Gottenborg Apple Orchard — Local services in Detroit Lakes

If you go, the first thing to know is they DON'T take any cards for payment. You can pick your own apples for $3 per pound. We had 3 little bags, and they lady says "$50" (whoa!), but since they don't take cards, we scrambled to come up with the cash, but fell short. (no ATM on site. They do Venmo, but we couldn't get any signal strength out there, so that didn't work for us) We had her keep one of the bags (good thing we picked those for them to sell to someone else - lol!) By putting back on of the bags, we had enough left to try 2 treats: We got one caramel apple (tip for the orchard people: when you make caramel apples, don't just put it directly into the box - lay a piece of wax paper on the bottom first to help prevent sticking). Our apple was stuck to the bottom so hard that the stick pulled out, and we had to peel the box off the apple to salvage what we could. The other treat we tried was a brat, which was supposed to have apple flavor in it. The apple must have been very subtle, because it wasn't very noticeable. Our main reaction was the physical consistency of the brat - it was super squishy, like they didn't stuff enough meat into the casing. So when taking a bite, the casing just squished down and the contents squeezed out like a tube of toothpaste. It was the most disgusting feeling. (another tip for the orchard people: instead of providing a bottle of water with each brat, maybe you could use a cup of cider instead? It would be a product that you create, so the cost should be much less to you than purchasing all that water. And by trying your cider, it might encourage people to buy jugs of it). So, our main takeaway of visiting this orchard: The prices are high, and they don't make it convenient for people to pay (by not knowing we could only use cash, that limited how much we could spend there. Never did get to try the pie because we were out of cash). And the brats were the worst...

Visited the orchard this weekend with family. Prices comparable to the orchard we went to last year. No credit card option for paying but we were able to pay with Venmo without an issue. Kids had fun picking apples. Dog friendly place. Loving the Sweetango apples that we picked this weekend and debating going back for other varieties when they are ready...

Nice staff, but the bugs were awful, many rotten apples all over the walking area and the cost was steep. It was a one time...