Minnesota’s Best Places for Apple Picking and Cider
Minnesota's apple industry has long been a point of innovation and pride. The University of Minnesota — whose fruit breeding program is one of only three in the country — estimates its commercial worth at $14 million. It's a fact they've faced firsthand: The university program is responsible for developing 29 varieties including the now-nationally beloved Honeycrisp, Regent and SweeTango, and has been producing hardy apple stock since 1878.
While smaller, tarter crab apples are native to North America, their sweeter, meatier dessert-apple cousins (what we more typically snack on) were brought by European settlers and often struggled to adapt to the long, cold winters. Thanks to tireless research over several generations, however, we have more than 115 retail orchards and at least 22 cider-forward businesses in the state, so once fall comes around you can definitely have your apple and drink it, too.
Here are our favorite places for picking and pints.
Pick-Your-Own Apple Orchards
Aamodt's Apple Farm
Stillwater
This third-and-fourth-generation-owned family orchard — “the Home of the Honeycrisp” — boasts 6,000 apple trees across 50 acres. But they know you can’t survive on apples alone, so Aamodt’s also offers savory apple brats courtesy of owner Chris Aamodt.
The brats are topped with coleslaw, chopped Honeycrisp apples, bacon, and bleu cheese. They pair well with a wine flight from on-site Saint Croix Vineyards or with traditional, crisp Thor’s Hard Cider, named for the orchard’s original owner, Chris Aamodt’s grandfather Thor.
Deer Lake Orchard
Buffalo
The family-owned Deer Lake Orchard is an apple-lover’s dream come true. Owners Yuri and Jill Preugschas and their six kids took a chance on this farm in 2011, and now grow nearly 30 apple varieties on about 20 acres.
Pick your own throughout the season, or buy bushels in the century-old barn store, where you’ll also find apple salsa, fruit preserves, local honey, gifts, and house-made turnovers. Food trucks, live music, and events like the annual Delorean Day round out the experience.
Ferguson's Minnesota Harvest
Jordan
The Ferguson’s Orchard family includes four of the region’s biggest PYO locations, offering a wide range of apple varieties — from the U of M’s 1940 Prairie Spy to the tart-crisp Wealthy, dating back to 1868 and named after a farmer’s wife — plus plenty of family fun. Kids will love pedal tractors, farm animals, and a giant spinning apple if heirloom history isn’t their thing.
LuceLine Orchard
Watertown
Why settle for apple picking when you can have an orchard adventure? LuceLine Orchard boasts around 10,000 trees of nine varieties, but that’s just the start. Test your aim with the corn cannon, shop in a 115-year-old restored barn, sip sangria at the Dog House Pub, visit farm animals, walk the mile-long nature trail, enjoy live music, share a kiss on the Kissing Log, or take a hayride.
Whistling Well Farm
Hastings
This orchard’s charming name is somewhat literal: the property’s well whistles when the wind hits it just right. Every coin or dollar tossed in with a wish is matched by a donation to the M Health Masonic Children’s Hospital nurses fund.
Borrow a wagon and pick from eight varieties, including Paula Red, Haralson, Chestnut Crab, Zestar!, and SweeTango. While this is more of a no-frills orchard, weekends bring live music and food trucks.
Apple Cideries
1910 Sip House
Battle Lake
Karen and Jeff Lees own this small but special cidery near Lake Ethel, where they craft small batches of hard cider based on their Ethel’s Dry Cider blend of 45% Honeycrisp, 45% SweeTango, and 10% Zestar! apples.
Don’t let that base fool you, though: The Sip House serves up everything from classic to out-there interpretations of cider. Don’t miss the Pickledilly, kissed by dill pickle flavor, or the cold brew, coconut, and almond infused cider known as Co-Mocha-Nut.
Keepsake Cidery
Dundas
Cider that feels like a spontaneous special occasion — that’s Keepsake’s M.O. The spontaneity comes in part from the yeast: Rather than inoculating batches with a particular strain, as often happens in commercial production, this family-owned cidery relies on wild yeast for fermentation.
Not only does this minimal-intervention style skew more traditional, it also means there’s a real “taste of place” (terroir, if you will). Try the single-varietal Chestnut Crab cider in-season for its unique combo of earthy, sweet, floral, and fruity notes; or the classic, apple-and-honey-forward Organic Farmhouse Semi-Sweet.
Milk & Honey Ciders
St. Joseph
“Let the apples shine” is the motto of this traditional-leaning cidery, producing minimal-intervention brews with cider apples. Most are grown in Milk & Honey’s own orchard — 30-plus varieties that become the centerpiece of each bottle.
Try the dry, tropical-tasting Golden Russet to experience a single apple variety, or opt for the sessionable Little Dipper, a 10-apple blend that’s lower in acid but big on approachable flavor.
Sociable Cider Werks
Minneapolis
What if you took cider and hopped it, spiced it, fruited it, and made a party out of it? You’d wind up with something close to Sociable Cider Werks, a fun Minneapolis cidery that’s big on flavor and best shared with a buddy.
New to cider? Try the Werks’ Training Wheels, a hazy, semi-sweet blend of apples and blueberry that’s the perfect gateway to something drier, like Freewheeler. A generous patio, food trucks — Vinai chef Yia Vang launched his acclaimed Union Hmong Kitchen pop-up in Sociable’s parking lot — and regular special events make this taproom a festive favorite.
Sweetland Orchard
Webster
Visitors can taste a curated range of hard ciders at Sweetland Orchard, including cherry rhubarb, oak barrel-aged ice cider, a blend with spiced apple brandy, and a crisp, dry Northern Spy bottle that belongs on boldly flavored dinner tables. Check Sweetland's website for weekly updates of what’s in season. Mainstays include Haralsons, Honeycrisps, and lesser-seen varieties like Duchess of Oldenberg, Pristine, Ruby Jon, Airline Red Flesh, and Bonnie Best.
Urban Forage Winery and Cider House
Minneapolis
If you see cider as a gateway drink to exotic flavors like carrot wine and melomel (fruited mead), this cozy South Minneapolis nook is where you’ll want to be. Jeff and Gita Zeitler were hobbyists who opened the Urban Forage winery in 2015, followed by the taproom in 2017.
They harvest fruit, vegetables, hops, and flowers themselves from local trees and farms, crafting small batches by hand. Keep an eye on their website so you don’t miss the heavenly blackcurrant cider when it’s in season.
Wild State Cider
Duluth
All-natural cider made from the choicest dessert apples? That’s what you’ll get from this Duluth cidery and taproom. Cold-pressed apple juice ferments without added sugars or flavors — just crisp apple flavor mixed with yeast — and is combined with real fruit, herbs, spices, and other pure ingredients.
Year-round flavors like Classic Dry and the tropical Hazy Pink Pineapple complement limited-batch treats like Peach Basil and warmly spiced Apple Pie.
Find more things to do in Minnesota this fall.
