Lipsitt Orchards & Vineyards

446 Kemp Road West, Grimsby
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While autumn fruit picking across Ontario usually centres on apple orchards, Grimsby’s escarpment benchland offers a rarer harvest tradition: pick-your-own table grapes. Operating along Kemp Road West since 1893, Lipsitt Orchards & Vineyards is a fifth-generation family farm that opens its gates each fall for visitors looking to pick straight from the vine or stock up at a classic roadside farm stand.

The owners work right on site, greeting regulars and day-trippers beneath green pop-up canopies set up along the farmhouse driveway. It is a working farm experience where families pull little red wagons between overflowing produce tables before heading out into the vineyard rows.

At a Glance

• Peak season: September through October (seasonal harvest)

• What to pick: Concord and Niagara table grapes

• Farm stand highlights: Pre-picked apples, pears, plums, squash and pumpkins

• Parking: Free driveway parking through the farm gate, with roadside overflow along Kemp Road West

Pick-Your-Own Table Grapes

From September into October, Lipsitt’s vineyards are heavy with deep-purple Concord and green Niagara grapes. Both varieties are prized across the region for eating fresh off the stem, baking into autumn pies and tarts, or pressing into homemade juice and jelly.

The process is relaxed and family-friendly. Visitors can purchase pick-your-own baskets directly at the farm stand at affordable prices — including half-bushel and full-bushel sizes for those stocking up — and then wander the farm at their own pace to clip clusters right from the vine with the provided scissors.

The Seasonal Farm Gate Stand

Even if you aren’t planning to pick your own grapes, the farm gate stand alone makes Lipsitt worth a stop along the bench. Tucked under the shade of mature trees along the gravel drive, the tables are packed throughout the fall with pre-picked orchard fruit and autumn staples.

Depending on what has just come in from the fields, baskets are filled with crisp apples, fresh pears, plums, squash and pie pumpkins, alongside larger carving pumpkins stacked on hay bales near a rustic fall photo bench. With the owners running the stand themselves, it’s an easy place to ask about different fruit varieties or what is currently at peak ripeness.

Visitors can pull right in through the front gate and park along the driveway leading up to the farmhouse and farm stand. Because the driveway fills quickly on sunny autumn weekends, expect to park along the shoulder of Kemp Road West during peak afternoon hours.