Ask ten people outside Hollis what the town is known for and most will say apples in October. Ask ten people who live here and the answer shifts. The Broad Street farms are running harder right now, in the third week of July, than they will during the entire fall rush. The blueberries are in, the raspberries are in, the first sweet corn is on the tables, and the parking lots are still empty enough to pull in without planning around it.
That window closes fast. Old Home Days lands the weekend of September 18 this year, the 250th anniversary programming continues to draw traffic through the summer, and the apple crowds start staging in late August. If you live in town, the case for treating this week as the peak instead of the warm-up is stronger than the calendar suggests.
The Broad Street Half-Mile
Almost everything you need sits on a short stretch of Route 130. Brookdale Fruit Farm's stand is at 41 Broad Street, and the pick-your-own entrance is directly across the road from the stand. Lull Farm sits a quarter mile up at 65 Broad Street. Two of the largest working farms in southern New Hampshire, close enough that you can walk between them if the driveway logistics get tangled.
The two operations are not interchangeable, and residents who treat them that way miss what each one does well. Brookdale has been in the Hardy and Whittemore families since the 1840s, runs roughly 400 acres, and grows more than fifty apple varieties along with peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, cherries, raspberries, blueberries, and a full vegetable line. It is one of the state's largest combined retail, PYO, and wholesale growers, which is why the produce turns over so quickly at the stand. Their retail hours through the growing season are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week.
Lull Farm was started in 1980 by David Orde, known around town as Farmer Dave, and now works more than 250 acres. The stand at 65 Broad Street runs 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily and leans heavier on the prepared-food and grocery side than Brookdale does. Cider is pressed on-site at the Hollis location in season, and the bakery counter is the reason a lot of people stop in the morning even when they are not shopping produce.
What Is Actually Picking The Week Of July 20
Late July in Hollis is a narrow, specific window. Here is what is on the fields and stands right now, farm by farm:
- Brookdale (41 Broad Street): PYO blueberries and raspberries are open across the street from the stand, with sweet corn, summer squash, and the first tomatoes on the retail side. Their fields also carry cherries earlier in the month and roll into peaches shortly. Spud's Ice Cream Stand, which serves Annabelle's, is open next to the retail building with picnic tables if you want to eat on-site.
- Lull Farm (65 Broad Street): PYO strawberries wrap around mid-July, so if you are chasing them you are on borrowed time. Blueberries and raspberries run through August. PYO apples do not open here until early September, and the corn maze is a September and October thing. If someone tells you they are going to Lull to pick apples this weekend, they are going to be disappointed.
- Lavoie's Farm (Nartoff Road and Silver Lake Road at Woodmont): Open early June through December 1, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Their PYO calendar covers apples, blueberries, strawberries, and pumpkins depending on the week. The Nartoff Road location is the one most Hollis residents drive past without stopping.
- Begin Family Farm (105 Witches Spring Rd): Organic, chemical-free vegetables, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, roots. The stand runs Wednesday through Saturday, 9 to 6, and PYO herbs and flowers are back for 2026. If you already do a CSA elsewhere, their pack-your-own model at the stand is closer to what most people actually want.
That is four working operations inside a five-minute drive of each other, plus Kimball Fruit Farm and Laromay Lavender Farm within the same town lines. There is no comparable density anywhere else in the county.
The Case Against Waiting For Apples
Here is the thing residents figure out after a few seasons and new arrivals usually take a year to catch. The fall PYO run at Brookdale draws visitors from across the state and into Massachusetts. The Hippo named it best pick-your-own in New Hampshire, and traffic on Broad Street on an October Saturday reflects that. You are queuing for parking, sharing rows with people who drove ninety minutes to be there, and paying for a bagged experience.
The late-July window is the same fields, the same growers, the same quality, and none of the crowd. Blueberries hold better than apples in the fridge. Raspberries do not. If you are going to make one PYO trip this summer, doing it before the first day of school hits is a better bet than fighting for a parking spot in six weeks.
The other thing worth doing this week: buy corn from more than one stand and taste the difference. Brookdale, Lull, and Lavoie's all grow their own, and the ripening is not synchronized across the town. In late July the delta between a Tuesday-picked ear and a Thursday-picked ear at the same stand is bigger than the delta between two different farms. You cannot get that read in October.
A Saturday That Actually Works
If you have not built a routine around this yet, here is a version that respects the heat, the crowds, and the light:
- 7:30 a.m. Coffee and a cider donut at Lull Farm. The bakery counter opens with the stand at 7. This is the only time of day you will have the parking lot to yourself.
- 8:30 a.m. Beaver Brook Reservation, entrance at 117 Ridge Road. The Nature Camp is running through August, so weekday mornings can be busy, but Saturday trails are quiet before nine. Walk the loop that leaves from Maple Hill Farm.
- 10:30 a.m. PYO at Brookdale. Berries pick fastest before the sun is directly overhead, and the fields are laid out on mowed rows with dedicated PYO areas rather than shared plantings, which makes it easier with kids.
- Noon. Spud's for ice cream, or the sandwich case at Lull, then load up on corn and tomatoes at whichever stand you did not already visit.
- Afternoon. Begin Family Farm at 105 Witches Spring Road if you missed the Wednesday CSA pickup and want organic greens for the week. Otherwise, this is a nap window.
None of this requires driving out of town. All of it depends on being here before the September calendar tightens up.
What The September Calendar Actually Looks Like
The reason to front-load August is what is coming after. Hollis Old Home Days 2026 runs the weekend of September 18 at Nichols Field and the adjacent Lawrence Barn on Depot Road. The event has been running since 1899, when Governor Frank West Rollins established it, and the current program still features a parade, carnival rides, an artisan market, food, and fireworks. Admission is free. Details, volunteer sign-ups, and the parade route are posted at hollisoldhomedays.org.
The 250th anniversary programming has added weight to the summer calendar as well, with events at Lawrence Barn and Nichols Field pulling turnout beyond the usual Hollis crowd. Add the corn maze opening at Lull in September, apple PYO at Brookdale ramping up the same week, and you have three or four weekends where the town is genuinely full.
Which is a good thing. It is also a reason to spend this Saturday picking blueberries instead of saving the trip for a weekend when Broad Street is bumper-to-bumper.
For The Residents Who Have Been Here A While
The Hollis you moved to is still on the fields off Route 130. Brookdale is on a conservation easement with the state, which means the acreage across from the stand is not going to become anything else. Lull's 250 acres are still being farmed by the same family that started with fifteen. Begin Family Farm's stand is up the road from where it was five years ago. The farm corridor is not a marketing story. It is a working supply chain that happens to also be the best weekend in town.
If you have a friend who just closed on a house in Hollis this spring, this is the week to introduce them to it. The version they see in October is louder and slower. The version they see today is what living here is supposed to feel like.
If you are thinking about what your Hollis home is worth in a market where inventory this tight has been the story of the year, The Morgan Moves Team knows the town's streets and stand-by-stand character as well as we know the comps. Request Your Free Home Valuation and we will get you a clear read grounded in what is actually selling, not what a portal estimator guesses.
