About Crane’s Pie Pantry Restaurant & Winery

Crane’s Pie Pantry Restaurant & Winery is dedicated to providing you with exceptional food and drink in a unique atmosphere that is unlike any other. Crane’s handmade fruit pies are still made the old fashioned way from family recipes passed down through the generations. Using fresh fruit straight off of the farm, only the highest quality ingredients, and the bounty of local food sources in our beautiful township, we are continuing the tradition of high standards that was first set on the Crane family farm in 1916.

History

A family tradition since 1916. That was the year Henry Blakeslee Crane bought the
H.H. Hutchins farm, what is now Crane Orchards, a beautiful 180 acre farm of rolling
hills bordering Hutchins Lake to the south. In 1939, the 100 acres north of M-89 which is now Gary Crane Farms, was purchased and farmed by Albert Crane. After taking over a portion of the family farm from his father and purchasing the farm to the north from his brother, Bob Crane and his wife Lue needed to evolve in the farming business or flounder. Lue Crane began promoting Crane Orchards in 1967 with custom fruit baskets made up in her kitchen. Pressing cider and selling fruit soon turned into providing food
to the people who visited the farm. By 1972, Fennville’s agritourism industry was born. Now Crane’s farms is host to a full menu restaurant and bakery, small-batch farm to bottle wine and hard cider, u-pick orchards, and so much more.

The restaurant and winery family includes two of Lue and Bob’s daughters, Becky and Laura, and one of their grandsons, Rob, who represents the third generation of the Crane’s family in the business, while the farm, Crane Orchards, has been run by five generations of Cranes. Guests enjoy food, drink, and homemade Michigan fruit pies in the family’s 150-year-old barn, which has been home to the restaurant, bakery, and cidery since 1972. The business expanded with the addition of the winery in 2014.  Farming techniques and family recipes have been passed from generation to generation, preserving family traditions and enriching the community at the same time.

As the latest addition to the Crane experience, Crane’s Winery continues to help support our family farm and Michigan agriculture. Crane’s Winery uses the absolute highest quality fruit and small-batch care, and we now feature some of Michigan’s best hard cider and fruit wine—continuing the tradition that we know would make those before us proud.