Everly Farms Minnesota — Attraction in Minnetrista

Fun activities overall. Good design of the tractor route. Great live music near the gift-shop.

Now the even funnier part. I am sincerely amazed by one of my interactions with a young kid who is apparently a crew member. I had his badge name on his chest, but would rather cover only the incident itself. He talked with my parents (temporarily visiting us) for like 5 min, while I was on another aisle picking apples. Finding this weird, I went to them and asked whether there is anything I can help because my parents do not understand English well and I think if it is something important, I should be there. When I explained this to him, he suddenly mentioned he does not understand Spanish. I again feel it weird how he could even be in a monologue for that long be it with either Spanish or Chinese speakers, but I simply mentioned to him that my parents spoke Mandarin not Spanish. Then the gentleman said he cannot speak Mandarin either. I said that's fine, let me know if there is anything we need to know, understanding that sometimes apple pickers end up in a wrong aisle with apples not supposed to be picked. Exactly when I thought that's the end of the weird talk, he suddenly asked are we "planning to get back". I take he is trying to make sure we are not overstaying our visa stamp or perhaps want to look at our green cards/passports to make sure, which I personally feel is none of his business, but I respond politely that we may want to one day but we may prefer not. After this, we chatted about the family business of the orchard in seemingly normal and friendly tone (at least to me) and how the local kids come to help during weekend all the time. Then we departed and nodded at each other later when we saw each other near the entrance. I don't really know what all this is about, but I hope it is not from some non-necessary hostility that would otherwise be a total disgrace to the...

I’m usually not one to write reviews, but this has to be the worst apple orchard I have been to in MN. I tried to keep an open mind throughout the experience, but there were a lot of issues with this place. For one, there is not much to do and you have to pay admission to get in. Second, they do not tell you at admissions or on their website that you cannot pick apples on a certain day (we went on a Saturday). They should notify people with a sign or verbally before paying and entering because this was an issue that multiple people found out after paying. For children you are supposed to receive a ticket for the face painting booth, which we did not receive and we tried to go get one later in the day only to find no one at the admissions booth. There are little to no signs available, and the ones that they had were not accurate to begin with. They need more staff at stations for face painting and their food stalls as well. On a Saturday their was only one person at the face painting stall and the caramel apple stall. Even the food booths for donuts and brats had two-three workers, but we still waited in line for a minimum of two hours for donuts (3-5pm). The lines were ridiculously long for entrance and food. The face painting booth used water that was potent and black in a cup to “rinse” each brush out before applying it on kids’ faces. Their employees working in food service need to be trained on safe handling of food. A young worker cooking brats and burgers on the grill had no gloves on, was eating burgers and chips as he was cooking, running both his hands through his hair repeatedly, even wiped his nose with his bare hands, and proceeded to grab raw meats with his hands. Will definitely not be returning as the hour drive was not worth it, and I hope people do read these reviews and avoid...

VERY DISAPPOINTING!! Wow! What a disappointment. I had read that Minnetonka Orchards was under new ownership. We have been meeting here with extended family for 10 years, and after not being able to go last year were super excited to continue our tradition. What a let down. First off, their credit card machine wasn’t working at the main booth, so we had to walk to the other booth with our 6 kids to pay for a $55 entrance, where we were overcharged by $15. In the past, entry covered all things except for food. The haystack was not what it used to be. The food shack by the playground was shut down. The petting zoo was two goats in a shed— that you couldn’t pet. The slingshot was broken, and they were “out of apples”. What? Out of apples at the apple orchard? The bathrooms had hardly a trickle of water coming out of the faucet to wash your hands, and no paper towels. The train ride which is now an extra $5 took all of maybe 2 min. Maybe. We weren’t even allowed a full loop on the hay ride. We rode half of it (from the bathrooms up the hill to the apple barn) and were made to get off and go to the back of the long line before completing the loop. When we went to order a dozen donuts for our party of 14 people, we were told they were only selling them by half dozen so everyone could have some. And it did stink like apple rot, and the hornets were terrible. I understand you can’t control hornets, but all the other things you can. After reading Minnetonka Orchard’s latest reviews from people that enjoyed it under the previous owners, I see I am not alone in my experience of this place. It went from a fun, family-friendly experience to a not fun, money gouging experience. Sadly, after 10 years we will be finding a new spot to continue our family tradition. Sad to leave this...