Stone Tavern Orchards — Attraction in Upper Freehold Township

Had an absolutely horribly experience, would leave a zero star if I could. We went to apple picking my husband, 3 year old son, and I. Now this place didn’t have any signs or directors that stated what to do. As being the first time there we were confused. I went to the tractors and asked how we could apple pick. The man told me the apples are wiped out. The past 2 weekends, the crowds got them all, and there was only one type of apple to pick left. I asked how do we get to the fields, he said you could take the tractor, and I said what if we don’t want to since my son was in the stroller. He said that’s ok and gave me directors where to walk, as we started to walk young worker girls on the farm started to scream at us that we couldn’t apple picky unless we paid for a ticket for the tractor. Three of them screamed so load it was Embarrassing. We were practically up the hill where the apple picking was and girls were screaming at us. I asked them if there was an adult we could talk to since I got directions from the tractor guy. At this point we all felt uncomfortable and wanted to leave. We started to walk to our car and the owner of the farm came over to me. He wasn’t the nicest guy, he told me one of his workers would never tell me that, but he did. We left with an awe full experience that because of the owners reaction I would never want to give him any of my business. Don’t waste your time...

This place is a slice of heaven. So big, with large, beautiful grounds filled with ponds and fields of flowers next to the the orchards. You pay 8 dollars (maybe 10?) to access the orchards, but it includes a ten minute insanely beautiful hayride that I can't recommend enough. Its a leisurely ride through actual heaven, riding two feet next to fields of corn and pumpkins, sunflowers, and turtle filled ponds with wildflowers growing along them. Everyone working there is so nice and clearly so passionate about this place. The Golden Delicious apples in particular were abundant and one of the best apples I've ever tasted. I cut my own flowers in a quiet peaceful flower field. I love it here so much, oh my god lol. There is also a woman selling stunning yarn work for very fair prices (table runners and place mats). Absolutely go here this fall, it's a refreshing pace from some of the other local farms that charge a lot more and seem to not really care about the customer experience (like charging you to even get into the market, this place luckily...

My wife wanted to get some fresh apples to make pies, sauce, and cakes and since we were kinda in the area we figured we'd give the Stone Tavern a shot. Here's how it went:

So the place is in the middle of nowhere so expect a nice ride through the country. It was easy to find and we had no problem finding a place to park.

The first thing we noticed was the lack of apple trees, especially for an orchard. So we asked where the apple picking section was. So in order to pick apples you have to take a hay ride at $8 per person above 12, 12 and under is $4. Then you spend your valuable time riding around to wherever those apple trees are. Then you pick your apples and wait for everyone else to finish picking their apples and probably taking pictures and making TicToks. Eventually you'll get a ride back to the register where you'll pay $2.29 per pound.

If that's what you want, great. We chose to go out for ice cream and buy our 15 pounds of apples at Shop Rite for $.99 a pound. $20 vs $50, plus we had ice cream, which was awesome.

Choose...