Gull Meadow Farms

• 8544 Gull Road
• Richland, MI 49083
• (29) 629-4214
• Website

It’s been a long time since either J or I have been apple picking.  For me, it’s probably been at least 15 years.  J’s not sure if she’s ever gone, but this Labor Day Weekend, we decided to start a new tradition with L.

All of the news about Michigan’s fruit crop is pretty depressing.  If it wasn’t killed in the frost, it was killed in the drought.  Luckily, at least one Southwest Michigan farm had enough of a crop.

Gull Meadows Farms is just outside of Richland on Gull Road.  The large farm offers a variety of activities in the fall including the aforementioned apple picking.

I was really surprised when we pulled in the large gravel parking lot around 2:00 PM on Sunday.  There wasn’t nearly as many cars as I was expecting.  We found a spot right up front near the large barn which is the commercial hub of the farm.

The signage for the U-Pick process is pretty vague.  We saw the wagon rides coming and going from in front of the greenhouses, but we didn’t really know the process.  There was a sign that said everyone must have a wristband, but a sign near the barn said wagon rides were free this weekend.  We didn’t really know what to do at this point. 

We decided to go inside the barn first and look around.  The U-Pick was only for McIntosh and everyone knows it’s the Honeycrisp that are actually the best.   We were hoping they had some honeycrisp for sale in the barn.

We were in luck.  We found a bin of small honeycrisps for sale by the pound.   We picked up a plastic bag and filled it up then continued to look around the barn to see what else was available.

In addition to the already picked apples, the barn houses a bakery that makes donuts fresh daily, pies, cider, caramel apples, and more.  We really weren’t in the market for anything and just wanted to get L out in to the orchard to pick some apples.

We headed up to the cash register to pay for the honeycrisps.  While there, J asked what we needed to do for U-Pick.  The cashier sort of mumbled the process to us.  J didn’t catch what she said, but I caught enough of it to realize we had to buy the bag there then take the wagon out to the orchard.  Some kind of signage to that effect would have been helpful because I know at least two other groups that rode the wagon with us didn’t know that and had to take the next wagon back in to get bags.

The total for our bag of apples and the empty bag to U-Pick was a little under $18.  We dropped off the honeycrsips  off at the car then went to wait for the wagon to take us out to the orchard.

After the short ride, we hopped off the wagon and go underway with the picking of apples.  Unfortunately, L was a little tired and didn’t show a whole lot of interest, but we were able to snap a few good pictures of her trying to put a whole apple in her mouth.  J was wearing her in the Boba Carrier so we were able to keep picking as L was falling asleep.

The picking wasn’t too bad despite all the horror stories we have been hearing about the lack of Michigan fruit.  There were plenty of low hanging apples for J and I to pick and we filled out bag up pretty quickly.  With a baby that was now almost completely asleep, we decided to call it a day and wait for the next wagon ride back to the parking lot.

Our day at Gull Meadow Farms was short, but we accomplished what we wanted to.  We started what we hope to become a new family fall tradition.