Whistling Well Farm

A lovely location open to the public. It is like taking a little trip to Grandma’s house. A wonderful adventure to take your city slicker kidlets to on a nice fall day. It’s free. You will of course want to purchase something from the store or get a bag and pick your own apples. They give you chicken feed and the little ones can go right on in with the birds and feed them. You will have to clean their shoes of course afterwards so be warned. They have a nice grey Donkey and who does not love donkeys. They have recently added two pygmy goats that are adorable. They have a mascot dog that is hanging around and even has merchandise like stuffed animals and a kids storybook written about her. There are several tables and chairs to sit at an relax while you bask in the fabulous fall air. It was wonderful!

What a great little apple orchard! I had been there a couple of times years before and really like the friendly small town feel of the place. Last week, I took my 2 ½ year old granddaughter there and found out that it was the first day to pick honeycrisp apples. What? They let you pick honeycrisp? What other orchard lets you do that? They don’t have hayrides (that’s okay, who needs to sit on a wagon behind a loud exhaust spewing tractor anyway?) but they have wagons with a bed of straw in them, perfect to pull the little ones and to carry back your load of apples. The apples were delicious and the price was surprisingly really good (certainly cheaper than store-​bought ones, only these are fresh off the trees). There are some farm animals such as a donkey, chickens and some turkeys. They have cracked corn for the kids to feed the chickens and my granddaughter loved it. They also have pumpkins and squash as well as jams and other goodies for sale. Even better, no admission charge, unlike a certain orchard just down the road. This will be our go-​to-​place to pick apples.

This is a wonderful little apple orchard. It is very family oriented. They have chickens, turkeys, a donkey (very friendly) and a plethora of dogs. You can even bring your own dog.
The weather and disease have not been kind this year. The apples on the east side of the trees were damaged by hail and the raspberry plants failed :(As we came later in the season, we picked over a lot of seconds, but still good apples. We also picked up some wonderful cider and a couple of mums.
The prices are on par with other orchards, although they all seem a little high to me. The grounds are very nice and so are the staff. They were very busy today, so service could’ve been better but I understand why it wasn’t. The band was a nice touch. I’ll be back next year.

A group of girlfriends and I come to this farm every fall for apple picking. It is absolutely lovely — very picturesque, friendly people, adorable animals and great apples. I’d suggest calling them earlier in the season to ask when would be the best time to come for pick-​your-​own.
We love that while the farm is family-​friendly for sure, we as adults can still have a nice time and not have to wait in lines to get in, etc. For kids (and also myself, as I can’t resist cute animals) they have a very cute petting zoo and some funny photo boards, pumpkins and plenty of room to run around. Last time we went there were also very cute little kittens running around. I think they might have some kind of wagon-​y ride out to the orchard, but it’s really not a far walk at all.
I think the fact that our group of grown ladies makes the effort to come here every year says something about the great customer service and experience that Whistling Well Farm provides — we really enjoy it!

Wonderful family… say hello to Charlie the owner/​farmer. Make friends with the resident springer spaniel.

Beautiful orchard run by great folks. A couple friends and I had fun picking apples, playing with the farm dog, sampling the hot apple cider, and taking in the gorgeous views.
The best part of Whistling Well, though, is the people! We were greeted when we entered and they gave us all sorts of info about their farm and where we’d have the best luck finding apples this late in the season. I later discovered I lost a significant amount of cash while picking apples. Luckily, someone found it and turned it in the next day. I got a call from Charlie right away, and he even offered to send a check for the amount in the mail so that I wouldn’t have to make the trek back out to the farm. Since I don’t own a car (a friend had driven us out there) this made a big difference!
Wishing Well farm is the only place I’ll be picking apples from here out, and I can’t wait to check them out at the St Paul Farmer’s Market!

