Lyman Orchards Pick Your Own — Local services in Middlefield

This place was not so great. We drove an hour to get here thinking it would be the elite strawberry picking experience. The parking situation is crappy (no one knows how to park). Then you walk to the booth to purchase your container of choice. We chose to purchase two quarts.

Once you purchase you walk down the pathway to the strawberry picking area which is a little ways down a small hill. The area looks big however the whole thing was a mess.

You are supposed to pick in the rows in between the cones but there were no employees manning the area so people were picking wherever. This is a mess because you are constantly trying to maneuver out of the way to go up and down the rows.

The strawberries looked AWFUL to be honest. Each row was so messy with smashed strawberries all over the place, spiders (daddy long legs mostly) hiding in the strawberry bushes. Rotten strawberries and not ready to pick ones. We had so much trouble finding good strawberries, it was so frustrating. We eventually filled our containers but vowed to never go back.

The weekend prior we visited Jones Farm in Shelton which was MILES better. I’m not usually a fan of Jones but they are so much more organized there and their strawberries look and taste way better. Plus their selection was huge and they have plenty of employees cleaning up and assigning you a specific row. The issue with Lyman is that everything is a walk in (no reservations) so you get too many people and there aren’t any employees manning the field.

Do yourself a favor a choose a...

We’ve come to Lyman’s to pick apples, peaches and blueberries for a couple of years and always had a good experience, but strawberry picking today (mid-June) was very disappointing. We went on a Saturday morning around 11AM and had to wait about 15 minutes to buy our tray, which was fine. However, because there were so many people (there were probably about a 100 people on the field) it was literally slim pickings. We paid $55, planned to pick a tray of 14 pounds, but all of the available rows were terrible. There were barely any nice berries left! They were almost all eaten, rotting, still green or super small. After 30 minutes of picking with three people, we had only filled maybe a third of our tray with sad looking berries. There were other rows on the field that were off limits because they were needed for the next day, which sucked because those did have nicer berries. We just weren’t allowed to pick them, even though we paid full price. Overall, they were really overcrowded and it was a disappointing harvest. It’s the first time this happened here, but I don’t think I’ll come strawberry picking again. If you do want to come strawberry picking, I would advise arriving soon after they open, or coming...

August 29 12 pm pear 🍐 pick your own stand. I have been coming to this pick your own for 10 years since my kid was 5 years old. I had a little purse 👜 with by phone, Wallet, and water bottle. There were 2 ladies one old and one middle age. The old one told me to leave my purse in the car after I payed and walking into the picking field. They said it’s their company policy. Yes policy not to bring own bags, but not a personal purse. NEVER have I been asked this before. The older one said she worked for Lyman for 50 years (does she own the place? Does not look like it if u know what I mean), maybe it’s time for her to go. She is a legal liability for the company with her nasty unprofessional behavior and erroneous interpretation of the rules. We asked for refund for the large pear bag and medium size white peach. She did not care and was happy to ruin our day. We NEVER picked pears or white peaches. After we went to pick apples gala and yellow peaches at 2 different stands and no one even questioned me. This shows that she should never speak to people or represent Lyman orchards. She does not possess any human decency. high school kids at the other stands have...