Lawrence Orchards

While I have been to other, larger orchards, I found Lawrence to be so much more charming. You begin by choosing a basket based on price ($ 16 or $ 10) and then head out into the well marked rows of trees. You’ll of course be picking according to the ripening seasons so feel free to call ahead or ask which avaliable varieties best suit your needs. For me, making homemade apple sauce is what this time of year is all about. And picking them is all the more memorable.

A small apple growing business on Smeltzer Road that also doubles as a farmers market. Fresh local honey — how local — you can see the bees in the corner of the store. Go to the annual apple fest where they have traditionally made apple butter that’s been stirred for hours over a wood fire and fresh made horseradish. My favorite part is that this the closest place I can buy non pasteurized apple cider.

drove up to Lawrence Orchards from Columbus in search of some fresh fruit & also to let my dog run around a bit — they advertise that they are the «dog friendly» orchard and that they allow well behaved leashed dogs in the orchard. My dog did have a fantastic time and they have a resident dog there too who seemed very friendly.
However, the orchard seems to not be taken good care of. We were told we couldn’t pick apples that day but were able to attempt to pick a basket of peaches. there were probably 30 peach trees full of peaches, but 99% of the fruit had black spots on it, which my friend discovered went all the way through to the pit. the ones with the most black spots were almost rotten, so we figured it was a bug or mold — something bad. we only found 3 peaches with no spots.
there were also 6 or 7 trees that had split in half & fallen to the ground, probably from a wind storm some time ago. and a lot of peaches just laying on the ground rotting. lots of weeds & vines growing between the trees… just seemed like it wasn’t well tended.
we walked through the apple trees too, and they looked better, at least from walking by & not picking any, but we didn’t buy anything besides the few peaches we found on the trees, which we paid $ 2.50/pound for since we didn’t fill the large basket that would have been $ 14.
they also had 2 goats & a horse in a fenced area, which all seemed friendly.
i don’t plan on returning, though it was great to see my dog having so much fun.