Dowse Orchard

I was extremely disappointed with my experience at Dowse orchards. On the website they say they grow 20 varieties of apples and during September «cortland, macoun, mcintosh, milton, spartan», yet when we arrived we were told to go to only one area because «we are picking mcintosh today». I don’t come to an orchard to pick only one type of apple, let alone a type I can get at any store. The website lied and the experience was not what I expected.
On the ground there were several signs about «not snacking» and «we have the right to search your bags» for extra apples. This lack of trust and respect for the patron took the fun out of the pick your own experience. A bag is overpriced enough, so I’ll snack all I want!
Lastly, the farm store is not connected to the orchard, it’s about a quarter mile away. It did not have cider, donuts, or anything else joyful of a harvest store.
This place would never last if it was further west with more competition. My advice would be to take a further drive and have a real enjoyable experience picking apples, not this mediocre orchard.

Their cider is sooooooooooooo much better than supermarket cider. Plus they have many varieties of apples!

Dowse Orchards is an amazing place to stop and pick up fresh local apples, fruits, vegetables, apple cider, apple crisp, Christmas trees, pumpkins, and flowers throughout the year.
The Dowse family essentially built Sherborn, and represents a lot more than just pick-​your-​own apples, or cut your own trees for the people in the area. While most family farms have either sold out to corporations, or closed down altogether, this farm is still family owned and operated, and you can feel that charm in the fields picking or at the stand on North Main St.
I always recommend to my friends with little kids to stop at Dowse Orchards, and everyone should be eating fresh locally grown food anyway, so don’t even bother with the chain stores when the farm stand is open.

We have liked going to Dowse Orchard over the last few years with our kids and friends. Not a lot of crowds and nice apples to choose from. However this year after purchasing our bag to collect apples and beginning to collect them, a fellow picker pointed out the rampant poison ivy growing around all of the trees. Quite a disappointments and we were very upset that the Orchard didn’t warn us either. We won’t be returning.

My father went picking when he was a kid
On the very same trees that today we did.
The orchard is pretty, the owner is nice
And though not dirt cheap, it’s well worth the price.
Family owned for three hundred years
Not much here has changed, it was as it appears.
The do lose a star though, and I don’t mean to spoil it,
For refusing to offer their patrons a toilet.

We went apple picking last weekend — and although the location was great, only a ¹⁵⁄₂₀ minute drive from our new house, the prices were a little steep. $ 19 gets you a medium size bag which is what we picked … but only because the larger bagfor $ 35 seemed a little too much. Turns out we picked a good size … as we are still eating the apples daily.
We visited the farm stand after picking and were very disappointed. There was no cider … a staple when apple picking for us. And no apple cider donuts either! They did have a small selection of veggies which looked pretty good.
We did notice that they have cut your own Christmas trees — so we might try them again for that. Overall it was a nice day and a good experience, but a few small disappointments.

i grew up a honey pot orchards girl myself, but sherborn is a whole lot closer to the city than stowe, and last saturday was first-​foray-​into-​fall apple pickin’ time.
there is a 4 – 5 acre orchard off of rt 27. we paid $ 19 to pick a bushel of macintosh apples. they have a credit card swiper thing onsite, which comes in handy for those of us who trust in plastic. they also allow pets on leash– wish i had known that before coming out!
post apple picking, hit up the farm stand store, ¼ miles up the road. they sell veggies, chicken and turkey pot pies, super huge pumpkins, and other fall treats.
yum!

I went here because someone requested me to take them on an apple picking trip. Reading up the list of places to go on Unilocal,I decided to check out this one mainly because it was close to where I live. The orchard and the stand were located about a quarter mile apart. The address provided on the business listing (98 N Main street) is the location of the farm stand. If you wish to make a trip to the orchard only, make a left turn at Rockwood Street right after the cemetery if you are driving on 27 N (27 S make a right at the Dowse Orchard sign)
There were not too many people for a Sunday afternoon in spite of the good weather, being a noob at this I am thinking I am missing something. I got the $ 10 and $ 19 bag later because I like my apples. One other size, 39 (?) was available as well. We were told not to pick the fruits from rows marked off with a yellow police tape, so we were limited to about three rows of trees. There were plenty of apples to pick from the trees though and soon enough we filled the bags up quickly. I am pretty sure this place has no restrictions on bringing your pets because I saw folks with their dogs running around the orchards. A small picnic area overlooking a golf course provides a pretty spot to sit back and munch on the apples you just picked.
The farm stand had things like cider, jam, and also other fruits like peaches, berries etc.,

the second orchard i went to and the most memorable part of the experience was the nice houses bordering the orchard.
a buy-​a-​bag and fill it place, dowse at least offered 3 bag sizes — and they didn’t say anything when we walked in with our backpacks in addition to the bags we bought.
again, a very nice orchard if somewhat smaller than others and, as a result, it felt more crowded even though there were not many cars in the parking lot.
the main issue here — the farm stand is not located at the orchard, it is about a half mile up the main road (route 27) from the orchard. if you go out on the pike or route 30, you will hit the stand first and they can direct you to the actual orchard from there.
usual stuff at the stand — cider, pie, jellies, jams, preserves, some local crafts &c., all priced to move since you’re there to spend anyway.