Tuttle Orchards is preparing to open its new FarmYard area for its fall season on Friday after years of planning and months of renovation.
Tuttle Orchards General Manager and fourth generation member of the Tuttle family Ruth Ann Roney says that the new area, set up to the west of CR 300N and opposite the main sales area of the orchard, is designed to bring activities for people of all ages under one area and a single ticket.
“In years past, we’ve had a corn maze and we’ve had a kids play area and we’ve had all these separate activities, but as we’ve grown and needed more space, we’ve also had a lot of requests for older kids and adults,” Roney said. The FarmYard activities include a corn maze, various play areas for younger kids, a narrated ride through the orchard aimed at adults, a snack shack which will be serving kettle corn and bottled beverages with hopes to expand in the future, a series of signs telling the history of Tuttle Orchards, photo ops and yard games. The FarmYard will cost $10 per entrant, with buy-one-get-one-free days on weekdays Sep. 3-20. Season passes can be bought for $25 per person.
A major cause for the price restructuring this season was affordability, Roney said. Previously, a pass to do all of the activities would have cost families $14 per person, leading to families debating at the gate which activities to do in order to cut costs. By combining all of the activities under one roof, charging less to do all of them and offering the discount days, Roney hopes that the orchard will be more affordable for families while causing less confusion with which tickets to get.
The process of establishing the FarmYard has been a long one, having to petition to the county in order to rezone the area before a renovation process that just finished after beginning in January.
Also new this year is an expansion of the flower picking area, which has been renamed to Virginia’s Cut Flower Garden after Roney’s grandmother, Virginia Tuttle. The area has grown over tenfold compared to last year, exploding from around 700 flowers to over 10,000.
Adjacent to the flower garden is the apple picking area, both of which will be open as soon as the FarmYard is on Friday. The pumpkin picking area, which is on the other side of the flower garden, will open on Sep. 20. Pumpkin and apple picking will continue through October, while flower picking will end earlier, as the flowers won’t survive the first frost. Picking is a separate cost from the FarmYard, costing anywhere from $8 to $40, depending on what is being picked and the quantity of that item. East of the road, operations will continue at full strength, as Tuttle Orchards does its annual increase in staff to around 200 employees for the fall season. Tuttle Orchards expects over 14,000 guests on its busiest days of the season.
