Apple of My Eye Farm & Orchard — Attraction in Platte City

I HATE to make this review, and I've sat on it for a few days before making it. I try to do only positive things, but I think it needs to be said. It was quite a bit more expensive for my family of 4 than what it was under the previous owners, and I don't think it was worth the price. Nothing against the new owners, they were kind and were open to knowing what could make it better so I hope they take this as constructive criticism. The store was missing a lot of things they previously had, and food prices at their diner place seemed higher too, we sadly couldn't afford to eat there this year. Entrance fee is $25/ car up to I think 5 people, which is ok, still a little more than what we used to pay (I expected a little bit of increase and was ok with that). Entrance includes a hay ride; you get in to trouble if you do what we did and we did get train rides ($20 extra for 4 people), slides for my two kids and husband ($15 extra), a bag of feed for each of my kids ($2 extra), and somehow it came up to over $75. I didn't want to complain or question it, but that seemed A LOT more than what I had budgeted for and the math wasn't mathing (I figured $62+ 10% tax would be roughly a little less than $70). Previous years we spent just a tiny bit more than that on food, apple picking, entry, feed for the chickens, one train ride each (used to be $1) and a couple of slides for my kids (used to be $2 each) which is what I had budgeted for. My fault for not looking more closely at the prices, I'll take the blame for that. My husband and son only rode the train once (my daughter and I twice, which to me was not worth $20 extra, even though the train conductor is the best) and I made my kids do the slide at least 3 times (they were over it after the 2nd time) to get their money's worth out of the slide. I miss being able to pay per ride on the train, $5 seems a lot for realistically 1 ride. It's still a great place, it's just priced us out of being able to go again. If you have $100+ to drop on a family outing, this is an amazing place and I recommend it, but if you don't, I would skip it. They have done some improvements to the property, which is nice, but they do need to go back to the dirt for the pedal cars. They put in gravel and the tires don't grip anymore. We had to try to push our kids, and they still didn't move well. Others were having problems with it too. Again, it's an awesome little place if you have the funds to do it, we used to go twice a year, and I honestly (sadly) don't think we will...

BEWARE! This is NO Longer the warm, inviting, down to earth, family friendly, Aldridge! The new ownership seems to be stripping all the goodness of this place and replacing it with greed.

When you first get out of your car, you are immediately imposed with a $25 entrance fee. Then they obnoxiously start hounding you to by activities by saying, Train or Slide, Train or Slide; with Zero friendliness.

All the free range Wayndotte chickens are gone. Now they have a few chickens pinned up and honestly looks like they are not being taking care of very good.

The worst part of our experience was at their cafe. We were hesitant to eat there because the sandwiches were extremely overpriced, but never the less, we decided to eat. For drinks, we purchased two lemonades for our children, and for us two adults we asked for a cup of water. The girls working said we must purchase the bottled water for $2.50 each, so we did. Our bill was $58 for 2 adults and 2 children; not exactly cheap. We drank our waters and needed more, so we used one of the cups we purchased the lemonade in and asked the girl if we could get water in it. She said no, we would have to purchase another bottle of water and was Extremely rude! We complained to her that she was being ridiculous, and she hesitantly filled up one of our cups.

We have been visiting this place for 10 years! NOW, THIS PLACE IS ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. WE WILL NEVER RETURN UNDER THIS...

We’ve partnered with this farm for our annual Fall Fest for several years now, and while things always shift with new ownership, I have to say—we absolutely LOVED the improvements made this year.

From an event perspective, the updates are fantastic. The barn feels more open and spacious, the grounds are beautifully cleaned up, the parking lot is much improved, and they’ve added thoughtful safety measures (like height checks for the slide and moving the s’mores firepit to a safer spot). The new owners have clearly poured their hearts into making this venue even better, and it shows. They’re not only incredibly kind but also deeply dedicated to creating a safe, welcoming space for families.

On a more personal note, as a mom of two boys, I couldn’t have been happier. There were so many activities for them to enjoy, and I felt completely comfortable letting them run and explore. They had an absolute blast!

And as a fun bonus—my husband was thrilled to see Gatorade cans in the store cooler (a thoughtful move by the owners to cut back on plastic).

Overall, this farm is an amazing venue for events and a wonderful place for families to spend time together. We’re so grateful for the improvements and excited to keep coming back...