About 45 minutes West of Minneapolis is the Fall Harvest Orchard, a farm-based orchard that has become a yearly tradition for my family. After trying a few other orchards in town and feeling dissatisfied with the commercial and tourist trap mentality of many of them, I quickly fell in love during our first trip to this magical place. It’s a farm, chock full of animals… and of course there are apples and pumpkins and tractor rides through the fields… and many other fun things to do.

I like to take the kids at least one time each fall, and these are pics from our trip last weekend. These large tractor tires were great fun for the kids to climb on (and jump from!).

There are large bins of dried corn for the kids to play in like a sandbox. Impressively, there are two for big kids and a smaller one for pre-schoolers. And did I mention the animals? Oh yes, there are so many awesome animals for kids to interact with… big ones like cows, donkeys, goats and pigs with babies. Sometimes there are cats and turkeys or roosters running free.

…and then there are the ones for petting. Such as the sweet baby calf. And sheep. And more goats.

And of course, the highlight, little tiny baby chicks. Which require returning to the “baby chicky” pen multiple times. Maybe other children don’t need to… but this one does.

 This is where we buy our pumpkins… and apples (available to pick or buy already picked).

And this year I stumbled on both local syrup and honey and of course brought them home, too.

I definitely recommend this fabulous, family-run orchard for a day outing with your family. Oh, and there’s a great grill with food, too, so you can even stay for lunch. You can see more pics from the Fall Harvest Orchard on their web site or over on facebook.

By the way, did you notice I moved the location for Marketing Mama on facebook? Please like the new page!

Disclosure: I was not asked or compensated in any way to write this post. The orchard is free to enter and I paid for all my own apples, pumpkins, syrup and honey!