Eric S.
Yelp
U PICK 'EM
If you're harvesting apples at this orchard in Oswego, it means fall has arrived.
Things these days with a 1yo are decidedly more pumpkin patch-y and less haunted house-y, which suits me fine. Now that my junior Yelper is pointing at objects and understanding things better, my wife and I thought a trip to an apple orchard would be the perfect autumn adventure. I did some research and found Keller's wasn't too far from us in B-brook.
I typically like to give general whereabouts of the places I write, but I couldn't begin to tell you where Keller's Farmstand is located. It's nowhere near any major street (Ogden Ave is 4-1/2 miles away) and you'll be driving over loose gravel roads to get here, so I would trust implicitly in Google maps and follow the signs as you get closer. Parking is ample and free.
Admission to the orchard depends if you want a quarter/half/full peck--a 1/4 peck ($9) is essentially a 3lb bag, roughly 6-7 large apples. The pricing scale is linear, so no discounts for buying a larger quantity. Kids under 4 are free. If you're vertically challenged, they have extendable scooper poles (resembling lacrosse sticks) available to rent, which I saw some folks using to nab high-up apples.
Inside the farmstand, I bought a half dozen ears of corn (6 for $4) that came from right down the road. The Keller family has 30 acres of sweet corn that they grow & sell annually, and although the last week of September is pretty late in the year, the corn still tasted juicy. They also had cold apple cider, tables of honey, jams, and jellies, plus the usual assortment of boutique dry box mixes.
We had a fun time in the orchard filling up our bags with Jonathan, McIntosh, Fuji, and Honey Crisp apples, though we didn't see any of the Liberty, Empire, or Haralson varieties like the posted sign had indicated. When we visited on a Sunday at noon, there were plenty of apple trees still loaded with fruit; I always recommend bringing a tall person to help get those hard-to-reach ones.
On our way out, my wife got a hot apple cider ($2.50), the perfect drink on a cloudy autumn day. No trip would be complete without apple cider donuts (6 for $8), which wound up being some of the best we've had. The donuts came lightly dusted in cinnamon sugar and were really good, better than anything you'd find at Meijer or Mariano's.
Staff were cool. There were a couple workers roaming the orchard, perhaps acting as 'light security detail' to discourage people from playing fresh fruit dodgeball or chopping down an apple tree to take home with them. Not to worry guys, I left my chainsaw in the car like a responsible adult.
* TL;DR *
Things that are cool to pick: apples at Keller's, your group of friends, up after yourself
Things that are not cool to pick: your nose in public, a fight with a stranger
The farmstand with locally-sourced produce was great, and the orchard experience led to big smiles all around. I'm glad we found this place, since it's WAY closer than Apple Holler--a beloved orchard near Kenosha, Wisconsin--and at $9/person, the prices are cheaper. AH costs $20/person these days, which is a little crazy (they have tractor rides and other activities, but I'd rather save $11 and skip on feeding the goats).
I'd be happy to consider visiting Keller's a yearly tradition.