R & A Orchards

I love going here with my kids. They are the perfect excuse… The orchards are picturesque and the apple house is perfect to try all sorts of tasty foods. There is an eating area where you can sit down to eat the fresh apple pies and they also offer a sample table. There is a caramel apple pie they make that I try to smuggle home for the holidays. We just bought a bunch of peaches to try to make jam. Prices were good and checkout was smooth. Also, try the frozen apple cider slushie. It’s always a hit.

My favorite of all the apple houses! The variety alone is worth the visit, not to mention the vegetables. Their fried pies and apple fritters put everyone else in the shade and the homemade Peach ice cream (when in season) is amazing! Friendly, family owned, you pick available, but not mandatory.

This is exactly the kind of orchard I was looking for. I don’t have kids so I don’t need a petting zoo or a zip line in the orchard. I don’t want to pick my own or wait in a long line just to get the chance to buy a pie. If you are like me and just want a large quantity of excellent produce to can and eat, this is the place for you. My favorite part is they have samples of the apples or peaches so you can choose your favorite varieties. It’s hard to choose though because they are all really good! And the people that work here are all really friendly and helpful. When I bought peaches, the lady behind the counter asked when I was going to be canning them and looked through all three bushels to make sure they were the proper ripeness and none were bruised. When she found a couple really ripe ones that needed to be eaten that day, she replaced them with firmer ones and then gave me the others for free. It was all I could do not to eat them in the car on the way home. They were so sweet and juicy! I highly recommend this orchard to anyone looking for great produce at a good price.

There is no doubt R&A Orchard is a great place to pick your own apples! Different apples have peak ripeness schedules, so for our visit Golden Delicious and Rome Beauties were our apple of choice. The Golden Delicious were enormous and a perfect sweetness. They were so large in fact that my grandson thought they were balls and tossed the first one or two he found. I must say for a two year old he has a good arm!
The tractor ride through the orchard was nice and the mountain views in the distance are gorgeous, but the best part about this orchard is the store. Great fried pies and outstanding slushies’. If you get nothing else here, get the peach slushie. They also have pretty good boiled peanuts, fresh vegetables and lots of house made preserves, jams and chow chows.
If you have kids, the only draw back to visiting this orchard during picking season is the lack of fun activities offered here as they are at other nearby orchards which include petting zoos, cow milkings, ziplining and other fun stuff!!! However, the same owner of this orchard is the twin sister to the owner of BJ Reece’s just 4 miles down the road. So by paying both a visit you are keeping it in the family :-)

This orchard has amazing peaches! I always walk in to smiling faces and helpful staff.
My daughter loves the cider slush and going to the restaurant for fried bologna sandwiches.
Apple season is coming around again.
The varieties they sell are all good. You can buy as little or as much as you can get home.
The fried pies here are pretty large and I took a large variety home. My family said they where good but preferred another orchards.
In early spring they sell vegetables and herbs for your garden.
I also come on for local fresh produce and my dad ‘s beloved hoop cheese. That woul be in the cooler.
You can also choose from many sauces, jams and local honey.
This is my local stop for a lot.
Now off to get my peaches in three varieties!

Stopped for ice cream and fruit. The peaches smelled good, looked fresh, but not enticing enough for us to buy. The ice cream was a little overpriced and the selection wasn’t great. And careful what the person in front of you orders– my Strawberry Cream Cheese ice cream tastes of mint from the Mint Chocolate Chip.

Visited this place based on the reviews and it was just okay. The orchard is very beautiful and the women at the bakery in the back were very sweet. They had apple pies, bread, apples, sweet potatoes, plenty of jam, jelly, honey, and boiled peanuts. The slushy was good but was a little too icy (you needed a spoon to «drink» it. The older male that rung us up was a pocketful of sunshine (sarcasm). Not sure what his deal was, but this place was nothing spectacular.

My friends and I went to R&A Orchards to pick Apples, and I love this farm! Besides their delicious apples, they also have a great farmer’s market and AMAZING CHOW CHOW. TRUST ME IF YOU COME HERE GET AS MUCH OF THEIR MILD CHOW CHOW AS YOU CAN POSSIBLY TAKE IN YOUR CAR. I don’t mean for the caps to yell but its more to show my excitement about their CHOW CHOW. It’s just cabbage and peppers but the way that they make it with just the right amount of spice and sweetness. Its great for and on everything. We eat it on top of everything (salad, burger, hot dogs, pizza, lol. I literally mean EVERYTHING!!!)
If you are ever in Elijay, you MUST come check out this place! I am obsessed; I just isn it wasn’t so far from Atlanta or I’d be here every weekend!

