Crane Orchards

Crane Orchards has been farmed since the 1880s and is on its sixth generation, on 124th Avenue at Fennville. Seventeen apple varieties, ten peaches and sweet cherries, and it publishes what everything costs, which is rarer than it should be.

What You Can Pick

• Sweet cherries - from late June
• Peaches - August. Allstar, Contender, Bounty, Loring and Blushing Star, at $2.30 a pound, or $32 a peck pre-picked
• Apples - from August 28 into late October, at $1.80 a pound. The early varieties are Premier Honeycrisp, Sweet Maia, Blondee, Gala and McIntosh
• Pumpkins - from late September

What It Costs

Admission on top of the fruit: $8 for eleven and over, $5 for six to ten, free for five and under. Cash and cards, though cards carry a 3 per cent fee and cheques are not accepted.

What Else is Available

• Corn maze - back for Labor Day weekend
• Pumpkin patch - from late September
• The pie pantry, which is independently run and is a destination in its own right

Good to Know

Late in the summer the orchard opens Friday to Sunday only, 10am to 6pm, weather permitting. From August 28 it goes daily, same hours, right through the apple season.

Pro tip: do not confuse this with Bella Vista Farm across the road at 6017, which was Crane's U-Pick until it changed hands. Different farm, different family, and a great deal of the internet still muddles them.