Top Of Texas Farms

Reviews

• Shop & Market Review ★★★★½ Visited May 14, 2015

  Interesting Place If You Learn About How They Grow The Apples

  I was completely surprised to discover an apple orchard in this part of the country! When we arrived, we saw rows of small trees stretching across the fields and a nice little building where visitors could browse items for sale. The staff welcomed us and told us we were free to wander through the orchard and take as many pictures as we wanted.
  
  We headed out back to explore the fields and came across one of the workers who prunes the trees. Without us even asking, he began giving us an impromptu tour and explaining how the orchard operates. He told us how the trees are created by grafting apple trees onto root systems from other types of trees, helping them require less water and survive the Texas climate.
  
  He also explained how they thin out the fruit throughout the growing season. They remove apples damaged by hail or birds, along with some perfectly good fruit, because the trees are small and can't support too many apples without becoming depleted. The apples grown here are smaller than the ones you'd typically find in a grocery store, but they're well suited for making preserves, juicing, and baking.
  
  As we walked around, he shared some of the history behind the orchard and how it came to be located here. He also talked about the owners and the challenges the bank faced when figuring out how to finance the operation, since there weren't other orchards like it to use as a comparison. He was incredibly informative, and I found the whole conversation fascinating. What started as a quick stop turned into an unexpectedly interesting learning experience.
  
  Overall, this was a great unplanned stop on our trip. It's an interesting place to visit for both adults and kids, and the staff was very friendly. The worker who gave us the tour was especially knowledgeable, and I think the orchard would benefit from having him offer informal tours on a regular basis.
  
  If you're making the long drive through North Texas, this is a fun place to stop, stretch your legs, take some pictures, and learn something you probably didn't expect to discover along the way.

  — Paul