Lakeside Orchards

Our take

What the record actually confirms

Lakeside Orchards is located at 318 Readfield Road in Manchester, Kennebec County, in central Maine, with a phone number of 207-622-2479. The farm is open daily, 8:00am to 6:00pm. Both u-pick and pre-picked apples are available, and beyond apples, the farm confirms pick-your-own peas, blueberries, and pumpkins, along with a farm market and bakery. The property overlooks Cobbosseecontee Lake. The farm’s own site claims a scale of 189 acres, roughly 8,000 trees, and 13,000 to 18,000 bushels produced per year — production-scale figures not commonly published by other orchards in this research. No apple varieties or pricing are listed.

A genuinely large operation, by the farm’s own numbers

The acreage and tree-count figures here are specific enough to be checkable claims, and they place Lakeside Orchards among the larger operations researched across Maine — comparable in scale to Ricker Hill Orchards in Turner, which describes itself as nearly 300 acres, though Ricker Hill backs that up with a detailed 14-variety list where Lakeside Orchards doesn’t confirm any specific varieties at all. A production range of 13,000 to 18,000 bushels a year suggests an orchard geared substantially toward commercial output, not just a small u-pick side operation, even though u-pick access is confirmed here.

The lake setting is a real differentiator

Overlooking Cobbosseecontee Lake is a distinctive, confirmed feature that sets Lakeside Orchards apart from most other central Maine orchards in this research, many of which don’t mention any comparable scenic setting. For a visitor choosing between similarly equipped orchards, a lake view during a fall picking trip is a specific, non-fabricated reason to prefer this location over one without it — though the record doesn’t specify whether the orchard rows themselves have lake views or whether the water is visible mainly from the farm market and bakery area.

More than one crop, across a longer calendar

Pick-your-own peas, blueberries, and pumpkins alongside apples suggest a farm operating across a longer seasonal calendar than an apples-only operation — peas and blueberries typically come earlier in the summer, pumpkins later into fall alongside apples. That breadth is similar to Spiller Farm in Wells or Hope Orchards in Hope, both of which also diversify beyond apples, though the specific crop mix here (peas particularly) is distinct from either.

The variety gap is significant given the farm’s scale

For an operation this large — 8,000 trees, per its own claim — the absence of any confirmed apple variety in this record is a notable gap. Smaller, less-established orchards in this research not listing varieties is less surprising; a farm producing 13,000 to 18,000 bushels a year almost certainly grows multiple named varieties, but none were published on the homepage reviewed. A visitor with a specific apple preference should call 207-622-2479 to confirm what’s actually available before planning a trip.

What’s still missing

No apple varieties, no pricing, and no 2026-specific season dates are confirmed anywhere in this record — a real gap given how much production-scale detail the farm does publish about its acreage and output.

Bottom line

Lakeside Orchards presents itself as one of the larger, longer-running (40-plus years) apple operations in central Maine, with a genuinely distinctive lakeside setting and a broader multi-crop calendar than an apples-only farm. But the record can’t confirm what varieties are actually available to pick or what it costs, so a call to 207-622-2479 ahead of a visit is the practical way to fill those gaps before making the trip.