We went on Monday, September 1st, right after opening weekend (first day was August 28th) this year. We just moved to the state and were looking at ways to explore and this popped up randomly. We made a quick decision on Thursday to go. You purchase admission tickets online ($5 per person) and choose a time slot. The earliest time slot was the last time slot on Monday and we decided to take it. We're a family of 4 and everyone who enters has to pay admission, even if you don't pick. I'm not sure if this applies to infants/babies, of which I saw a few.
This place is located just outside of Princeton and I'm not sure how many people they let in per time slot but it was crowded, though not overly so. There is a small road (don't go fast or it's easy to miss) and the driveway is small too. It's not a legitimate parking lot but you basically park wherever you find space in what is essentially the front yard. There was a bit of a struggle at one point with people wanting to park versus leave/back up at the same time, but it's doable. We later discovered there is another parking area a little further down the road... or at least we spotted people parking there and walking over. There were no signs about additional parking.
You walk in and someone checks you off on their list. You'll get these paper "tickets" and are pointed towards buckets with bags in them and, if there's one available, there are wagons to lug your pear buckets around. The lady was nice enough to grab a wagon that some older kids were playing with and I lugged my kids around in them along with a bucket.
They didn't really say much so we just observed at first. They open two rows of pears and there are ladders scattered down each row for your convenience. The place was crawling with people, a vast majority Asian. A few were munching on pears, which you aren't supposed to do unless it's from their tasting station. When we went, they were completely out of their hybrid and hosui pear varieties - not that I knew the difference - so they only had apple pears left. Most of them were round and ripened to a yellow/golden brown but some of them had a funny shape that reminded me of apples. I was a little disappointed that they were already out of the other pear varieties when it's only been 4 days; I had hoped I'd get to see them all.
As I mentioned, there's a table where the people peel and cut up pears for you to sample. These were pretty sweet and pretty much tasted like the "Korean pears" you can get at the market. With the exception of one piece (out of 3) that I tasted that was on the tart side. The rules that I came up with is the ripe pears are the ones that are a ripe brown color and the higher they are, the more ideal. It's easier said than done because with the natural light that filters through, shadows, and sun rays that go into your eyes when you look up, everything sort of looks brown. Then you pick it (you don't need anything but your hand as they sort of twist off) and realize it wasn't as brown as you thought.
We filled up about half of our bucket since it was only us and we didn't want to buy so much and have them spoil. Most others filled at least 1-1/2 buckets. These are sold by weight at $4.50/lb. Our half bucket was about $37. The party in front of me with their 1-1/2 buckets full paid about $125. The line to pay probably took the longest. They also sell chestnuts ($7/lb) as well as some other fruits. All in all, we were there for just about an hour.
It was an interesting experience! I'm not a huge fruit person, but I do enjoy Asian pears. Ironically, my kid who loves fruit does not like these pears but my picky kid loves these. We've eaten a few of the pears at home by more and size doesn't mean anything. They're quite sweet and juicy!
I think it's a pretty fun experience, especially if you're guaranteed almost all of them will be good. Are they cheaper than the store? No. But if you buy over $50 worth, you'll be credited your admissions cost. I just wish they had all the varieties.
A solid place for a fun experience and delicious fruit! read more