Ort Farms — Attraction in Washington Township

This farm was highly recommended by a friend who went with her kids during the week. I am writing about my weekend experience.

The farm was very overcrowded. Nobody was practicing social distancing or wearing masks despite the many signs reminding people to do so. Staff was lax about mask wearing within 6 feet of others as well.

We entered the farm by the farm stand and purchased tickets for the sunflower trail. The girls we bought tickets from told us to head across the street for pony rides, the Apple cannon, and the train - which were all to be paid for separately. My kids were very excited and we headed there and waited on line for the pony ride, watching other children ride. When it was our turn they told us that the activities today were for participants or a birthday party only. This was not indicated anywhere on the website for today and the farm staff did not seem to all be aware of this as we were told to go there if we want to pay for a pony ride. My kids were very upset. We took the (very bumpy) hay ride to the sunflower trail - which unfortunately has been mostly destroyed due to a recent storm (obviously not the farm’s fault). The only thing left to do was for my kids to ask to play on the play structures (which I wouldn’t let them do due to a ton of kids playing - none of which were wearing masks). I stopped at the farm stand hoping to buy some things before heading home but again it was overcrowded with no social distancing so I couldn’t even explore. We left very disappointed having spent about $40 to do literally nothing. We will not be coming back.

Another point - I am an audiologist. I went to check out the Apple cannon since that was the #1 thing my son wanted to do. Besides being unavailable due to the party, the cannon is definitely loud enough to cause hearing damage with just one shot. I did not have ear plugs with me and would not have let my kids do it even if it was available for them. If you plan on doing this activity, bring hearing protection.

Very...

I think we may have found our new go-to fall farm! I've been living in Jersey City for three years now, which means this is our third fall farm. The first was not quite enough - apple picking was abundant but pumpkin picking and doughnut game was not strong. The second one was too much - we ended up paying about $30 each for a bunch of fall activities that we didn't care to partake in, but the pumpkin selection was A++. This one was just right.

We paid for the base ticket, which includes admission, corn maze, and hay rides to the pumpkin patch. Pumpkins and apple picking was an additional cost - 79 cents per pound for pumpkins and $12 per 1/2 bag of apples. They also had apple cider doughnuts and cider for sale. You can pay extra for a punch card or a full access pass for the other fall activities across the street from the store.

The corn maze was a real proper corn maze. It was the only corn maze that I've been to where my husband could not see over the corn. They also roped off the sides, so you couldn't cheat and just walk through the corn. We spent a solid 30 minutes in the maze!

The pumpkins were legitimately still on the vine and there was a very decent selection of big and small pumpkins. For more novel pumpkins, you got them from the store.

Apples were still very much available in early October and we were able to do that in addition to the pumpkin picking. All in all, Ort had everything that we had wanted and the price was right.

I do recommend going early. We arrived at 10am and were in the 3rd row of parking. By the time we walked back to the car to drop off our pumpkins around 11:30am, the lot was pretty much all full and there was a long...

Be careful about the stuff on sale.

We had been fortunate enough to buy a pie here at the Morris farm market. It was delicious

We drove almost 40 minutes to go to their farm to buy pies.

We noticed they had some 50% off. We grabbed them quickly regretted it.

When we got home they both tasted odd. And then I noticed both had mold on. I contacted the farm and they agreed to replace it. Another 40minute drive. But I thought hey the pie was worth it.

When my husband got there they gave him the run around instead of replacing pies with fresh ones they wanted to replace with 50% off ones. Okay fair. But they didn't have any left and to be honest if their original 50% off ones had mold I wasn't going to trust another reduced pie. They ended up replacing ONE pie..and we had to pay full price for the second fresh one. So we were out over 2hours of our time. And although exchange wise 2 50% off pies were replaced with a 100% priced pie. I feel the grossnessnof the situation should have replaced both pies with fresh ones. So I guess customer service didn't go above and beyond.

I'll buy pies from them again at the farmers market if they come close but I'll never make the 40 minute drive again. Nor would I really recommend them due to the fuss at the store with the exchange (to clarify we bought them 6pm that evening and they had mold on by the time we got home. The pictures featured are from 9am next morning)

I get selling food cheaper to be eaten quickly but there's nothing right about selling a pie with mold already growing. I wish they had replaced both pies with fresh ones for our extreme travel times and the fact it was...