After a not as long as it seemed drive out to Whistling Well Farm, we arrived on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. After some direction from the staff, we waked down to the well kept orchard where lo and behold, the bounty of apples were had. Despite the frosty weather last spring and drought this summer, the trees were teaming with acceptable apples ready for picking.
Back at the farm house, the staff was friendly and responsive. We didn’t take advantage of the petting zoo or opportunity to feed the chickens, but had fun just the same. It was not crowded despite the warm afternoon and, as mentioned by other reviewers, there were no additional fees.
One thing that could have been better would have been if they had prepicked apples for sale at the farm house. Well, I didn’t ask so perhaps they were sold out. We’ll definitely be back next year.

I’ve been to a number of farms/​orchards in Minnesota now, and this is about as lovely and traditional as it gets.
There are many things I appreciate about a farm in the fall. One is the general ambiance and feeling I get when I step onto the premises. Here, we were greeted with a staffed information table and a smile, rather than a ticket booth, pricelist and lines. That is because unlike most farms in Minnesota, this one is FREE..
Another factor that makes for a great farm experience is having fun and engaging activities for the kids. Whistling Well gives its visitors free corn to feel the chickens and turkeys in the coop. We all had a great time entering the coop and hand-​feeding and petting the colorful birds. Then it was off to the donkey and goat pen, where the docile animals spent time by the fence, sharing their love with the kids. Whistling Well had a live country/​folk bank playing on banjo and other traditional instruments, with a stage area for the young ones to bang away at their own instruments. To the north of this activity center were wagons that took you down into the world of pumpkins and a field of dig your own mums. On the south side were the apple orchards, which we didn’t try.
The final thing I appreciate about a farm is the general maintenance. The fields were beautifully plowed, colorful and accessible. The barn was new and still smelled of fresh wood. The shoppe was quaint, clean and efficient.
Finally, the price was right. While mums were a bit on the expensive side at $ 7 a plant, the pumpkins were only .37 cents a pound, with small and mini pumpkins at $ 1.99 per item. I left with three large pumpkins, a few medium sized, four small pumpkins and a handful of gourds and squash for only $ 33.
I recommend this place to anybody who needs a fall getaway. The farm is right in the St. Croix River valley and is a stone’s throw from the quaint all-​American town of Afton, MN.

Wish I would have took more pictures here. This is a beautiful farm/​orchard! They have these great red wagons to carry around kids and pumpkins, the have pumpkins galore to pick from, the have several kinds of apples including Honeycrisp! We went on a Saturday and it wasn’t overcrowded, it was just right! They also had hotdogs and cider to munch on. They also have a HUGE area for parking. Another customer there commented on that the lines to buy apples were loooong over at Afton apple orchard. There was almost no wait at all here! There is also turkeys chickens, a donkey, and goats. I would definitely recommend this to a friend!!!

Of the 5 rows full of rotten apples, we were able to pick and sample 2 unmarred pieces of fruit. Apparently there was a really (not) awesome hail storm back in June and it ruined this years crop. So much for newlywed romantic gallivanting amongst the cortland trees.
I’m sure this place is hella awesome when you can pick. The help was very nice and their general store was pretty cute. The farm it b-​e-​a-​utiful and it felt nice to get away from the concrete for a while… even if we returned empty handed.

Sometimes you just gotta take a breather, and get out in the country, even if it’s just 20 minutes from Maplewood, ya know? Saw this place on the way to Afton Apples, and had to stop… and to be honest, I liked it much better. Less commercial, smaller, and we had a great talk with the owner.
We came on a cold gray day, and we weren’t planning to do any picking, so we bought a few bags of apples, (a bag of Honeycrisps, and another bag with a mix of apples for sauce and pies) and planned on calling it a day, but ended up loading ourselves up with raspberry jam and caramel sauce also…
They had lots of great stuff for sale, as well as a corn maze (which is the stuff my nightmares are made of… I get lost finding my car, so doing it on purpose is a horrible idea…) I think there were turkeys and goats as well. We didn’t pick our own, but they had wagons and a great set up to do so. I’m not sure about hayrides though. .It was free and a simply lovely little farm. We’ll be back next fall.