Sweetland Orchard

Guys. Ya’ll need to get to this place like right now!
Looking for an orchard with child friendly activities like hay rides and petting zoos? You won’t find that here. What you will find is a cute, small farm with a small tasting room for their cider (hard and not), and other things like cheese, pies, squash from their garden, etc.
When we pulled in the driveway was pretty full, but despite looking crowded it actually was not! As we strolled down to the barn, we were greeted by the dad of one of the owners. He chatted with us as we walked down to the barn and told us to enjoy ourselves.
In the barn there are various things — cider tasting towards the back, apple sampling, local cheese in a cooler. Apparently they usually have things like cider donuts and apple pies too, but they were all sold out when we got there!
The cider is superb. We tasted them all from driest to sweetest while the wife/​owner explained the ciders to us. There were some I liked more than others but overall they were very good. To bring home we ended up buying a mixed 4 pack (2 each of the cherry-​rhubarb and scrumpy sweet), their Northern Spy, and a bottle of the Borealis (just released the week before, an ice cider). We also grabbed a couple of the honey nut squash.
After tasting we went down to the orchard (with some fresh cider of course) and just wandered around. Feel free to snag an apple and snack on it while you do. They have picnic tables spread throughout the orchard if you want to sit and chill out.
After our wander through the orchard, we came back and sat at a picnic table near the barn and enjoyed more cider. Fed our apple remnants to the super cute chickens that patrol the yard.
This will definitely be a yearly trip for us, I think! Friendly owners, a very laid back and relaxing atmosphere, delicious apples and cider. Beats the heck out of every other orchard I’ve been to!

Super quaint. Everyone is so friendly. Quote of the day. «I just love seeing all the happy girlfriends here»

Best kept secret in Minnesota.
My experience was similar to previous reviewers… we were met by the family and felt right at home. Fletcher the dog kept bringing back his pinecone for us to throw.
We were invited to take a walk through the orchard which we did. It’s not a pick-​your-​own type of place but they have apples to buy that are the varieties in season. They also have apple cider doughnuts (yum!), apple pie, apple butters, and what you really should come here for is… HARD CIDER.
We took the tour which I loved, very informative and if you want to know more about brewing you should definitely do this.
My new favorite beverage is their Whippersnapper — a must try!
Be sure to check out their website before visiting! We tried to visit a second time later in the fall but they were sold out. I was bummed but happy that they have become popular enough to sell out!

This place is charming and full of personality! The owners are such sweet, welcoming people and the entire orchard is adorable– complete with chickens roaming around, and two dogs with apples in their mouths trying to convince visitors to play fetch.
The cidery is a hodge podge of old school equipment and DIY equipment (in a good way!), and the tour while short was cool to those of us who love hard cider and brewing! The tour was followed up by a tasting with the owners. How often do you get to taste the ciders with the guy who actually made them?
While we only purchased hard cider, the fruit looked beautiful and delicious as well. I also wished I hadn’t eaten breakfast before visiting, because the apple cider donuts looked amazing! I will be trying one on my next visit!

Super Cute place. It reminded me of the Red Barn Pizza Farm. They had a bean bag game set up and a awesome boarder collie «Fletcher» that loved to play catch with pine cones that the kids loved to play with while we sampled ciders inside the barn. My favorite was the Northern Spy a ‘champagne cider’. We also picked up a frozen ‘take and bake’ pie made from my favorite bakery: Sun Street Breads, which I can’t wait to throw in the oven. The owners were very friendly and hospitable. It was like stopping by a friends house. Loved it — I almost hate to review it in fear that too many people will go. ;)

I like to browse their web site to look at pictures and to get a peek into the whole orchard lifestyle. About time for a new post I think!

What a nice place. Despite the dreary weather, the kids and I ventured out to Sweetland Orchard to try our luck at some good apple picking. We were not let down. I’ll note first that the orchard was a little confusing, however that did not deter from what a wonderful orchard it is. Trees, trees, trees; all well cared for and most teaming with apples ready to be plucked. This place is almost picturesque, or maybe I really dig independent apple farms.
The orchard is not large and a bit out of the way, but word must be getting out because there were a pretty good amount of people coming and going through the orchard. I would say its likely due to the great apples (as noted) and the personable staff; friendly and informative. There are also of course plenty of apple slices to sample. Just watch out for the bees, as is normal at an orchard.
Not many know this, but the owner is trying out organic insect spray; that in itself sells me on this place. He’s not certified yet as a organic grower as he works on getting the correct balance of spray on the trees. All the apple were looked over by the staff at checkout to make sure there were no insects in the apples. Apparently a certain type of bug gets past the organic spray or something sometimes. I was impressed by the attentiveness. I certainly cant wait until this next fall.

Red apples. Green apples. Yellow apples. Apple donuts. Apple juice. Apple cider. Apple pie… I’m starting to feel like Bubba Blue (that’s right, a Forrest Gump reference!).
Seriously, though, Sweetland was awesome. After a beautiful 45-​minute autumn drive from my house, we were greeted by a pleasant older gent who genuinely seemed happy to meet visitors. Immediately a friendly, way-​to-​preoccupied-​with-​sticks dog begged me to play fetch. We proceeded with some apple and pie sampling (and donut purchasing), and headed out to get our apples. Surprisingly, this activity that seemed to me somewhat trivial was incredibly fun (and delicious). It’s been two weeks, and we’re still having fresh apples, apple pie, and apple cider.
As other Unilocalers point out, what makes Sweetland great is perhaps what they don’t have… namely a circus atmosphere and ridiculous pricing. It seems many of the other orchards charge more than double for what we got (and some even charge for parking), and are overrun with kids and farm animals. No thank you. Sweetland was great, and the owners really go out of their way to make people feel welcome. We’ll definitely be back next year.

Have you ever went to an orchard to pick apples, only to arrive to a crowd of parents with strollers, children petting goats, people making funny faces in cardboard cutouts of pumpkins, and truck beds full of hay bales pulling the entire Brady Bunch through fields?
Sweetland Orchard is not that.
We drove down the dirt road to arrive at a small farm with about 3 other cars parked. We went to the visitor barn and chatted with the gals about what was ripe for picking. They gave us each a basket and a hand drawn map and we headed out into a massive and dense forest of apple trees. There was one other group (family of 4) that we ran into on the paths, but otherwise the only thing to be seen was trees and the only thing to be heard was birds. We filled our baskets with Sweet Sixteens and Chestnut Crabs (my two favorites) until we could barely hold them anymore.
Back at the barn there was hot coffee, hot apple cider, and apple cider donuts. We sat and had a snack, played with the dog, and chatted with Gretchen (one of the owners). Before leaving we picked up a couple cartons of apple cider from the cooler.
Sweetland Orchard is a magical place to just relish fall and the process of picking apples. They have a great variety of apples and they’ll let you taste them all beforehand so you know what you’d like to pick.
I also have to add that I went to Mike’s (one of the owners) cider retrospective at Kopplin’s and it was great. He knows his stuff, and learning about apples, running an orchard, and the differences in cider batches is extremely interesting. This is truly a family who loves what they do and they do it well.
So if you want to get away from it all, and spend a nice relaxing time in nature picking some apples to bring home, don’t bother with any other orchard. Sweetland is all you need.

It was great! All about the apples and the donuts were delicious! The family that owns it is very nice. Can’t wait to go back next year!