Charlton Orchards Farm and Winery

We went here because Brookfield orchards was closed for PYO. The farm seemed very overwhelmed by the amount of people that were in attendance the day we went and was extremely understaffed. Pricing was typical for ½ bushel @ $ 20. Farm maintenance could be better — trees weren’t pruned well and lots and lots of undergrowth making it difficult to walk around. Also very little to no signage of where to go or what apples were. Also seemed like too over picked — we had a hard time filling a bag. Positives were good cider doughnuts and it seemed like they had a good selection of pumpkins (PYO) and gourds but we didn’t get any.

I’m here with my family right now and we are having a lot of fun right now. Great if you have a family or if you just enjoy a dun time. I’m glad this place is still around because it has been for sale for quite a while. And plus the little shop as you pull up is very nice unside. They make homemade cider.

I’m glad places like this still exist. This must have been what strawberry picking was like before the word «agrotainment» existed. On a beautiful Father’s day it wasn’t crowded and we had no trouble finding strawberries.
There are no rides and no clowns. It’s just a farm that lets you come by and pick things.

Ugh! The girl at the counter INSIDE the «shack» ringing items was plain rude! We saw a sign that said raspberry picking today. So when we paid for our overpriced $ 15 small bag of apples … We asked the nice young lady seated OUTside selling the apple bags if we could pick raspberries too. She said yes but we’d have to pay for that separately INSIDE the shack … When we went in the rude gal behind the counter said there was no raspberry picking today. We proceeded to tell her that there was a sign and we were told outside we could. She snotily picked up a piece of paper and said no where on that page said raspberry picking, so there was none. She had also just barked at the woman ahead of us who asked for hot apple fritters per a sign and the counter gal very rudely said there were none and the sign was wrong.
This orchard is run down and totally unmaintained. The grounds are atrocious … It looks like hordersville for junk metal items! The orchard itself is totally NOT walker friendly … Everything is over grown and hard to walk in! And I’m «athletically» inclined! It’s a hazard … Def not child friendly at all. The apples are small and looked to be the size of plums not hefty New England apples! The hour long drive from central CT was a waste of time and money. This place was dirty and run down … So much so that we opted to forget about the wine tasting … Just not a nice place – not maintained at all… I would give this orchard negative five stars if I could! It doesn’t warrant one star. Their website is very misleading … Even showing a nice tram for rides to the orchard … Which sits rusting on the side of the road, with other bits of rusting pipes and metals … Obviously the tram has sat unused for years. Also on the website is a pic of the «new» wine tasting building, of which the front is littered with JUNK. Definitely not a nice place to do apple picking. The worst part is… my husband and I each chose a few different apples to taste tonite. and the overpriced $ 15 worth of apples have NO flavor! They are terrible! SO disappointed in this place.
I wonder if the State of Massachusetts has health inspectors to ck. out places such as this, as .they do sell fresh baked goods, and meats and eggs, as well as the sadly disappointing overpriced apples. The building the items are sold in is dirty and unkept… matching the demeanor of the horrid cashier inside. Even the pics below are deceiving. the place doesn’t look like this! Wish I had taken photos! I didn’t realize I could post them here, or I would have. I’m just glad I didn’t invest in the wine.esp. in light of the other Unilocal review here…

My fiancé and I were here yesterday checking «go apple picking» off our ‘Things to Do While We’re Still in New England’ list. After much research (all my fiancé’s), we landed on Charlton.
Ambiance: Not great. I would not recommend this for families looking for a fun day of apple picking plus. There are other places that are more kid-​friendly, actually just more friendly in general. We were met with the most surly woman at the stand. We complimented her on the intoxicating smell of her pies and she barely acknowledged us. When we started walking into the orchard we passed piles of metal scraps which bespoke more of industrial ruin than peaceful orchards.
Apples: Delicious– we got two varieties (McIntosh and something small cherry-​like: amazing). Even this late in the season there were a ton of apples to pick. We went straight home and put the apples to work baking a pie and making applesauce — both came out incredible and we credit the apples.
Scenery: Once you got into the actual orchards it was beautiful. We loved being in the luscious trees and looking over the rolling hills ahead.
Prices: $ 20 for a ½ bushel you pick yourself. A bit much, but we go our money’s worth… arms be damned. $ 15 if you buy ½ a bushel already picked.
Bottom Line: Apples are amazing, everything else not so much.

Last night my husband and I finally got around to opening the bottle of Damson Plum wine I had bought on my visit to Charlton Orchards on June 24. (Yet another reason I was annoyed they insisted on overcharging me for strawberries: I was buying over $ 20 worth of other crap in their farm store at the time! WTF, people.)
Anyhow, my husband and I barely managed to choke down half the bottle, and we’re not the type of people who can’t finish a bottle of wine together if you know what I mean. We usually like plum wine, and although plum wine is generally on the sweet side, this particular bottle was so sweet we could barely drink it. We even tried mixing it with Pellegrino to make wine spritzers and it was still way too sweet. Honestly, I am not a picky wine drinker, but this stuff was gross. It tasted like kids’ cough medicine.
If you’re looking for locally produced fruit wines, I’d recommend taking a day trip to Nashoba Valley Winery in Bolton, MA.

this is a decent orchard reasonably close to boston. combined with the obadia mcintyre farm winery, and you could have a pretty nice day.
as far as orchards go, this is pretty good but not the best. i don’t know from apples, but they only have a few varieties here. they do, however, also have berries, pumpkins and veggies (though we were told not to pick the veggies).
i find most of these places to be comparable on price, though they all have something of a different method. here, it’s buy the bag and fill it with as many apples as you can. trust me, it’s more than you can possibly eat.
the winery is a nice addition. the tastings are about $ 7 or $ 8 but the wine is just so-​so. i do not like fruit wines. their non-​fruit offerings are too sweet for my taste. the chambourcin is an interesting light red best served chilled. i picked up a couple bottles of that. otherwise, if you like sweet wines, this is a good spot for you.
location is pretty convenient to the pike and the farm is, of course, pretty. home made jellies, preserves, jams, pies and ciders are available in the farm stand along with locally grown veggies and, interestingly enough, apples.