The Pick Of The Crop
Located in Michigan’s “Fruit Belt” region, the Fennville area is well known for its agricultural diversity and abundance. While the picturesque farms and orchards certainly contribute to the Art Coast’s fresh and flavorful culinary landscape, they also provide fun and meaningful ways for visitors to pass the time. Visit a U-pick farm and pick your own fruit to bring home. By selecting your own produce straight from the source, you’ll get them at the peak of freshness, contribute to sustainability efforts by reducing your carbon footprint, and save a little money in the process. Here are our favorite local U-Pick orchards and farms worth stopping by.
Crane Orchards U-Pick
6054 124th Ave., Fennville, MI 49408
Crane Orchards, home to a spectacular 20-acre corn maze, features stunning scenery along with the finest fruit for you to pick. There are over 20 different varieties of apples, including Honeycrisp, Jonagold, Fuji, and Gala, 10 varieties of freestone (or cling-free) peaches, and sweet cherries for the discriminating u-picker to choose from. Pay for the fruit you pick by the pound, and then head over to Crane’s Pie Pantry Restaurant & Winery to fuel up after all your hard work.
Crane’s U-Pick
6017 124th Ave., Fennville, MI 49408
Known as the Gary Crane Farm or Crane’s U-Pick, this beautiful 105-acre farm features lush, green, rolling hills planted with precise blocks of dwarf fruit trees. Pick your own apples, raspberries, blueberries, and peaches, depending on the time of the year. July visitors will delight in red raspberry and blueberry picking, while peach lovers can pick from twelve peach varieties starting in late July through September. Fall apple picking begins in September and lasts through mid-October, with over fourteen Fall varieties, including Honeycrisp. The farm also sells fresh nectarines, plums, sweet corn, pumpkins, and cut flowers.
Pleasant Hill Farm
5859 124th Ave., Fennville, MI 49408
Owned and operated by three generations of farmers and certified organic since 1977, Pleasant Hill Farm was one of the first certified organic blueberry farms in the state of Michigan. Blueberries and strawberries are available for U-Pick in season. And, every March, the farm celebrates the advent of spring by tapping their maple trees and boiling hundreds of gallons of sap into maple syrup, which is available for purchase. While not for picking, a stunning 4-acre vista of poppies and wildflowers lure visitors each year for Instagram-worthy photographs. In bloom starting in early June, these flowers are planted each year to commemorate the life of the farm owners’ veteran son and supply nectar for the butterflies and bees who pollinate the blueberry fields.
Blue Star Farms
2647 68th St., Fennville, MI 49408
Blue Star Farm is a large-acreage, family-owned farm located just two miles from Saugatuck/Douglas. During blueberry season, which typically runs from mid-July to the end of August, visitors can pick Bluecrop and Duke variety blueberries seven days a week. The farm also sells various blueberry products, such as jams, preserves, jellies, muffin mixes, pancake mixes, syrups, and more.
Dee’s Lakeshore Farm
1672 70th Street, Fennville, MI 49408
Family-owned and operated for over 50 years, this 40-acre farm near Lake Michigan offers a wide variety of fruits and vegetables such as apples, asparagus, strawberries, blueberries, red raspberries, cherries, peaches, apricots, plums, melons, pumpkins, sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, and more for purchase. Visitors can pick their own blueberries and raspberries to take home in season. The farm also raises its own honey bees that produce great-tasting honey that is sold in jars. Other offerings include free-range eggs, fresh-cut flowers, herbs, and homemade jams and jellies.
Forstner Blueberry Farm
466 27th St., Allegan, MI, 49010
In business for more than 70 years, this Allegan farm offers already-picked blueberries by the pint, quart, 2-pound clamshell, and 5-pound box, in addition to allowing you to pick your own. July is considered the prime Michigan blueberry picking season, which wanes about the third week of August.
