Deer Lake Orchard

Our take

The short version

Deer Lake Orchard’s own site confirms one of the earliest dated 2026 openings found across this research batch: August 29, 2026 at 10am. Admission itself is free, with optional paid activity wristbands for the corn maze, jumping pillow, and other attractions. Four named apple varieties rotate through the pick-your-own rows as the season progresses, starting with SweeTango and Zestar.

An early, confirmed opening date

The site states plainly: “Opening August 29th, 2026 at 10am.” That’s a specific date and time, not a general seasonal description, and it lands notably early compared to several other Minnesota orchards in this research, some of which don’t open until early-to-mid September. If you want first crack at the season before the bigger crowds of late September and October, Deer Lake’s confirmed late-August start is worth noting.

Free to enter, pay for activities separately

Orchard admission is free, per the record — you don’t pay to walk in and shop or pick. Activity wristbands, covering things like the corn maze, wagon rides, jumping pillow, and inflatable slide, are reported at around $15, or roughly $5 per individual activity if you’d rather pick and choose. That reported pricing comes from a secondary aggregator rather than the orchard’s own site, so treat the exact dollar figure as a reasonable estimate to confirm on arrival rather than a locked-in price.

Four varieties, released in stages

The record names SweeTango, Zestar, Chestnut Crab, and GingerGold. Per the research notes, these aren’t all available on opening day — pick-your-own rotates through the season, starting with SweeTango and Zestar, with Chestnut Crab and GingerGold becoming available in early September. If you’re after a specific one of these four, plan your visit date accordingly rather than assuming everything is ready from day one. Chestnut Crab, worth noting, is a crabapple variety more commonly used for jelly or pickling than eaten fresh, so don’t expect it to taste like the others.

A “Cider House,” details unclear

The research notes mention Deer Lake runs a seasonal “Cider House,” though the site doesn’t specify whether the cider is pressed on-site or sourced from elsewhere. If watching cider actually get made is part of what you’re hoping for, that’s a good question to ask directly rather than assume based on the name alone.

Not quite full-week hours

The record lists confirmed hours for Tuesday-Wednesday (10am-6pm) and Saturday-Sunday (10am-5pm), with the broader days_open field describing Tuesday through Sunday. That leaves Thursday and Friday hours unspecified in the detailed hours string, even though the farm is apparently open those days too — worth a quick check before planning a midweek visit outside the explicitly listed Tue-Wed window.

Scale is unconfirmed but plausible

A separate aggregator describes Deer Lake as having nearly 30 apple varieties across about 20 acres, a notably larger claim than the four varieties confirmed for pick-your-own in this record. That figure wasn’t independently verified on the orchard’s own site, so it’s presented here as a secondary data point rather than a confirmed fact — likely reflecting total plantings rather than what’s open for u-pick on any given day.

Getting there

Deer Lake Orchard is at 1903 10th Street SW in Buffalo, Wright County, in the Twin Cities Northwest Metro. Coordinates on file are an approximate area estimate, not individually geocoded.

Bottom line

Deer Lake stands out for its early, specifically dated 2026 opening and a free-admission model with optional paid activities. The rotating variety schedule means timing your visit to the apple you want matters more here than at orchards where everything opens at once — a call to 763-682-4284 can confirm what’s currently ready.