Terhune Orchards — Attraction in Lawrence Township

You couldn't pay me to come back with my family. There are tons of farms in the area where your money will undoubtedly be better spent. The owners and management of this place should be ashamed. Unfriendly staff, poor accomodations, absolutely disgusting food, little to no seating, barely anything for kids to do, and overpriced just to walk in. Insanely overcrowded too. That's fun by the way, you're fighting to get by people who are exiting between a 3 ft wide entrance/exit. Ridiculous. This place is painfully disorganized. No rhyme or reason to anything there.

We were greeted by an unpleasant woman who had an attitude simply for my wife asking where the food was located. $77 for two adults and our child to enter... We then waited in the food line for over 30 minutes just to be served undercooked chicken tenders (breading was mushy), cold hot hots, and a burger with a slice of unmelted cheese. $36...There was literally nowhere to sit down with our family, we wound up sharing the edge of a table with two other families while we stood and ate our food so our child could sit.

We figured ok, food was pretty horrible, this place is packed though with people...what are we missing? There has to be some redeeming qualities here, right? NOPE!!!

If you have kids, forget bringing them. There's a corn maze, a dirt track with some bicycles where kids are fighting each other to get on them while their negligent parents sit back and do nothing, and then scattered around the "farm" are busted up old plastic toddler kid houses that look like they're about 30 years old. They looked like they were pulled from the side of the road during bulk trash pickup day somewhere...I'm not kidding either. But let's not forget to mention the old rotting wooden tractors with nail heads sticking out, total disgrace. Oh... but how could I forget about the super awesome 40 year old broken down rusted Craftsman lawnmower for kids to sit on! Man, what a relic, an incredible classic machine for kids to get their pictures taken on. Great stuff, guys! GREAT STUFF.

This place is a total joke. Our family couldn't wait to get out of there. Oh yeah, the porter John's were disgusting too and there weren't nearly enough of them.

If you value your hard-earned money, take it elsewhere. We will NEVER be coming back. I rarely write reviews...when I do, it's either because I absolutely loved something or absolutely hated it. And "hated" isn't a strong enough word for my feelings towards this joke...

its a beautiful farm but their customer service made sure we will not return. Due to work and school scheduling we could not make it to the farm until 3:30. We figured since apple picking is available from 9-5 it would give us enough time to apple pick. We get there and the kids had fun playing on the tractors, watching the chickens, bunny, geese and goats. Plenty of great photo oppurtunities in the sunflower patch and pumpkin patch. The corn maze was cute for the kids. We start heading back to find the way to the apple orchard and realize it is at a different location. No worries, the sign says you must check in by 4:45 and it was only 4:35, plenty of time to drive the short distance to the second location. We get there at 4:40 and the young man at the entrance starts pulling the sign saying he's sorry but he cant let us in. We explain we were at the other location and didnt realize the apple picking was here however the sign says we have until 4:45 to check in, can he please let us in? He flatly states its 4:45 and he cant let us in. I check my phone and its 4:42! My husband tries to reason with him but he doesnt budge. Fine. Understandably the kids are upset, so we promise them yummy apple cider donuts and cider slushes. Head back to the first location and enjoy the donuts and slushes. Donuts were freshly made and delicious, the slushes a nice reconciliation prize. We decided to go into the store to buy some apples so we dont go home emptyhanded. As we are in the store with our masks on, an older woman who notices the children have slushes in their hands gruffly says "if they are going to drink those, go outside". I understand covid policies needing to be enforced, but a. they were not drinking it, just holding their cups and still had masks on and b. she could have said it nicely, being polite doesn't cost a thing. I normally overspend when I go into farmer markets but this time we left immediately. I wanted to like this place, i'm sure not all of their employees are rude, but after driving an hour to get there and being turned down even though we made it in time and then being treated without common courtesy, they've...

Ok. We tried the new pick-your-own apples experience, with full knowledge of the new pricing structure. We have been going to Terhune for many years but took a break over COVID. I read all of the negative reviews on here about the bag purchasing approach vs the weight approach and decided to try it.

The three of us bought two small $9 bags each, for a total of 6 small bags and $54. I have to admit, it felt pricey. Each bag fit about 6 large apples. So it's about $1.33 per apple. We decided to go this way rather than 3 large bags so we could keep the varieties separate.

The orchard was as usual very spotty. Some of the varieties were in full production, some were way done, but that's typical for a working orchard with different varieties. We definitely had to walk around a bit to find the varieties that were ready and not over picked. But there were certainly plenty of apples to fill our 6 small bags.

On the whole, the new experience was much like the old one. We definitely left with fewer apples then we would have otherwise.

However, what was different was both the anxiety at the end of the day about how many apples you picked and what you would have to pay, AND the huge line and usually about 20-30 minute wait to check out.

So, I'm not really super upset about the new pricing model. On the whole, it worked out ok.

If we had more people in our party, i can see how the $9 small bag minimum purchase per person might feel onerous. But remember that there's no parking fee and no admission otherwise. If you were trying to take advantage, you could conceivably drive up with (say) three cars full of people and spend hours walking around and eating your fill of apples, without that per-person minimum purchase to cover it.

After thinking about it, I'm ok with the new pricing design. $9 for 6 apples still feels pricey tho, so maybe they should reconsider the per-bag prices. However, it was a fun two hours for the three of us, and that's about what we would have spent on a movie. Shrug

The apples, as usual,...