Liberty Apple Orchard
No "Field Access" or parking fee. Pay only for what you pick at our family orchard!
From Edwardsville: Corner of Troy Rd. and Goshen (near Home Depot)
Go east on Goshen Road approximately four miles, turn right on Staunton Rd., cross the Bike Trail, turn left on Kuhn Station Rd. We are down the road about 1/4 mile on the right. Or type in Liberty Apple Orchard in Google Maps!
From St. Louis via I-55
Take Exit 23, travel east on Route 143 (1/4 mile), right on Staunton Rd. for about a mile. At the "T" with Goshen Rd., turn left and then take the first right back onto Staunton Rd. Cross the Bike Trail, turn left of Kuhn Station Rd. We are down the road about 1/4 mile on the right.
Lugene and I would like to say “thank you” to the many friends who returned to the orchard this season and to the many, many new guests who found us. Our eleventh season was blessed with our most bountiful crop of apples, and we are so happy that you took a bit of time away from your busy day to help us bring in the harvest!
We had 19 varieties of apples this season and nearly everyone was plentiful and beautiful, especially Blondee, McIntosh, Jonathan, Empire, Cortland, Liberty, Ultra Gold, Braeburn, CandyCrisp, Enterprise, Granny Smith and Goldrush. Many guests enjoyed some of our new varieties this year from the top-graft trees: Honeycrisp, Evercrisp and Ludacrisp. We hope to have more on the top-graft trees next year.
One of the highlights for us this year was the return of the elementary public-school children on field trips. Kindergarten classes from all five Edwardsville schools came out along with many others from surrounding schools and preschools. Including the Edwardsville CEO high school seniors, over 1075 students joined us on field trips. The Trinity Lutheran and the St. Boniface family outings at the orchard were great fun.
The benefit for American Cancer Society on September 16 was very successful. The children loved the Troy firetruck, face painting, balloon tent, foam truck and many other lively activities. Thank you to all who came out to show their support for this worthy cause.
We greatly appreciate the dedication and hard work of the 18 high school, college and retired folks who helped maintain the orchard and assisted guests in finding and carrying apples. Your kind words of recognition for these employees are greatly appreciated.
We expanded our partnership with Operation Food Search, a non-profit foodbank who brought volunteers four times to pick apples for those in need. We also continued to provide apples to Metro-East and St. Louis area food pantries through Feeding America. The Glen/Ed and Maryville pantries were served directly from the orchard throughout the season. We were fortunate to be able to donate over 16,500 pounds.
Now, the angle of the evening sun through the golden rows of trees signals the close of the autumn season. The late autumn winds have swept away our guests, but not the memories of laughter in the orchard, children chattering among the trees in apple jumpers and flannel shirts, family photos on the pony cart, and the crunch of a crisp apple in the autumn sun.
Looking forward to seeing you next year!
“Once there was an apple seed planted in the ground,
Down came the raindrops falling all around,
Out came the big sun as bright as bright could be,
And the tiny apple seed grew up to be an apple tree”
Copyright 2013. Liberty Apple Orchard. All rights reserved.
A. Lincoln, Gettysburg Address