The Collegian

Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: Down the Hill

Meckley's Flavor Fruit Farm offers a host of holiday activity, providing students with the perfect campus escape this fall.

Rachelle Gehringer sits under a white tent next to her camera. She has a bell ready and waits for Lea, a 15-week old African lion, to come out of her cage and be placed on a toddler's lap, while a milk bottle attached to the lion is given to the father.

"Ready?" Gehringer asks.

The toddler stares at the 25 pound cat in his lap. Gehringer rings the bell, and snaps the photo as soon as the toddler's looks up.

Gehringer and Premier Animal Attractions Inc. have been coming back to Meckley's Flavor Fruit Farm for the past three years, providing its visitors with the chance to see exotic animals up close.

Since its conception in 1956, the farm has been providing local families with fresh apple cider, doughnuts and entertainment. And for college students seeking to get outside before the winter months, Flavor Fruit Farm provides many options.

Each weekend from mid-September towards the end of October Flavor Fruit Farm hosts its fall festival - complete with hay rides, cider tours, a petting zoo, exotic chickens, corn maze, lounge singers and on occasion, elephant rides.

"On the weekends you can barely park here," said Somerset, Mich. Resident, Jennifer Hutchinson. Hutchinson frequents Flavor Fruit Farm with her family.

"The corn maze is the best," said Jennifer's son, Micah Hutchinson, while feeding two goats and a pig some animal feed from the onsite general store he bought for 50 cents.

Jennifer Hutchinson said she's impressed by everything the farm has to offer, from fresh doughnuts baked in its own bakery and kettle corn popped and sampled above the general store to the animals that entertain her children.

The farm is a safe bet, she said.

During the weekends, visitors can watch cider being crushed from apples, cook hot dogs for $2 or go out and pick their own apples from the orchard.

Steve Meckley, the current owner of the family-run business, is happy how his farm is running in a tight economy, and while he said there hasn't been any dramatic increase in business, there hasn't been any loss, either.

"People are deciding on local entertainment now, they just don't have the money to go up north or far away for the weekend," Meckley said.

Every weekend Meckley crushes apples for cider in preparation for winter - when Meckley's Flavor Fruit Farm closes on Christmas day. Meckley said he crushes and freezes up to a thousand gallons of apple cider so when he reopens on Memorial Day Weekend, cider is ready to be sold when customers first return.

Christ Stefanoni came to Meckley's Flavor Fruit Farm with her daughter and daughter's fiancé, Jenna Stefanoni and Barry Gomall, to scout a Frank Sinatra singer for their wedding.

Jenna Stefanoni was impressed with her first visit and said she'd like to come back when she's not on the hunt for wedding singers. Christ Stefanoni loved it.

"Got some baked goods and some cider, and we're happy," Christ said.

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