Boston, MAApple Cider Donuts

A 120 acre family farm in Ipswich that makes its cider doughnuts from scratch every day, using cider pressed from its own apples. Boston Magazine notes they are made dairy free and nut free, and that a viewing platform inside the farm store looks straight into the bakery while the batches run. The farm store stays open until the season ends on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Order a bag of doughnuts warm from the counter and a bottle of the cider they were made with, then go and pick your own apples.

A working farm in North Andover for three hundred years, and an apple picking fixture north of Boston. Boston Magazine says the farm stand moves thousands of cider doughnuts a day at the peak of the season and keeps them on sale year round, and that the cinnamon sugar reaches you as soon as you walk in, maybe even from down the street. The farm runs fall festival weekends alongside the pick your own. Order a full dozen, which is what the magazine recommends, and eat the first one warm.

A Peabody orchard on Felton Street where the cider doughnuts run regularly until Thanksgiving and then turn up now and again until Christmas, so a December visit is a gamble worth taking. Boston Magazine says to have them plain or to shake them yourself with cinnamon sugar. The rest of the fall stand carries apples, pumpkins, pies, hot mulled cider and hayrides, and the farm opens Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Order a bag plain with mulled cider, and shake half of it in sugar for the walk.

A Methuen farm stand and bakery, family owned since 1877 and a fan favorite in the Merrimack Valley for sugary cider doughnuts that Boston Magazine calls the stand's biggest draw. They are sold on Saturdays and Sundays only, through Halloween, and the bakery sometimes turns them into cider doughnut whoopie pies. The rest of the counter carries local craft beer, cider and produce. Order the cider doughnuts on a weekend morning, and ask whether the whoopie pies are out before you leave.

Red Apple Farm's own stall inside the Boston Public Market, the Phillipston orchard's downtown outpost. Boston Magazine says the smell of mini doughnuts hits you as you walk in the door, and sends you to buy a half dozen to nibble while you browse the rest of the market. The stall carries the cinnamon sugar topped cider doughnuts the farm store sells year round, with specials like blueberry or maple. The market opens daily, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday and to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Order a half dozen minis warm.