#22. It’s time to pick apples in Medina, TX (north of Bandera)

Gather up the family and head to Love Creek Orchards in Medina, TX to pick fresh ripe apples straight from the trees (north of Bandera). Love Creek Orchards opens seasonally for you to pick various types of fruit. May and June typically offer with fresh blackberries. In July you can pick fresh tree-ripened apples and in August they offer some of the sweetest figs in Texas. As with all fresh fruit, this is dependent on Mother Nature. The best time to pick is when fruit is at their peak of ripeness. Love Creek posts picking times on their web site or you can call the orchard at 830-589-2588.
When you come to pick, Love Creek provides the containers for picking. Prices are generally based on current market prices at the time of picking. They have a shaded picnic area near the orchard for you to enjoy a picnic lunch if you want to bring one or visit the Apple Store just up the road from the orchard and eat at the Patio Café. Get the hot apple pie! The Patio Café was listed among the Top 40 best Small Town Restaurants in Texas by Texas Monthly Magazine.

Love Creek Orchards became pioneers of the Texas Apple Industry when Baxter and Carol Adams planted their first experimental apple orchards in 1981. Little did they know that their experiment would not only produce such wonderful sweet apples, but would also start a new industry for the state of Texas.

Baxter and Carol expanded their operation in 1988 when they opened The Cider Mill and Country Store in downtown Medina. At the Cider Mill, Love Creek lovingly produces over fifty different products made from sweet Texas Apples. Their apple butters, jams and jellies, baked goods and specialty items have become famous for their homemade goodness and attention to detail. Each item produced is handmade and packaged by the Adams Family and friends. In 2007 Baxter and Carol retired from the Cider Mill and Country Store and sold it to Bryan and Stacie Hutzler. The store name changed to “The Apple Store” simply because that is what all of the locals and tourist called it. Bryan and Stacie have worked hard to maintain the quality of apple goodies produced at the store and continue to sell the apple that Baxter produces in the orchards. Tours of Love Creek Orchards and The Apple Store are offered April through October. The Apple Store is open seven days a week and there is always fresh apple pie cooking.

The orchard and the store are located on main street in Medina, TX (Highway 16 North). You can’t miss them. The orchard is open daily, except Sundays, 9:30 to 3:30 during the picking season.

http://www.lovecreekorchards.com/

Don’t forget to wade the lovely Medina River while there! Clear water over a slab rock bottom. Fantastic! Enter the river at the crossings on Highway 470 or Highway 337, just to the west of Highway 16 North. Stay in the river to avoid trespassing on private property.

Have fun! -Don Gray