Garwood Orchards — Attraction in La Porte

I feel like a bit of a historian when it comes to Garwood Orchard. Going there in September was a tradition stretching back to the early 1970s. In that time I've watched the store morph from a one room building to a two room place that went from basic apples, cider, carmels, popcorn, and a little candy, to a farm market with a vast array of produce, preseves, a fabulous bakery, and lots of candy. I've watched the change from driving into the orchard in your own car to pick apples (I miss that!) To now, boarding a tractor pulled wagon to be taken out to the apple trees to pick. I've watched the Apple Fest Arts and crafts show develope into an exciting little festival with a food wagon! I've watched the stock of pumpkins mushrooms into the biggest spread of different colored pumpkins and gourds one ever saw! And the ocean of fall colored potted mums soon available to buy are breathtaking! I've been there every fall, I'd say, for 50 years, so it's full of nostalgia for me. Let me tell you about back then....

My grandparents came in from South Bend. My dad's aunt and uncle came in from Mishawaka. My mom's two sisters came up, too, and in later years would be participants in the craft show.

My mom always made her Grandma's spaghetti and meatball recipe that day. I don't know how she put that together looking back because when all the company arrived, we headed off in a fleet of 1970s gas guzzlers from Michigan City to Garwood's. I note these cars because they were all big to be trodding through the orchards!

Great Uncle Harry, a retired shop teacher, built an "apple picker" to get the high ones. Great Aunt Bessie, a farm girl, would climb over wooden split rail fences out in the orchard fields in her 80s! (She also got a kick out of hiding a few extra apples in those big trunks!)

Anyhow. We'd get our Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, and Jonathans - those are really the only apples I remember back then because I heard the adults discussing the quantities of each they planned to pick. It felt important to know these names. I always thought they were just apples. My family were experts! :-) Now there's so many different kinds! After filling our wooden bushel baskets and plastic bags, we'd check out. That meant a lady in a flannel and gloves came to your car in the line out with a waitress type pad in hand to mark down what you had to charge you. As a kid, I was always nervous for Great Aunt Bessies contraband apples in the trunk, but they never searched. Whew!

We'd go through the store, where my grandmother always got my little cousins cider and more apples to take over to them the next day. My chief goal was to get my free cider sample and then a second one if the lady would give it. Sometimes, an older weatherd farm lady ran the apple cider keg with the tapper and gave a disapproving look at the request for seconds, but silently filled it. Her stern look seemed to say no thirds!

We shopped dispersed from our big group in the store. I'd run back and forth to all my different relatives to see what they were buying. We'd conclude our purchases and go back home through the scenic country route, with sunlight shining through the fall colored leaves of orange, yellow, and red. It was idyllic. It was perfect. Spaghetti, meatballs, and garlic bread waited ahead!

Over the years, our apple party has changed. The older ones died. Marriages happened, and new children came along, so the tradition continued with new faces. Now, we are on yet a fifth generation of family to take out there this fall!

I don't have lots of pictures to share, just my favorites from an impulsive drive out to the Garwood store with my husband, hoping for mums, but they aren't in yet. We'll be back!

This was long, but my point is to tell others about the wonderful family time this place is and the lifetime memories it makes for a kid! Beautiful place! God bless the...

We just left this market after having a run in with the employees. We actually drove 70 miles to this location and had never been there before. We were going to do the U-pick blackberries, but it was actually cheaper to buy them already picked. So we went through and picked out our fruit - we purchased (2) 2 - pint containers of blackberries (1) 2 - pint container of strawberries, some peaches and cherries. We went through checkout and it was $86. I spotted the bakery and we ended up purchasing a zucchini loaf, turnovers, and a blueberry muffin. Total of everything was $101 and change. Side note - both the cashier and the bakery worker were extremely nice and welcoming.

We carried out our purchases and my husband was looking up a blackberry jam recipe and he thought he may not have had bought enough. There were only 1 pint containers available inside the store. My husband asked the young man if the berries already in the store was all they had for the day and he said yes. We walked back inside and there were 2 pint containers by the cashier so my husband grabbed one and was going to fill the 2 pint box up out of the single containers.

While he was doing this, I was standing behind him waiting. As I was standing there, a lady walked up behind him with a full 2 pint container in her hands. She was making some disgusted/annoyed faces as I was watching her so I initially thought she was waiting for my husband to move so she could get more blackberries. So I asked her - do you need to get in here (I was going to tell my hubby to scoot over) and she looked at me and then told my husband (rudely) that you only put (4) ½ pints into the box. When he put the 4th ½ pint in and it was still well below the top of the blackberry container so he was just filling it up. So he was trying to explain it to her and you could tell by the way she was talking to him and looking at him that he was doing something wrong in her eyes.

He ended up buying both of the 2 pints that were left (the one he was filling and the one in her hands) and went to check out. Then, while we were checking out, she walks up to the cashier and loudly says “did you give him a 2-pint container??” My husband spoke up and said, no, I just got one from the empty ones so I could fill it up. She then talked to him like he was a child “next time, see one of us - we bring them from the back - you don’t just grab a box”. Alll in front of other patrons.

I am 60 years old and have been in customer service my whole life. There is a right way to handle a situation, and a wrong way. This was definitely NOT the right way to handle it.

So after this situation, I walked up to the girl in the middle of the store and was trying to say that I didn’t appreciate her embarrassing my husband not once but twice. Was it that big of a deal that you felt the need to do this?? She then tried telling me that she had run into issues with families earlier regarding them “stealing things”. She wouldn’t back down off of her stance and kept defending it and cutting me off & not even hearing what I had to say nor even attempting to apologize or smooth it over. Then, she just barged off and says “I’ll just get my manager” . Review will...

My family and I went apple picking at this orchard. I will start on a positive note and say that their bakery with apple donuts was delicious and the staff there was kind. The tractors that drove you out to the orchards were very frequent, and all the drivers were very kind and friendly as well. There were plentiful apples to pick from- and very juicy and tasty.

However, my family and I will not be coming here again. We have been to several farms and orchards at this point, and we have never been treated so poorly by management and the cashiers as we had at Garwood. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever seen such terrible customer service anywhere period. As you leave the orchard with your apples, you are “checked” at the exit. They have dogs sniffing you, they ask to check your purses and belongings; it feels very accusatory and wrong. (I’ve never been to a farm where they go in with the mindset that people are here to steal! I mean, apples are heavy! How many apples could someone fit into their purse anyways??)

Upon arriving, we were told, “fill up your boxes with apples as much as you can, the apples can be piled up.” And as we were walking out of the farm with our full boxes, we were stopped by management and told the boxes were too full. We tried to show them that we indeed can carry our boxes without apples falling over, but they wouldn’t even let us, they just started grabbing our apples out of our boxes and putting them into a different box, all without asking if they can TOUCH our apples. Why would I want someone’s germs all over my freshly picked apples?! Also, how rude that they wouldn’t listen to us and instead just started touching all our boxes. They then demanded that we pay an additional $30 for the additional box they took out, and wouldn’t let you leave until you agreed to do so, otherwise they were ready to call the police. I mean, I’ve never seen these kind of antics at any farm! If you want a drama free experience, please, just take your kids and family elsewhere. Management is money hungry and treats everyone like a big dollar sign.

If you saw how many apples are wasting away under the apples trees and how many of them are decaying, you’d be shocked at how greedy and stingy management is with their apples. Maybe they should focus more on saving or picking more of those apples and making money that way, rather than chasing down each customer...