点评:Wonderful visit to the Lyman PIck Your Own Orchards on a late Saturday morning in mid-September.
We've visited lots of Pick Your Own Orchards over the years and most have transitioned over into a festival-styled space with offerings including hayrides, playgrounds and pettings zoos, all for a premium all-inclusive price. Depending on the family, this may not be ideal for some.
Some also have, sometimes unreasonable, picking requirements...such as each member of the group over a certain age MUST purchase a picking bag...which, for a family of four, would result in an expensive family visit to the orchard with LOTS of leftover and unused apples. Again, this may not be ideal for some.
Lyman was a breath of fresh air. Their entire operation is quite massive and separated: pick your own orchards, massive farm shop, golf center, and pub/grill are in different locations within their entire property.
We arrived to the Pick Your Own Orchards area at around 11am on a lovely Saturday morning in mid-September. We expected it to be busy but it wasn't...there were lots ot parking (free) spaces in the dirt/grassed lot and even the picking orchards weren't very crowded...lots of space to pick.
After parking, we went to the stand to purchase our picking bag. The options, currently, are $16 for half-peck bag, $26 for a full-peck bag and $47 for half-bushel. For our family, two adults and one small child, we shared a full-peck bag (no "per-person" requirement) which fit about 9 pounds of apples.
After choosing our bag, we proceeded to the ochards to pick. There were Gala, McIntosh, Blondee, Jonamac, Spencer and Honey Crisp apples to choose from. Lots of trees to select from at that time...both on the higher and lower branches were available.
All staff we encountered, including the parking lot and payment counter attendants were friendly, helpful and efficient.
They post updates regularly (sometimes every few hours) on all of their social media platforms and have a hotline, which is very helpful, particularly for harvest and weather updates.
Their detailed and thorough website has lots of information so you know what do expect during your visit.
Again, great time here at Lyman's no-nonsense PIck-Your-Own Orchards. I can understand why they have been voted the (and among the best) orchards in Connecticut and the entire Nation.
We also visited their Farm Store which was also great. Huge store with lots to choose from including fresh product, jarred jams and syrups, and sizeable hot food and bakery sections. Very reasonable prices throughout.
After you are finished shopping, there are lots of tables and chairs toward the back of the building where you can sit, relax an eat. There is also a ice-cream window there with some interesting flavors.
Would love to return to check out some of their other offerings.
The two-hour drive from NYC was definitely worth it!
翻译:九月中旬的一个周六清晨,我们愉快地游览了莱曼自助采摘果园。
多年来我们去过很多自助采摘果园,大多数如今都变成了以节日为主题的园区,提供草车游览、游乐场以及宠物动物园等项目,但都需要支付一笔包含所有项目的昂贵费用。对某些家庭来说,这样的模式可能并不理想。
还有些果园会设定一些有时甚至不太合理的采摘规定……比如,组内所有超过一定年龄的成员都必须购买采摘袋……这样一来,对于一个四口之家来说,一次果园之旅就会变得相当昂贵,而且还会剩下大量用不上的苹果。显然,这种情况对某些人来说可能不太理想。
莱曼果园则让人耳目一新。他们的整个运营体系规模宏大且布局分散:自助采摘区、大型农场商店、高尔夫中心以及酒吧/烧烤店都分布在园区内的不同位置。9月中旬的一个晴朗周六,我们在上午11点左右抵达了“自助采摘果园”区域。我们原以为那里会很拥挤,但事实并非如此……泥土地和草地上有大量的(免费)停车位,就连采摘区也并不拥挤……有足够的空间供人们采摘。
停车后,我们前往服务处购买采摘袋。目前可供选择的款式有:半配克容量的袋子售价16美元,一配克容量的袋子26美元,半蒲式耳容量的袋子则售价47美元。对于我们一家人来说……我们一行两人成年人和一个小孩,共同分享了一个不限人数限制的装满苹果的袋子,这个袋子能装下约9磅的苹果。
选好袋子后,我们便前往果园采摘。可供选择的苹果品种有嘎啦、麦金托什、布隆迪、乔纳马克、斯宾塞以及蜜脆。当时有许多果树可供挑选……高处的树枝和低处的树枝上都有苹果。
我们遇到的所有工作人员,包括停车场管理员和收银员,都友好、乐于助人且做事高效。他们会在所有社交媒体平台上定期发布更新信息(有时每隔几小时就更新一次),还设有热线电话,这非常有用,尤其是在获取收获情况及天气信息方面。
他们的网站内容详尽细致,提供了大量信息,能帮助你了解参观时所能期待的情况。
再次强调:在莱曼这个务实且高效的“自助采摘果园”体验真是棒极了。我完全理解为何它能被评为康涅狄格州乃至全美最优秀的果园之一。我们还参观了他们的农场商店,同样很不错。商店规模很大,商品种类丰富:有新鲜农产品、罐装果酱和糖浆,还有规模不小的热食区和烘焙区。所有商品的价格都相当实惠。
购物结束后,店铺后方有许多桌椅,可供顾客坐下休息并享用美食。那里还有一个冰淇淋窗口,提供几种很有特色的口味。
我们很希望下次能再来,看看他们还有哪些其他商品。从纽约市开车两小时,绝对物有所值!