Love Creek Orchards

Our take

What the record confirms

Love Creek Orchards sits at 14024 State Highway 16 North in Medina, Bandera County — squarely in the part of the Texas Hill Country that has long branded itself “the Apple Capital of Texas.” The record’s own region field carries that name, and it’s not a stretch: the source and research notes describe Love Creek as effectively the whole of Medina’s apple identity today. Baxter Adams’s original 1980 dwarf-apple planting once grew to roughly 300,000 trees across the region, and that broader boom has largely consolidated into this one working orchard, store, and cafe. That’s a useful piece of local context if you’re wondering why a single Hill Country town carries the “Apple Capital” name — the record traces it to a specific person and a specific decade, not a vague marketing claim.

The practical basics are confirmed and were checked directly against the orchard’s own site (lovecreekorchards.com) on September 3, 2026: the store and bakery run daily from 9am to 5pm, and the Patio Cafe operates daily from 11am to 3pm. The phone number on file is 830-200-0302. Five apple varieties are named — Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonagold, Pink Lady, and Gala — spanning the season from tart, all-purpose apples (Granny Smith) through classic dessert varieties (Gala, Fuji) to the crisper, later Pink Lady. A cider mill is confirmed on site, which lines up with the working-orchard character of the place rather than a pure retail storefront.

Where the record gets honest about gaps

Two things are worth flagging plainly rather than glossing over. First, season_start and season_end are both null. The source note explains why: the site’s footer shows a 2026 copyright, meaning it’s a live, current page, but it doesn’t post a dated announcement of when 2026 apple picking opens or closes. Rather than guess based on typical Hill Country timing, this record leaves that field blank. If the calendar matters to your trip, that’s a call-ahead question, not something this record can answer for you.

Second — and more important if u-pick is the actual point of your visit — the record marks u_pick as true, but the research notes add a real caveat. Multiple secondary sources describe apple u-pick availability at Love Creek as varying from year to year, and they recommend confirming by phone before making the drive. No dated 2026 crop update turned up on the orchard’s own channels during this research pass. So “u_pick: true” here means picking has been offered, not that it’s guaranteed available on any given date this season. Pre-picked fruit is also listed as available, which gives you a fallback if picking itself isn’t happening when you call.

It’s also worth noting that the apple variety list and activity list — petting zoo, pony rides, picnic area, pumpkin patch — come from third-party travel write-ups (texashillcountry.com and similar 2020s-era sources describing the orchard’s own past content), not from a line-by-line re-check of the current homepage. They’re plausible and specific, but they’re secondhand rather than freshly verified against what’s posted today.

Beyond apples

One detail in the research notes is easy to miss and worth knowing if apples alone don’t fill out your visit: Love Creek also runs rotating u-pick blackberries, peaches, figs, and persimmons through the year. If your trip timing misses the apple window — or if apple picking turns out to be unavailable when you call — the property isn’t a one-crop stop, and asking about what’s currently pickable (rather than assuming it’s apples specifically) may be the more useful question on the phone.

The activities list rounds out a fairly kid-friendly stop: a petting zoo, pony rides, a picnic area, and a pumpkin patch, alongside the store, bakery, cider mill, and Patio Cafe. None of these are described with hours, pricing, or seasonal availability in the record, so treat them as things that exist at the property rather than things confirmed to be running on any specific visit date.

Bottom line for planning

Love Creek Orchards is a real, currently operating anchor for Medina’s “Apple Capital of Texas” identity, with confirmed daily hours for its store, bakery, and cafe, and a named lineup of five apple varieties. What the record can’t do is promise you a picking date or guarantee u-pick apples will be on when you arrive — both are explicitly flagged as unconfirmed or variable. A phone call to 830-200-0302 before the drive is the honest next step this record points to, not a guess about when “peak season” probably falls.