REVIEW
Give us good pancakes made with farm fresh berries, and a bottle of locally produced maple syrup, and we will spend the rest of our day with smiles on our faces. And that’s just what happens to us at the Apple Dumpling Cafe inside the farm market at the Apple Hills farm.
As in all pancake photos, diameter and girth are deceptive here. Each cake is probably equal to about three or four normal cakes. There are two plates underneath these pancakes; the second is for actually eating them, quarter by quarter, with the local maple syrup provided to each table. These are not notable only for their size; Apple Hills makes terrific pancakes! Don’t ignore the excellent mild and juicy sausage patties.
The pancakes are giants (if you eat a full order of four, your next full order is on the house), but these cakes are also terrific, especially when filled with handfuls of juicy, sweet blueberries grown here at Apple Hills. You can, of course, get yours with apples but, seeing as how their own berries were at that moment ripe and ready for picking, the choice was easy.
Bread for the light-textured toast is baked here. Home fries, soft and well-seasoned, are comforting.
Tables are set with squeeze bottles of dark maple syrup from Delavan Farms, about 25 miles to the north in Cincinnatus, and the cakes come with a choice of bacon or juicy sausage patties. A half-order of two is a lot of pancake, and you may want to consider the “Baby Stack” of one, especially if you eyed the trays of freshly made doughnuts as you entered.
The homemade doughnuts taste as good as they look: farm-basic and just-right, in plain, cinnamon, and powdered. You will probably find you have no appetite remaining after breakfast to sample them. They make a fine breakfast appetizer, however!
Lunch consists of various salads, soups, and sandwiches. One sandwich, in particular, caught our eye: an open-faced grilled apple sandwich, with ham and Swiss, on their homemade eight-grain bread. Very, very good.
Juice comes in jars with handles.
Apple Hills, a Broome county farm about a 15-minute drive north of Binghamton, has been owned by the same family since 1848. The Green family began with apples but, today, the sixth generation of family farmers also grows berries, cherries, and vegetables, which you can purchase in the farm market. Inside that market you’ll also find the Apple Dumpling Cafe. If the weather’s nice, we recommend grabbing one of the tables out on the porch, with vistas toward the hills in the distance.
Tables are scattered across a section of the market. Weekend brunch is very popular, and table waits are not uncommon.
The Cafe is open seven days a week year-round for breakfast and lunch.
Prefer to dine in the fresh air with a view of the farm? There are tables on the porch.
The Apple Dumpling Cafe, on the Apple Hills farm, is only a 15-minute drive from downtown Binghamton.
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