Rittman Orchards — Local services in Rittman

I have now had 3 bad encounters with the owners. I grew up going to Rittman Orchards and had fond memories before we moved back here 5 years ago. First, the layout, buildings, apples, and younger workers are great. I also like to support local businesses and buy fresh fruit and veggies. My experience with the owners is that they are mostly grumpy, rude and not very knowledgeable (despite his education). There are no public restrooms except for a porta john. None of the fruit is organic, so wash it well. The first bad encounter happened when we went for a hayride in the fall of 2014. The owner hopped on a soapbox and preached to the families, "You can tell Al Gore and other hooligans in Washington that this Global Warming thing is a bunch of nonsense! We lost plenty of stone fruit trees this past winter due to the cold temperatures". My first thoughts were, wow this farmer has no clue what climate change is, he's getting mixing politics and business, he's passing around false information about Global Warming and worst of all he's producing food I eat. I'm going to do something about that last one.

The second negative encounter occurred with the wife in the store. I asked if there were any jams that didn't have added sugar, pectin or fruit juice. She smirks and says, "what people don't understand is that those sugars come from fruit and they aren't bad for you". She was referring to pectin and fruit juice, which are both much higher in sugars (albeit natural sugar) than they are fruit. I get it, she was talking to me in the plural 2nd person... clever.

Lastly, tonight she made my 5 year old daughter cry by telling her she had to pick-up the little stuffed animals that she had gotten out of the bin. My daughter and son were actively playing with them at the time. Seriously, don't put out stuffed animals in a bin if you don't want kids to play with them. Why don't you wait to see if they or their parents pick them up before you make a kindergartener cry.

Three strikes and you're out. I'll take my kids to Bauman orchards...

My husband has recently discovered this place and has been buying apples and delicious pies there all summer. He has been wanting to take me there to see it telling me that it is an amazing place. We went yesterday to buy a pie and check out Bent Ladder. While still outside we encountered an angry man who treated us as if we were trespassing. Once inside to buy baked goods the woman working there was extremely rude. We felt unwelcome and decided to skip going to the Bent Ladder and just left. We were going to order our Thanksgiving pies there but will take our business to someplace that appreciates it.

• There’s never a good reason to show anger to your customers which you’re doing even now in your response. Please communicate better through your signage, which only references drop off hours and doesn’t say employees only or no trespassing. It’s confusing and we didn’t know. We didn’t do it deliberately, we’re old and were taught to respect people and their property. The woman in the store didn’t treat us much better and I see other reviewers saying they had the same...

Full disclosure: I'm a fruit snob. I've visited orchards all through Ohio in search of the best fruit, and whaddya know? The best wasn't that far from home after all.

I wish I could tell you what makes Rittman produce so much better than the competition. But it IS better, to the extent that I find myself spoiled for other sources. Sure, there's orchards closer to my house. But whenever I think I might save the gas, I instantly think about how disappointed I'll be not to have the "real deal" from Rittman. In the end, I make the trip every time.

The extra gas is justified because Rittman's prices are better than a lot of the orchards out there. Selection is better, too. Most orchards offer the same handful of apple varieties, for instance. Rittman has dozens upon dozens. It's like that for everything: peaches, berries, melons. There's always something new, especially at harveat time.

Add to all this the bakery, the homey marketplace, the courteous and knowledgeable service, and the soon-to-open winery, and this is unquestionably the place to be for good food. Highest...