When the Market at Styer Orchard opens this summer, fans of the Middletown store can count on cider doughnuts, pies and more filling the shelves.
But the new market operator, Tim Field, who for years has separately run the farm on the same Middletown property, is working to fuse the two together so that for the first-time in decades much of what is purchased at the store is produced on the farm.
Before any baking or creating can happen, the market needs repairs and will remain closed for a few more months.
The market needs new floors, ceiling tiles and some dry wall so Woodbourne Road store is ready for business before the July 4 holiday.
Styer Orchards is a beloved institution in Lower Bucks.
Kids who grew up here will tell you about their first school trip to the orchard and if they re old enough they ll tell you about making their own cider on the old press. Families flock there on October weekends for pumpkins and apples. And their cider doughnuts are a treat any time of the year and their pies are a staple on many holiday tables here.
But, a new lease agreement approved last week peels back that warm narrative, revealing and reopening a 20-year feud between the two families that have run the orchard and farm market on the township-owned property.