Since opening Royal Oak Farm Fruit Orchard in Harvard in August, Peter Bianchini and his wife, Gloria, have watched as hundreds of apple pickers have found their way to their 70-acre apple orchard northwest of Chicago (15908 Hebron Rd., Harvard; 815-648-4141).
But visitors are finding more than apples. The 120-acre farm grows other fruits, and also houses a bakery, gift shop, chocolate factory and restaurant. And a 2 1/2-acre pumpkin patch is ready for Halloween (pumpkins cost $1.25 to $6 apiece).
“When we planned this, we wanted it to be more than just a place for people to come and buy apples,” Bianchini said. “We wanted them to come and make a family outing of it.”
But apples are its core. Royal Oak grows more than 25 varieties on 10,000 trees. Visitors can find the traditional Red Delicious and Granny Smith as well as specialties such as Senshu apples. The cost of picking your own apples is $22 per bushel (about 100 apples) or $12 for a half-bushel; picked apples cost $24 a bushel, $13 for a half-bushel.
“You can pick up yellow, red, blush and in-between apples,” Bianchini said. “We have a good variety for baking and eating.”
More than 300 peach trees and bushes of blackberries, raspberries and blueberries were available for picking earlier in the season. “We wanted to develop a market with the earlier product so people get used to coming here,” Bianchini said.
Royal Oak is open 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays; it’s closed Sundays. It closes in mid-November and reopens in August.