Monday was a perfect day for picking apples.

So said Joshua Gagnon, whose bag overfloweth: Cortlands, those sweet cousins to the McIntosh, were packed tight into the orchard’s cloth sack, and as he walked through sun-dappled rows of trees with his wife, Jennifer, he watched his two sons run ahead of him; Malachi, 4, and Nehemiah, 2, zig-zagged through clusters of fallen fruit, seemingly kept in balance by the weight of their own treasures.

It was the family’s second consecutive year perusing bounty at McDougal Orchards in Springvale. The Gagnons said they may just make the trek an annual family tradition.

“The kids have a blast,” said Gagnon. “They run around and have a great time. It’s a nice family outing.”

It was an outing made possible, in part, by cooperative weather, not just on Monday but in the weeks leading up to the much-anticipated apple season. Ellen McAdam, who co-owns McDougal Orchards with her husband, Jack, said that not even Hurricane Irene was powerful enough to derail a bountiful fall crop. While the hurricane, and some curious summer hail, took down about 25 trees in McDougal’s expansive acreage, it was only a small hiccup in what she describes as a good year for fans of the fall fruit.

“The weather has held up, and that’s a big part of it, in the fall,” said McAdam.

Also spared in the storm was Spiller’s Farm in Wells. Owner Bill Spiller said that while his apple orchards lost a few trees, it was only a small dent in his fleet of about 27,000.

Last year, he said, the farm lost almost an entire crop of apples due to ill-timed wet weather ”“ about four or five days of heavy rains in early April that inundated his fruit with disease.

This year, with a more cooperative Mother Nature on his side, the apples have rebounded with a vengeance.

“We’ve had the best crop of apples we’ve ever had,” said Spiller. “We lost a lot last year, so the trees have had a year off.”

That’s good news for visitors to the farm, who can expect to find most of Spiller’s available apples still dangling from the trees, although there are a few for sale inside the store. Because of the do-it-yourself nature of the farm ”“ and the fact that hayrides are free ”“ Spiller describes it as a popular family destination, especially for those looking to pass a lackadaisical afternoon on the cheap.

The farm offers other natural goodies throughout the year, such as strawberries and blueberries, and is also one of the few destinations that allow its patrons to pick their own vegetables. But it will be the next few weeks, when apples reign supreme, that Spiller hopes to see the most business.

“This is a big time of year,” said Spiller. “The next three weekends are usually the best weekends of the year, as long as the weather holds up.”

At McDougal, McAdam said this was the time of year when visits from school groups were the most frequent, with the orchard sometimes hosting six or seven school tours a day. Students from Sanford, Springvale, and as far away as Biddeford and Portland, stop by the orchard to learn from McAdam the process of growing healthy apples, the proper way to pick them, and the myriad ways in which the fruit can be prepared ”“ a McDougal specialty is Jack McAdam’s famous apple cider doughnuts.

After the talk, it’s off to the orchards for a hands-on lesson in picking, and according to Ellen McAdam, this year has seen a rise in the popularity of older varieties, often called “heirloom” apples. These are apples that in some cases have existed for centuries, but have only recently been rediscovered by pickers looking for a change from the standard McIntosh, golden delicious and Granny Smith varieties.

Heirloom options include the Baldwin apple, which is believed to have been discovered in Massachusetts in the 1740s, and is particular in its small-to-medium size.

And then there’s the Cortland, a New York variety that is one of the Gagnon family’s favorites.

Joshua Gagnon mused that, if Malachi and Nehemiah had their way, their cloth sacks would be filled with half-eaten fruit.

“The hardest thing is getting the kids to not eat every apple they pick, so you don’t get a bunch of apples with bite marks in them,” he said.

Chalk it up to being one more facet of their newest family tradition.

— Staff Writer Jeff Lagasse can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 319, or at jlagasse@journaltribune.com.