Braeutigam Orchards

Our take

What the record actually confirms

Braeutigam Orchards is located at 2795 Turkey Hill Ln in Belleville, St. Clair County, in the Metro East region. The phone number on file is 618-233-4059. Confirmed hours, sourced from third-party listings rather than the orchard’s own site, are Monday through Friday 8am to 6pm, Saturday 8am to 5pm, and Sunday 9am to 5pm — daily coverage, though on a schedule that shortens slightly on weekends.

A long family history, told two ways

The research notes describe Braeutigam as a 7th- or 8th-generation family farm, with fruit-growing roots traced back to either 1831 or 1935 depending on which source is consulted. That’s an interesting detail worth stating honestly rather than picking one date and presenting it as settled: different sources describe the farm’s founding differently, likely because “family farming” and “this specific orchard operation” may trace back to different starting points — an earlier general family farming history versus a later point when the orchard itself was established. Either way, this points to a farm with real generational depth in St. Clair County, even if the exact founding year isn’t pinned down with certainty in this record.

Why this record leans on third-party sources

Unlike most entries in this file, Braeutigam’s own website didn’t surface the kind of practical, apple-specific information this record is built around. The source note is direct about this: braeutigamorchards.com loaded during research, but the content that came through centered on family history rather than address confirmation, hours, or apple-season details. Because of that, the hours, and the general fact that a wide range of u-pick crops (including apples) are offered, come instead from a Strano & Associates blog post, UPick Atlas, and Yelp — all reviewed the same day. That’s a reasonable set of secondary sources, but it does mean this entry should be read with a bit more caution than orchards where the primary source was the farm’s own current page.

The bakery and its cider donuts

One specific, well-documented feature does come through clearly: an on-site bakery known for its apple cider donuts. That’s a genuine, checkable draw distinct from the u-pick apples themselves, and it’s consistent with several other Metro East orchards in this file that pair apple picking with a bakery or donut offering.

What’s missing: varieties and pricing

No apple varieties are named anywhere in this record, and no u-pick pricing was found on any source checked. Combined with the reliance on third-party sourcing for hours, this makes Braeutigam one of the thinner entries in this file for hard, checkable specifics — solidly established as a real, long-running u-pick farm with a notable bakery, but without the kind of variety list or pricing detail that would let a visitor plan a specific trip around a particular apple or budget.

A useful comparison point

The research notes explicitly compare this entry’s thinness to the nearby Eckert’s and Rendleman entries in this file, both also in the Metro East / Southern Illinois area, noting that Braeutigam’s record has less hard detail than either. That’s a fair, direct assessment worth passing along rather than smoothing over: this is a real orchard with real history, but the specific facts a visitor would want — what apples, what price — simply weren’t found during this research pass.

Bottom line for planning

Braeutigam Orchards is a well-established, multi-generation St. Clair County u-pick farm with a well-regarded bakery for cider donuts, and its hours are reasonably well documented even though they come from third-party sources rather than the farm’s own site. Given the lack of confirmed apple varieties or pricing anywhere in this record, a call to 618-233-4059 is a good idea before visiting, particularly if a specific variety or budget matters to your trip.