As these were cleared, the land was planted with orchards, which remains the major industry of the area to the present day.

Lenswood's central position in the Adelaide Hills orchard districts led to a large cold storage facility being built there in 1933.

Called the Lenswood Coldstore Cooperative, the facility has storage for 400,000 bushels of fruit, processing mostly apples, pears and cherries.

Lenswood relies on larger services being provided from other townships including Lobethal, Woodside, Balhannah and Summertown.

Lenswood features a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb) with mild to warm, somewhat dry summers and chilly, very wet winters.