Delicious apple treats are available at Brant’s Apple Orchard in Ashtabula. (Photo by Damaine Vonada)
Location: Northern Ashtabula County between Lake Erie and Interstate 90.
Provenance: Roy and Debbie Brant established the orchard in the early 1980s, and built a barn that houses an on-site bakery and farm market. In 2014, they sold the 79-acre property to current owners Brian and Jenn Diehl, who operate Brant’s Apple Orchard with help from their two teenage sons as well as orchard manager Brian Morris and farm market/bakery manager Shelly Damon.
Significance: With a picturesque pond surrounded by trees displaying a kaleidoscope of colors, and pot-bellied stoves that make the barn feel warm and cheery, Brant’s Apple Orchard is one of northeast Ohio’s favorite fall destinations. Going there for just-picked apples, jugs of sweet cider, or Brant’s ever-popular cider donuts is a local tradition, and on the day before Thanksgiving, the barn bustles with people buying homemade pumpkin and apple pies. Because Ashtabula County is famous for its covered bridges, autumn visitors also like to make Brant’s part of their itinerary.
Currently: Brant’s grows three kinds of Asian pears, six types of table grapes, and 23 varieties of apples, including its best-selling Honeycrisp (for eating) and Cortland (for baking). After acquiring the orchard, the Diehls significantly enlarged the barn, yielding a bigger bakery, a farm market, and an eating area, where customers enjoy soups and sandwiches made on oven-fresh breads. “Our chicken salad is made from scratch with our own apples and grapes,” Jenn Diehl says, “and it’s served on our cranberry bread.”
Besides local maple syrup and honey, the farm market features Brant’s apple butter, bourbon apple butter barbecue sauce, and refreshing cider slushies. Brant’s cider is made on an 1895 cider press from a blend of several varieties of ripened apples. “We usually press cider on Tuesdays and Fridays,” notes Diehl, “and customers can watch.”
It’s a little-known fact that: The orchard’s grounds boast 2,700 apple trees, wooded walking trails, and a play area with slides topped by a miniature covered bridge. Brant’s also shows movies on Saturday nights; offers weekend hayrides; gives educational orchard tours; and hosts a Fall Festival and Halloween Costume Party every October.
