Sand Flats Orchard

I love this place! If you get there at the right time the cider doughnuts are just coming out of the oven and they will serve them to you still warm! Yum! They also have other wonderful bakery goods and they serve breakfast on Sundays. There is a corn maze and hay rides for the kids, a pumpkin patch and lots of things for sale in their gift shop. The prices are great and the service is friendly! I highly recommend taking your kids or grandkids! Or, make it a nice outing just for the two of you!

It’s amazing how a popular place like Sand Flats can be entirely off the radar for some people.
I’ve been exploring the apple orchards of the Capital District for six years in search of the best apple cider donut, and it’s only now that I’ve learned about this beloved Fonda farm. The place was hopping on a beautiful fall weekend, but there was plenty of parking. More importantly, there were hot apple cider donuts.
The donuts at Sand Flats are remarkable in one very special way: they have a super crisp crust that is absolutely wonderful.
Fried foods are terrible for you, so if you are going to indulge, the treat should be worth the caloric hit. And there fit the bill. They are not as cidery as some. In fact, they taste more like vanilla and apples. Which makes sense given the vanilla flavored cake donut mix that’s used.
I know this because the bakery at the orchard posts the ingredients of the mix on the wall, just in case people have allergies. Good for them. Transparency rocks. And this transparency also reveals how the donuts are cooked to this awesomely crispy perfection. They are fried in partially hydrogenated oil.
You know what? I’m totally okay with that.
Sure, it’s terrible for you. But there was so much trans fat in pretty much everything for years, and now it’s all gone. Ten years ago, you would have eaten more trans fat over the course of your day and not even thought twice about it. Even worse, you would not have enjoyed a single gram of the stuff.
But these donuts are the argument for not banning the ingredient outright. Label its use. Let consumers decide. Me? I would gladly take the hit for something with such a satisfying deep fried crust.
Especially when the donuts are served hot, right off the robot. Now, if only the bakery could get some more cider flavor into these specimens, Sand Flats could have the best donuts in the region.