Flavor Fruit Farms offers food and fun
Heather Orlando
Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: Features
The smells of Flavor Fruit Farms greet visitors before their eyes even catch a glimpse of the quaint wooden cider mill that houses a full-service bakery and antique gift shop.
The smells of freshly baked doughnuts, apple pie and farm animals waft together forming an intense but pleasant aroma which draws visitors inside.
Before they step into the mill, they can browse fresh produce bins arranged on a charming patio bedecked with vines and picnic tables. Flavor Fruit Farms - located just off of US-12 - displays seasonal fruits and vegetables at reasonable and tempting prices.
Inside the building candles with scents from "Key Lime Pie" to "Sweet Baked Potato," handcrafted signs saying "Home Sweet Home" and "Gone Fishin'" adorn shelves on all sides of the room.
Interesting variations of homemade salsa and freshly made tortilla chips spice up a wooden table in the back corner of the room. Fresh apples abound everywhere.
All the homemade items make the place smell like a grandma's kitchen.
Lotions, fresh lye soaps and adorable stuffed animals rest in wicker baskets, all waiting for a family to pick them up and take them to a home with a white picket fence.
After pursuing the gift shop, the bakery beckons. This room introduces the owners of this unique orchard since 1946-the Meckley family.
The entire family helps out in their bakery, some taking orders and others making the delicacies patrons travel miles to purchase.
Apple fritters, glazed doughnuts, chocolate éclairs, banana cream pies and many other sugar-filled treats dare visitors, through their display case, to take a bite.
Senior Christine Brandt says she comes to Flavor Fruit Farms as much as she can.
"I love the apple fritters," she said.
Tom Henke travels twenty miles from Homer to consume the "world famous" apple cider made in their mill.
"It's delicious," Henke said. "I could drink it all day."
The next room houses a gourmet restaurant, with salads, sandwiches and other menu items, most of which contain apples.
They host a corn maze annually, and this year is allowing a local school to determine the design, said Ray Meckley, the patriarch of the Meckley family.
When you go:
Flavor Fruit Farms is located a half mile north of US-12 at 11025 S. Jackson Road.
Corn Maze:
Open Saturdays 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., weather permitting
Daily attractions:
- Hay jump
- Tractor-pulled wagon rides
- Pumpkin patch
The smells of freshly baked doughnuts, apple pie and farm animals waft together forming an intense but pleasant aroma which draws visitors inside.
Before they step into the mill, they can browse fresh produce bins arranged on a charming patio bedecked with vines and picnic tables. Flavor Fruit Farms - located just off of US-12 - displays seasonal fruits and vegetables at reasonable and tempting prices.
Inside the building candles with scents from "Key Lime Pie" to "Sweet Baked Potato," handcrafted signs saying "Home Sweet Home" and "Gone Fishin'" adorn shelves on all sides of the room.
Interesting variations of homemade salsa and freshly made tortilla chips spice up a wooden table in the back corner of the room. Fresh apples abound everywhere.
All the homemade items make the place smell like a grandma's kitchen.
Lotions, fresh lye soaps and adorable stuffed animals rest in wicker baskets, all waiting for a family to pick them up and take them to a home with a white picket fence.
After pursuing the gift shop, the bakery beckons. This room introduces the owners of this unique orchard since 1946-the Meckley family.
The entire family helps out in their bakery, some taking orders and others making the delicacies patrons travel miles to purchase.
Apple fritters, glazed doughnuts, chocolate éclairs, banana cream pies and many other sugar-filled treats dare visitors, through their display case, to take a bite.
Senior Christine Brandt says she comes to Flavor Fruit Farms as much as she can.
"I love the apple fritters," she said.
Tom Henke travels twenty miles from Homer to consume the "world famous" apple cider made in their mill.
"It's delicious," Henke said. "I could drink it all day."
The next room houses a gourmet restaurant, with salads, sandwiches and other menu items, most of which contain apples.
They host a corn maze annually, and this year is allowing a local school to determine the design, said Ray Meckley, the patriarch of the Meckley family.
When you go:
Flavor Fruit Farms is located a half mile north of US-12 at 11025 S. Jackson Road.
Corn Maze:
Open Saturdays 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., weather permitting
Daily attractions:
- Hay jump
- Tractor-pulled wagon rides
- Pumpkin patch
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