A working fifth-generation shipping orchard with a free-to-enter market, a pumpkin patch and pick-your-own flowers, but no pick-your-own fruit at all, which is the one thing most people arrive expecting.
No admission or ticket of any kind is mentioned on the orchard's site; you pay for pumpkins, produce and u-pick flowers. Flower and pumpkin prices are not published on the pages read.
Free to walk in. Your spend here is whatever you choose — pumpkins, food, and any paid activities. That makes it a low-risk stop if you are not sure how long the kids will last.
Rendleman has been farming here since 1873 and is now in its fifth generation, and the important thing to understand is that it is a shipping orchard first. Fruit is grown here to be sold in volume. The market at the front and the flower fields are real, but they are the retail face of a commercial fruit operation rather than an entertainment business wearing a farm costume.
That distinction decides whether you will enjoy the visit.
There is no pick-your-own fruit. The orchard says so plainly, and it is worth repeating because a southern Illinois orchard in October is exactly the sort of place people assume they can pick apples. You cannot. Peaches, nectarines and apples are sold pre-picked in the market.
What you can pick is flowers: zinnias, cosmos and sunflowers, with mums sold alongside. That is an unusual and rather good offer, and for anyone who wants an armful of cut flowers in September or October it is a better reason to come here than the pumpkins. But it is not what the word orchard makes most visitors expect, and driving an hour for u-pick apples you cannot pick is a bad afternoon.
Nothing to walk in, as far as anything published goes. There is no admission, no ticket, no wristband and no parking charge mentioned anywhere on the site. We have marked the listing free entry on that basis, with the caveat that an absence of any mention is not quite the same as a stated free-admission policy.
Prices for pumpkins, flowers and produce are not published either, which is the flip side. You cannot budget in advance, but you also cannot lose money by arriving. That asymmetry matters. At a ticketed farm, a short visit is money wasted. Here, twenty minutes and a bag of apples is a perfectly sensible trip, and a family can look around the patch and buy a single pumpkin without any sunk cost pushing them to stay.
Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm, Sunday noon to 5pm. The Sunday hours are the ones to watch: five hours against eight, on the day most people are free, which concentrates that day badly.
The market season ends on October 31. After that the farm shifts to weekdays by appointment only, running to December 18, which is a different kind of operation entirely and not something to turn up to unannounced.
The gap in the record is the start of the pumpkin window. The orchard publishes no separate fall or pumpkin opening date, only the overall market season. October is the safe assumption for a full patch, but if you want to go in September, that is a phone call.
Alto Pass sits in Union County on the Shawnee Hills wine trail, in the hills of far southern Illinois. This is the least flat and most attractive part of the state, and its peak leaf colour arrives at precisely the moment the pumpkins and mums are at their best. That overlap is lovely and it is also the crowd problem: the scenic corridors here carry heavy weekend traffic through October, and the roads are not built for it.
Go on a weekday if you can. If you cannot, go early on Saturday rather than mid-afternoon on Sunday, and build extra time into the drive.
The market season runs to October 31, with Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday noon to 5pm. The orchard publishes no separate fall or pumpkin start date, so the beginning of the pumpkin window is unconfirmed. October is the reliable month for pumpkins and mums; the u-pick flower fields are a late-summer-into-autumn proposition and worth phoning about if zinnias or sunflowers are the reason for the drive. After October 31 the farm switches to weekday appointment-only through mid-December.
An hour to ninety minutes. This is a market and fields stop rather than an attraction farm, and the flower picking is the only part that will hold you longer.
The Shawnee Hills are the most scenic corner of Illinois and their peak leaf colour lands squarely on top of the pumpkin season, so October weekends bring wine trail traffic through Alto Pass in volume. A weekday morning avoids nearly all of it. Sunday is the short day, noon to 5pm, which compresses that day disproportionately.
Not published. A working shipping orchard on a state highway will have farm-yard parking of some kind; expect gravel or grass rather than a paved lot, and soft ground after rain.
Not published in the record. A market building is usually the easier part of any farm; cut-flower rows and a pumpkin field are field ground. Call ahead if this is a factor.
You want to pick your own fruit. The orchard states clearly that there is no pick-your-own fruit; peaches, nectarines and apples are sold pre-picked in the market. Skip it too if you need a full family day out with mazes, rides and a play area, because none of that is on the list here.
Alto Pass is on the Shawnee Hills wine trail in Union County, which is the most genuinely scenic driving in Illinois and at its best in exactly the weeks the pumpkins are ready. A market stop here slots easily into a day built around the trail rather than needing to justify itself as a destination.
No admission or ticket of any kind is mentioned anywhere on the orchard site. You pay for pumpkins, produce and the flowers you cut. No free-entry policy is stated outright, though, so it is an absence of a fee rather than a published promise.
No. The orchard states explicitly that there is no pick-your-own fruit. Peaches, nectarines and apples are sold pre-picked in the farm market. The only pick-your-own here is flowers: zinnias, cosmos and sunflowers.
Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday noon to 5pm, with the regular market season running to October 31. From November 1 to December 18 the farm operates on weekdays by appointment only.
Not published. No pumpkin or flower prices appear on the pages we read, so ask when you arrive.
2026 dates had not been published when we last checked. In past seasons it has run: Monday through Saturday and Sunday. Check with the farm before driving out.
Admission is free. No admission or ticket of any kind is mentioned on the orchard's site; you pay for pumpkins, produce and u-pick flowers. Flower and pumpkin prices are not published on the pages read.
9680 State Highway 127 N, Alto Pass, IL 62905, in Union County. It is one of 4 patches we track in Southern Illinois.
We track 4 patches in Southern Illinois, 2 of which are free to walk into. Entry here costs nothing, which puts it in the minority even in a region with several free options.
One caveat worth repeating: this farm had not published its 2026 dates when we last checked, while 0 of the 4 patches we track in Southern Illinois had. Treat any date you see elsewhere as last year's until the farm confirms it.
There are 4 other patches we track in Union County. All Southern Illinois patches →
rendlemanorchards.com
Checked August 2026.