High Country Orchards Palisade Peaches — Local services in Palisade

If I could give High Country Orchards a MINUS five stars, I would. The peaches we bought from them were terrible -- mealy, mushy, and fibrous -- and they cheated us on the number of peaches in our second box. When my 84 year old dad took a sampling of the peaches they sold us back to them to show them how horrible they were, they were completely unconcerned and didn't do a thing to make it right. Here's what happened. On Monday, we stopped at High Country Orchards asking for "seconds." A woman took us to the back and said "these seconds were firsts but now they're just getting to the point where they need to be eaten soon." She opened the box on top which was full to the brim of beautiful-looking peaches. We said "we'll take 2 boxes," and paid cash for two boxes. No receipt was offered or given. We learned an important lesson about looking inside each box before you leave the store because when we got home, there were less than half of the peaches in the second box as the first. OK, so we sucked that one up. We put the peaches in mom and dad's refrigerator. The next morning and throughout the next few days, we tried peach after peach. The majority were HORRIBLE, mealy, mushy, and fibrous -- inedible. I would say one out of 10 were edible, we composted the rest. Prior to figuring out how yucky they were, we shared them with half-dozen neighbors and had to go back to each one to apologize for the peaches. On Saturday, my dad took a few of the peaches back to High Country Orchards to show them. By the way, we understand mealy peaches happen because of something during the growing season, not because they are old, so there was something fundamentally wrong with the peaches. The woman at the counter took one look at the peaches my dad brought in and said "you didn't refrigerate them." My dad said he put them in the refrigerator within an hour of bringing them home. He told her about the "short" box. She didn't care. She asked if he had a receipt. He said we were never offered a receipt and paid cash. She said they "always give a receipt." She offered NOTHING in compensation, not even sympathy. In short, she was rude and did not offer even a single fresh, tasty peach to offset our costs, our travel time to the orchard (twice), or the fact that High Country Orchards basically conned us out of $50 for approximately 70 peaches of which only about 7 were edible. We paid $7 per good peach. Needless to say, we will NEVER go back to High Country Orchards for any reason because of their bad products and terrible...

While some places make me question whether they know what they're talking about or if they're just giving me scripted bs to impress me, High Country Orchards knows their stuff. They know how to treat guests, how to make wine, and how to give a well-rounded experience. Their orchards are so beautiful and they have a breath-taking look-out point that you have to see to believe. Their wines are constantly temp. controlled right until it enters your glass. They have other products made from their lavender and peaches. And OH THE PEACHES. They are delicious. divine. The prices at the orchard were very reasonable and didn't cause any sort of unease. Again, they know what they are doing and I trusted their judgement, suggestions, and expertise as they guided me through a fantastic day. Which, by the way, was when I proposed to...

I've never been disappointed by High Country Orchards. Since being a kid, I would go out of my way to grab them at Whole Foods. My mom wouldn't stop me either because as soon as they turned ripe, they'd get eaten. I think what makes them taste so good are the views and atmosphere where they grow. The Orchard also returns energy to the community with their...