Photo story taken by Cory of Friends in Photography

While we don’t allow ‘Pick Your Own Apples’ at our orchard we do have something pretty fun to pick – raspberries!  And LOTS of them!  This is something that we started at the other orchard and it went so well we planted more at our orchard and this year transplanted the remaining bushes to the Kroncke Road Orchard.  We grow mainly Caroline Raspberries which are BIG and delicious! Many think raspberries are just a summer fruit but we purposely chose the Caroline’s not only for their size and flavor but for their later ripening – these are fall bearing (and I did look this up…it is ‘bear’ fruit as apposed to ‘bare’ fruit) raspberries which is perfect for our orchard. We do have one other variety planted in a short outside strip that Jared got from a buddy of his at work – they’re not quite the same but still delicious and fall bearing.

Raspberry Picking

When you arrive at the orchard you will be told about two main picking areas.  This first that we usually tell you about is the ‘tunnel’.  A few years ago we put up a High Tunnel over our raspberry patch to extend the growing season – help them ripen earlier and produce past the first frost.  I’ll admit – we’ve had some issues with it…the wind basically ripped the plastic off last year (bummer) so there’s not much plastic on it right now.  I’m not really sure when they plan to put new plastic up but no worries – there are still LOTS of raspberries under the ‘tunnel’ – an area I also call ‘Raspberry Fields Forever’.    These are the plants we’ve been growing the longest at our farm so they are the largest.  It’s really nice picking.  I do like to tell people that to find ALL the berries you do have to ‘lift’ the branches, or look to the inside of the bush.  It’s amazing how much you find by a simple lift.  Raspberry bushes do have prickly branches though so if you’re worried about some minor scratches be sure to wear long sleeves. 

I promise that we don’t way you before and after you’re in our patch.  Sampling the berries is part of the fun!  I love how this little cutie is sneaky a bite.Hmmm…wonder where she learned it from?

To the West of ‘Raspberry Fields Forever’, aka the Tunnel, there are also a few rows of raspberries planted outside.  These are also good for picking on.  You are allowed to pick the raspberries wherever you find the berries and you decide you want to go.    The second location for berry picking is to the south west of the store and near where we have our animal pen.  Here we planted two really long lines of raspberries ‘Raspberry Row’.  These are the bushes we’ve transplanted from the old location so you’ll see them at different heights and stages depending on what year they came over.   You can see this area also bear’s a lot of raspberries!Raspberry picking is fun for the kids too!  I personally think that whenever children are exposed to being part of the process of their own food they’re more liking to at least try it – although…it’s pretty hard to not like raspberries!

When you’re done picking the raspberries you head back into our shop, grab a bag of apples, donuts, caramel apples and pay for your goods.  Then you get to go home and enjoy your bounty!

Stop in the store and ask how you can get a better deal by picking on Tuesdays and Wednesdays!

I hope you enjoy the story of "Pick Your Own Raspberries” at Lapacek’s Orchard.  Thanks again Cory for the amazing photos!