MJ Ranch and Orchard

We were invited to come pick apples and pears by a friend that knows the owner. The owner is the most amazing person I have ever met #lifegoals.
Someone recently raided the orchard so there weren’t as many pears and apples as there usually is but we were able to find a few trees that had bunches of ripe pears ready for the picking. I loved the beautiful mountain backdrop and the hospitality. The drive was also very beautiful. I would definitely recommend coming if you have an opportunity.

We had a great day today at MJ Ranch. We much prefer this ranch to the others, the trees are spread out and parking was easy. The apples are grown without pesticides and with well water, and they are delicious. The porta potty was very clean, and there are two picnic tables. Many trees had nice shade so we just sat under the trees for a break. The cost is $ 10 per bag. We’ll be back next year.

I 100% prefer this place for apple AND pear picking over that «other» apple picking place. I will do a comparison for you.
Parking is great and you enter in and the happy farmer greets you with information and apples and pears and how to tell the difference between each one. Red & gold delicious, winesaps, Jonathons etc. Pears too. Bartlett, D’Anjou. All organic and pesticide free. As opposed to the other that just takes your money.
Then the farmer gave us our 3 rules. 1. Taste the fruit before you pick the tree. If you don’t like it, drop it. 2. I don’t remember 2. 3. Have fun! And we did. We had picking devices to reach the tops of the trees unlike the other place where my 3 year old could conceivably reach the top of the shrubs they call trees.
The fruit was delicious and the experience felt more «real» rather than commercial.

The guys were amazing with helping us out! They told us where to look for what apples and explained each kind to us. They even showed us how to properly pull an apple off the trees. They also have water at the tent usually for sale.
It was 10 bucks for half a peck, and they encouraged you to take a bite of the apples. They don’t use any pesticides on the trees and it’s totally safe to eat them right off the tree. But make sure you check them really closely and at least wipe them off on your pants at least.
Wear comfy shoes, a hat and some shades. Also wear sunscreen!

This place had an awesome selection! They don’t use pesticides, so you really have to check your fruit. I would rather check my fruit than eat chemicals! The staff was very helpful, they explained the different types of apples, and showed you were the specific trees were. They have trees from the original planting a of apple trees in Julian. They are very kid friendly, and have apple picking sticks, so you can reach the apples at the top! This was a fantastic ranch I was so happy to find it! Love that it’s pesticide free, no chemicals for us!

This place is a little pricey and takes a little more effort to make sure that your apples aren’t compromised by some moth that lives out there, but they’re all natural with no chemical pesticides. They had tons of different types of apples, I would list them considering that the friendly guys that work there took like 10 minutes of their time to tell me each one, where they’re at and everything about them from taste, texture, and what they’re good for, but it was all too much to remember, so I just made sure I got them all. Now they were ten dollars a bag and you did have to inspect each one, so I send 4 kids out with a bag each telling them to pack it full and I ended up with at least 40 lbs of fresh, natural, and toxin free apples. Now I just got to figure out what I’m going to do with them.

No longer a pickable orchard per their website.

First time apple picking in Oct. 08! Went to this orchard and got two bags because I was bringing back apples for friends. Stupid me gets a tetanus shot the day before going (hey, I had to update my tetanus, don’t roll your eyes either!) so I was kinda grumpy when we got there and saw tons of people. Once you parked and got into the orchard, it was really quiet and nice. I guess there were different varieties to choose from but they all looked the same to me. We got two bags of apples and I gave away probably half of them and with the rest was making apple crisp like my life depended on it. Yes, I ate a few apples right off the tree. Pesiticides, smeshiticides!
Check this place out during the month of October for great apple picking!

I found the MJ Ranch and Orchard on the Julian website under apple picking and my friends and I decided to go pick some apples before the end of the picking season. They provide 1 peck bags (roughly about ten pounds) for your fruit at $ 10.00 a bag with no charge for entering or picking in the orchard. They seemed really friendly and explained what fruit we would find. The selection included barlett pears, Jonathon apples, red delicious, and golden apples. The size of the bag was a lot smaller than I expected, but I suppose it held 10 lbs of fruit. The apples are organic, so they also told us to eat as many apples as we wanted while we were picking. The problem w/​not using pesticides is that insects also eat as many apples as they want, which makes is challenging to find food apples. We probably shouldn’t have waited until the end of the apple picking season to go but we got 4 bags worth of apples to take home after about 2 hours. They won’t let you climb the trees, but they can’t say you can’t climb on your friend’s shoulders and pick the fruit. I definitely have a better appreciation for apple picking and will think twice before complaining about trying to pick good apples at the store!