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Eckert's Country Store & Farms
DESCRIPTION: Eckert's Farms is the largest pick-your-own orchard operation in the United States. Visitors can ride tractor-pulled wagons to the orchards and fields to pick strawberries, blackberries, peaches, apples and pumpkins. In November and December, visitors can also cut their own Christmas trees.
In addition to growing and selling fruit, Eckert's has expanded from running simple fruit orchards into operating family entertainment centers with special children's activities, annual events and festivals. The Belleville Country Store features a bakery, restaurant and gift area. Eckert's also has a gift catalog offering a wide array of gift baskets featuring fruits, baked goods and other foods.
ADDRESS: Belleville Farm and Eckert's Country Store: 901 S. Greenmount Rd., Belleville, IL 62220. Eckert's also has pick-your-own farms at 2719 Eckert Orchard Lane, Millstadt, IL 62260 and on Otterville Road in Grafton, IL. (Mailing address: Rural Route Box 87A, Grafton, Ill. 62037.)
LOCATION: The Belleville location is 20 minutes east of downtown St. Louis, Millstadt is about 30 minutes from downtown and the Grafton location is about an hour from downtown.
PHONE: Belleville, 618-233-0513; Millstadt, 618-476-3546; Grafton, 618-786-3445
WEB SITE: www.eckerts.com
GETTING THERE: To get to the Belleville Farm and Country Store from downtown St. Louis, take I-64/40 across the Mississippi River and follow the signs to I-64 east. Exit on I-255 south and take it to Highway 15 east. Follow Highway 15 about 10 miles to Eckert's Farm and Country Store.
To get to the Millstadt farm from downtown St. Louis, take the Poplar Street Bridge to Route 3 south. In Cahokia, turn left onto Route 157. Just pass the I-255 overpass, turn right at the stoplight onto Triple Lakes Road and follow the signs approximately six miles until you reach the farm.
To get to the Grafton farm from Missouri, take Highway 367 north to Alton, IL. Follow the signs to the Great River Road north. Turn right on Route 3 at Grafton. Go approximately 2.5 miles and turn left onto Otterville Road. Proceed 1.2 miles to the farm.
HOURS: The Country Store is open all year round. Hours vary by season; call ahead for details. The pick-your-own fruit is seasonal with strawberries available in May and June, blackberries in June and July and peaches from mid-June to early September, apples from late August to mid-October and pumpkins in October. Hours vary; call ahead for detail. Not all fruit is available for pick-your-own at all locations. See details below.
SUMMER HOURS: Generally hours are extended for summer events. Call for specific times.
ADMISSION: Entrance to the orchards is free, but there is a nominal charge at the Belleville Farm for the Kiddie Korral and for certain events at all locations.
ANNUAL ATTENDANCE: 200,000-250,000
WHAT'S NEW: Eckert's is always adding something new to its lineup of family entertainment. Call for current information.
A new $2 million Country Store and retail garden center opened recently at the Belleville location. The Garden Center offers a wide variety of plants, garden products and gardening-related gifts. The Center is open 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Monday-Saturday and 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Visitors can ride the wagons to the fields to pick fresh fruit-Strawberries in May and June, blackberries in June and July and peaches from mid-June to early September, all at the Belleville farm. They can pick apples from late August to mid-October and pumpkins in October at all three locations.
- Eckert's offers a number of family-oriented, themed events and festivals throughout the year. Usually music, face painters, clowns and other entertainment are part of the fun at the festivals.
- During the summer and fall, Eckert's offers a variety of entertainment activities on weekends.
- Kid's Corral at the Belleville Farm is a children's play area with a number of country-related fun activities including a pedal tractor path, a Fun Barn activity game center, an apple play house, a huge sandbox, barnyard animals and a miniature golf course.
- Visitors can cut their own Christmas trees from the day after Thanksgiving to mid-December at Belleville and Millstadt.
- Eckert's offers Make 'N Take Craft Activities for groups of 20 or more of all ages at the Belleville store. Visitors can weave wheat, paint a pot and pot a plant, make a dried apple cinnamon broom, paint a pumpkin, create a grapevine wreath ornament or decorate a gingerbread house. A narrated wagon ride at the farm is included. Reservations are required.
- Eckert's offers a variety of packages for reunions and company picnics for those looking for a unique place to meet.
ESPECIALLY FOR KIDS: Most of Eckert's events are kid-oriented. Eckert's also offers tours for school groups at various times during the year. Groups can take a spring planting tour where they learn how plants start from seeds, a country experience tour where they learn about farm animals, a honeybee tour where they learn about bees and honey production, an apple-picking tour where they learn about apples and pick then pick some and a "Tree-mendous Tour" where they visit the Christmas tree forest and learn how evergreens grow.
Eckert's also has a special Kid's Country Store that sells a variety of items geared to children. In the fall, the store offers a complete line of Halloween merchandise.
ANNUAL SPECIAL EVENTS: Eckert's sponsors a variety of special events throughout the year including a bluegrass festival in the spring and annual events at Easter and Christmas.
HISTORY: The Eckert family has been farming and growing fruit in the Belleville area for seven generations. Johann Peter Eckert first planted fruit trees on the Eckert farm in 1862. The Belleville farm is also the location of the family's original roadside stand where it started selling fruit in 1910.
More than 100 years after Johann Peter Eckert planted those first fruit trees, the family turned part of its Grafton farm into a pick-your-own orchard. Since that event in 1964, many St. Louis families and visitors take a trip to Eckert's to ride the wagons to the orchards and pick apples as a fall tradition, and Eckert's has grown to be the largest pick-your-own operation in the country.
WHAT'S COMING UP: Future plans call for construction of a banquet center, a new family entertainment center and a miniature golf course at the Belleville location.
WHERE TO GET LUNCH: Eckert's Country Store at Belleville has a restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week. An old-fashioned custard shop serving fresh fruit sundaes is open there from April to October. The Millstadt farm has Barn N Grill, a restaurant that features country bar-b-cue and a Sweet Shoppe offering apple desserts, frozen custard and other treats. Funnel cakes and other food items are available at the Grafton farm.
GIFT SHOP: Eckert's Country Store at the Belleville location sells bakery goods, fruits and vegetables, apple butter, honey, jams and preserves, bread and pancake mixes, coffees, teas, gourmet boxed mixes, gift baskets and a variety of country craft items.
WHAT'S NEARBY: Our Lady of the Snows National Shrine, Cahokia Mounds Historic Site and Gateway International Raceway are near the Belleville and the Millstadt locations. The Great River Road and Pere Marquette State Park are near the Grafton farm.
PUBLIC RELATIONS CONTACT: Angela Gordon, 618-233-0513 x119, agordon@eckerts.com
Readers should call 1-800-916-0040 to request a free copy of the Official St. Louis Visitor Guide or point, click and explore St. Louis at www.explorestlouis.com
