PA Preferred® Lakeland Orchard & Cidery offers premium guest experiences with top notch, farm fresh produce in Lackawanna County. Its mission is to connect the community with local agriculture through immersive visits and festivals, tasty seasonal produce, and memorable traditions.
We spoke with Julianne Roba, who loves how the PA Preferred network helps to build valuable local connections. “Pennsylvania is an agricultural state and we are so proud to be a part of that story. The PA Preferred program highlights Pennsylvania farms so that, as citizens and a community, we can support one another and participate in that story and history together. My family would visit Pennsylvania farms and fairs in the summer on vacation, instead of going to the beach, and it was so special to have that connection to Pennsylvania. As a farmer in the state, it gives me so much pride to be part of an organization that features our fellow farmer neighbors!”
Read more of our Q&A with Roba to learn about the orchard:
PA Eats: Can you tell us about what you grow, produce and offer?
Julianne Roba: We are a fully u-pick farm. In 2025, we’ll start our season with our Tulip Festival for the first time! Our Strawberry Festival is centered around u-pick strawberries. Summerfest is when we pick blueberries and our early raspberry varieties.
We also offer a u-pick lavender field and incorporate lavender and blueberry into our seasonal offerings. Blooms and Butterflies is when we pick blackberries, raspberries, zinnias and sunflowers.
Apple Harvest is our main event at the orchard. We pick over 30 varieties of apples over 17 acres.
What do you love about what you do?
Farming and working in nature is one of the best jobs in the world, but being able to take that job and pair it with bringing experiences to families and friends that make memories for a lifetime is the best job I can imagine. Every day, we get to wake up and make people happy. It’s no longer just our crops that we grow and harvest. We hope that every guest that visits Lakeland Orchard takes ownership of the farm as “their farm,” as a tradition that holds a place in their hearts.
What are your greatest challenges and how do you respond?
One of our, and every farmer’s, greatest challenge will forever be the weather. We are dependent on Mother Nature for everything. We are a seasonal outdoor business that depends on healthy crops, so rainy years can have a detrimental effect on our season. We have responded to this challenge by spreading our season out and widening our offerings. We started as a Christmas tree farm that started to grow pumpkins, then we added apples, then strawberries and flowers and so forth, to a point where we’re almost harvesting something in every season that you can in Pennsylvania.
That is really the story of any farmer in a soggy and cold state like Pennsylvania; learning to work with – and not against – Mother Nature.
What excites you about the future of the orchard?
What excites us about the future is that our team is always excited to add something new to bring our community a fun farm experience. Every season is a new opportunity for our guests to visit the farms and experience agriculture firsthand. By growing different varieties of apples and introducing guests to new flavors, or featuring a unique trellising system of blackberries, we are able to bring that experience of agriculture to guests in a fun and exciting way!
Visit Lakeland Orchard and Cidery to enjoy one of their many festivals and to enjoy the farm fresh products for yourself. Season passes offer savings and special sneak peaks for those planning more than one visit. 1649 Lakeland Dr., Scott Township; (570) 254-6038.
This series was created in collaboration with PA Preferred.
PA Preferred® is Pennsylvania’s statewide branding program that promotes locally grown and processed food and other agricultural products.
- Photos: Lakeland Orchard & Cidery
