Monty W.
Yelp
A fantastic apple picking outing!
I've been to County Line Orchard before, their staff is great, welcoming and helpful. A well run operation. The u-pick is by the lb, but admission is required for everyone - we received wrist bands. Be prepared to spend money to have a good time. Nothing was overly too pricey. We arrived the last weekend of Sept, and just after opening (was still able to get a spot on the first row of parking lot). Laster arrivals like after 10am will park across the road on the open field.
All-access pass which was $14 per person, and includes admission, the children farm area and the maze and the "moo-choo" ride. We did all of these things and we did enjoy the experiences. If we only did the u-pick, I think we still would have enjoyed ourselves. They provide heavy duty plastic bags at checkin.
First stop off the orchard trailer was the honey crisp and pumpkin patch. The apples were plump and sweet! Much different than what I'm able to get at the grocery store. Spent an hr in the orchard picking. You don't need an apple pole, since the "trees" were child friendly.
Pumpkin patch, took some photos. A few good poke your head thru a cute wooden scene kind of things setup, and some nice looking back-drops. Then back onto the next trailer for the mazes.
There were two mazes, soy (3ft) and the maise (corny pun included by me) maze 10-11ft. This weekend Albanese gummy candy for the maze participants.
It's nice that they're so high, since the sun was not beating down on us while we were aimless and lost. Don't bother trying to pick the corn, it's animal feed corn. Do yourself a favor, even if you enjoy a challenge, pull up the map on your QR reader as you enter in like the staff recommends. We spent about 30-45 mins in the maze. There are landmarks inside the maze to orient yourself, but you need the map.
Back onto the trailer and back to the main barn/store for a restroom break. There were port-o-potties in the field, but I can't do that. The restrooms were renovated and clean. The feature was the free off the line donuts. They were churning them this morning and I opted for a dozen vs a half, bc they were still warm and the staff was still filling out shelves (I really had to justify that somehow bc when I was on the trailer, I told myself we'll only get the half dozen...but that was before I found out they have pumpkin glazed AND cinn-sugar). I'm sure they produced most of the inventory that morning, buts it's nice to see the box still steamed up. My kids watched the staff in the kitchen window setup for kids (platform). Apparently frozen apple cider slush is a popular item served in the coffee window said many whole we were watching thr donut operation. All the registers were in the far tent, and there was seating up in the upper loft area. Not many seated but there was a live guitar performance starting at 10am sharp. Great entertainment while we enjoyed cinnamon sugar and pumpkin glazed donuts. If that was all we did we would have been happy.
But we also paid for the kids farm(located just before the trailer pickup point), where you could generally let loose a little and let the littles explore the animals they have there (roosters, chickens, goats, calves). The animals were definitely active. I don't believe you're suppose to feed the animals or touch them...but kids still tried. If you were thinking about skipping the big corn and soy mazes for the the Lil maze (it's just hay bakes, so like 2ft high - also known as not really a maze). There was a Peter pumpkin eating robotic robot show as well in the maze and tucked away in a corner a little baby chick hatching shed.
Onto the MooChoo...so it's not like a train on a track. It was a bunch of barrels cut out on wheels being pulled by...a tractor. My kids loved it we went twice, each barrel was designated a cow type name like Betsy etc. And they had some wooden cutouts of animals along the track. Each kid under 3 (no wrist bands) need to be in a barrel with an adult (umm...if you are an adult that is taller than avg you are going to be crammed in and your kid sitting on your chest). This is where I wish the staff would have been more strict on safety...there was a smart-alec kid behind me that thought it was a good idea to just stand in his barrel the entire back-half of the ride. There were seatbelts though, but if adult with kid in cart, it won't fit around y'all both.
Food options galore, they had a few food stall stands outside- the BBQ was popular along with a brick oven pizza truck and a live band. Burgers and fries in the food building it seems (we didn't eat there, had to get going).
Great day to spend autumn day. It's definitely busy on the weekends but that's where the action is. Arrive early and take your photos before the major crowds, leave around lunch time to avoid the high sun.