.

Dick Randall’s father, Rufus, used to operate a dairy farm on the site as well but, during World War II, realized it was costing him more money to make butter than he received for selling it. So, the day the war ended, he ceased his butter production and concentrated on apples.

Randall agrees that the season’s weather has been tough on local apple growers. But he also worries about how he will continue to operate because of a lack in the demand for U.S. apples.

Though he supplies the local Hannaford stores with apples and cider, he says many orchards are going out of business because they can’t earn back the amount of money they’ve put into them.

For example, Randall points to the company, Very Fine, who used to buy apples from him to make their juice. Now they buy apple concentrate from China.

“You can’t make any money at it,” he said.

But, for the nursery school children who meander through his orchard, chins dripping with MacIntosh juice, or for the families that spend quality time together in Maine’s apple orchards, the apple-picking experience is not about money but about memories. And that’s priceless.

Three-year-old Alexandra Hammond shows off the MacIntosh apples she picked at Randall Orchards in Standish.