Fall Harvest

We changed up our routine this year and went to an apple orchard we used to go to when we lived in the Twin Cities. When we moved south, we had begun to apple pick at Emma Krumbee’s in Belle Plaine. It was perfect for my dad when he wasn’t as mobile because it wasn’t a lot of walking and it was closer to both my parents and us. I was so sad to find out Emma Krumbee’s shut this year. Yet, we were quickly reminded of how wonderful Fall Harvest is when we visited, even if it’s further from us now.

Many falls had been spent at Fall Harvest prior to our move. It was so amazing to see how many updates they had made and the cute little touches that had stayed the same. One thing that I love about Fall Harvest is that it’s free and you can pay the experience that you want. So many apple orchards now have a flat admission fee, which can be expensive with larger families and the amount of activities is overwhelming for the kids. At Fall Harvest, you can pay just for the apples and do the free activities or you can do all of the paid activities. You get to decide what’s best for your family and in your price range!

Driving into the orchard, parking is easy and close to everything. We did bring a stroller for our youngest, but she was able to walk most of the time. Coming into the orchard, we bought our basket to pick with, which was 1/4 peck and cost $15. Our kids love to pick apples, but their attention is limited when picking at their ages. So, we always stick with the smaller options. The apples we wanted to pick were back near our car, so we started with the activities before picking. Right away, the kids were excited to visit baby chicks and had a range of emotions about the ability to hold them.

Next, we walked over to the small corn bins for some play. If you know my family well, you know we love sensory play! I couldn’t resist sitting in the corn bin with them and playing. After some play, we went to see the rest of the animals. Fall Harvest provides a bag of feed for each person to feed to animals, if they want, and apples to feed to their bull. Chickens, peacocks, goats, pigs, bulls, and rabbits were the animals we got to see. Also, in the animal area was a small area of Winnie the Pooh mechanical rides. These were free and didn’t require coins or anything. Our kids loved these as we very rarely pay for these in malls or play areas.

By this point, we had walked back to one of the areas with a few food trucks and picnic tables. We got some apple nachos with caramel and two apple ciders to snack on while we enjoyed the rest of the activities. There was some live music by the food trucks on the day we were here. While we listened and snacked, the kids enjoyed climbing up the tires and playing some yard games. More animals also, greeted us in this area, so we got to pet llamas, sheep, cows, and goats here. Photo opportunities were all over this area and my kids will tell you I took way too many pictures of them.

After we finished our snack, we walked back over towards the parking lot. In this area, there were several more food trucks, some of the paid activities, and a few free activities. Our kids enjoyed bouncing on all of the balls in the critter bounce area, shooting hoops in the gravity box basketball, and climbing hay bale mountain. Many of the other activities looked like fun, but our youngest was starting to get tired as it was well past nap time. So, we chose to continue on to picking and skip any other activities for the day. Sweet Tango apples were right past this area and we chose to pick that kind. Apples were huge, juicy, and perfectly delicious. There was no shortage of apples to pick and it was an enjoyable experience for all. It didn’t take long for us to pick and we were on our way back to our car.

Other things to note were the bathrooms were so clean, which isn’t always the case at outdoor activities like this. Second, the employees here were so incredibly kind. This is a family run orchard and everyone we talked to were so helpful and nice. One man offered to take our picture when he saw one of us was taking the picture instead of being in the family picture. Another man offered to tell us more about his favorite chicken, including telling us jokes about chickens. Overall, Fall Harvest was a great experience for our family. It allows for all budget levels, provides enjoyable activities for all ages, and was a beautiful orchard. Definitely worth the drive! We will be back again.