R & A has the BEST apple fritters and fried pies in the area. The peach ice cream is to die for! Their selection of fruits and vegetables year round is plentiful. I salivate just thinking of the joint.

Must try the apple cider slushies! Amazing! Recommend getting a spoon to eat them with!

We visited last Spring, and I am eager to return this Summer. The store had a lot of good local produce and apple products, to keep selling during the off-​season for apple harvest. And, there were, indeed, more apples for sale than we could purchase!
Recommended.

Was in Ellijay this past weekend for some relaxation and apple picking. Stopped at R&A Orchards to take my boys apple picking. Unfortunately, there picking season stops the first week of October but they readily recommended another orchard up the road.
I was very impressed that they were so nice about sending us to a competitor. After we went picking we returned to R&A to purchase pumpkins, apple cider, apple cider donuts and a few other apple flavored items. At check-​out they remembered us and asked how the other orchard was — because they wanted to make sure they were sending folks to a good place.
Great place to get apple related items and, if in season, my guess is a great place to go apple picking.

I visited this orchard for the first time recently, and it is now one of my favorites.
I went for their u-​pick, and really liked the setup. They have a couple of tractors that run almost continuously for a short ride back to the u-​pick area. There’s a tented area and also plenty of picnic tables in this area. A very friendly lady gives you a good introduction to the various apples that are available for picking. They have several different varieties, all in easy walking distance. All the trees were clearly marked
The quality of the apples was excellent. I got some Mutsus that are the biggest I’ve ever seen. They had some good quality Stayman Winesap and Red Delicious.
The store is really nice, with a large selection of apples, a bakery, and plenty of apple related products. It was nice to see a no-​sugar added apple pie that I tried. The pie was warm and fresh out of the oven and quite good.
I found some half bushels of small apples that they sold for $ 10. That’s a really good price for a load of apples, and the small ones are just as tasty as the larger ones. Those apples, plus the ones I picked myself, should keep me going for a while.
The orchard was also not overly crowded like some others I have been to. It was overall a nice, friendly place with good quality apples and apple products in the store.

So, I may come back and revisit this review since I didn’t go to this ORCHARD during prime apple season and I also didn’t go to this orchard for the apples. I went in to grab some fried pies. I guess this review is all about the fried pies then, eh?
There are lots of cutesier orchards — the ones that cater to parents who want to take a billion pictures of their kids next to pumpkins or fruit or the décor that implies that the goal is to make it into Southern Living at some point in time. This place isn’t that, although very pleasant and clean. I can say that this is one of the friendlier orchards I’ve been to and that alone will probably get me to return.
As for the fried pies. I am on a mission. I am still searching for my favorite fried pie place in the area. You know. The kind that make your toes curl and the car gets really quiet except for the occasional nom, nom, noms? Didn’t love theirs. I liked that the filling wasn’t overly sweet — and they did have blackberry which you don’t see that often. The crust was underwhelming and out of proportion to the amount of filling.

R&A Orchards is the place to go for all your apple needs in the Fall. The orchard’s store sells a wide variety of goods ranging from picked apples, breads, jams, syrups, and much more. The staff is extremely friendly, the store is clean, and everything is fairly priced. There’s a small restaurant located in the store and the food smelled really good. I would recommend stopping into the R&A Orchards if you’re in Ellijay.
If you want to pick your own apples, picking season is in September and the first two weeks of October. This information is NOT listed on their website, so I thought I’d include it in my review.

I stopped in on my way home from a weekend trip. The BBQ sandwich was great, the apple cider doughnut was acceptable. But one day after purchasing ½ peck worth of peaches, they’re all covered in mold.

This place is a must when making any trip up to Ellijay!
The people here are extremely friendly and embody the true spirit of southern hospitality. You’ll be greeted by a «Welcome! Come on in, y’all!» Everytime my family and I stop here we know we will be leaving with a muscadine slushy and a bag of hot boiled (bolled) peanuts.
Besides having a large selection of apples, there are many canned goods as well, including summer salad and a variety of relishes. There are jams and jellies galore from strawberry to moonshine flavored. And for all you carboholics, you just can’t leave without a fried pie or a dozen apple cider doughnuts. Always a pleasant experience when we go here. Fun for all the family!

This place was so clean, reasonably priced and had a great selection. The apples were fresh and the apple sticks tasted wonderful! You can try the apples they have in stock that day at the sampling table. It was a wonderful experience and I would definitely go back.

This is definitely the best apple house in Ellijay and the surrounding area. We even visit when it’s not apple season for the fried pies (also the best in the area!) and they also have a small lunch menu. I have to agree with the last review that it is always clean.
The best part is the truly genuine hospitality!