As Fresh As It Gets: Ever Heard of Egg Picking?

^{At Handsome Brook Farm in the Catskills, visitors can learn to collect and cook eggs. Image credit: Conor Harrigan}Upstate New York is a popular apple-picking destination, but egg picking is also catching on. Farms with pasture-raised chickens, which spend most of their time roaming freely, are offering visitors the chance to collect the eggs the birds lay.Bryan and Betsy Babcock, owners of Handsome Brook Farm in the Catskills, for example, have seven Rhode Island Reds on their 85-acre property in Franklin and invite guests to learn about how they are raised and to pick eggs from their coop. Bryan Babcock also teaches visitors how to cook the eggs, which stand out for their bright orange yolks and thick whites. Available through early November. Eggs are $5 a dozen; cooking lessons are $25 per person. Book by calling 607-829-2587.Also in the Catskills, the 200-acre Stony Creek Farmstead in Walton has 200 hens that lay eggs in varying sizes from extra small to jumbo. Co-owner Kate Marsiglio leads weekend tours of the property; they end with guests collecting eggs and tasting them prepared in different ways ($10 a person).Guests who want to stay overnight in one of the property’s six platform tents equipped with wood stoves are invited to select and cook their own eggs for breakfast. Marsiglio helps with the morning meal by delivering baskets to each tent filled with fresh bread and bacon from the farm’s pigs. Prices from $235 a night. Available through early November. Book by emailing info@stonycreekfarm.org.In the Hudson Valley, the 1,200-acre Kinderhook Farm in Ghent has 300 hens that lay eggs in colors like light green and light blue. Tourists can book a weekend visit to interact with the animals and gather their eggs ($6 a dozen). Available through early November. To reserve, email info@kinderhookfarm.comCloser to New York City, the 80-acre Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills has weekend farm visits, and a stop in the pastures — home to 1,200 chickens — to collect eggs is included. Offered through mid-November ($20 per adult, $10 for children ages 12 and under). Tickets may be purchased online; the cost includes other farm activities.© 2015 The New York Times News Service