Iowa Orchard

Our take

What the record actually confirms

Iowa Orchard sits at 13140 NW 102nd Avenue in Granger, Dallas County, in the Des Moines metro area, and it stands out in this research batch for how much detail its own site posts directly. Rather than piecing together fragments from third-party listings, the record here comes straight from the orchard’s dedicated u-pick page, read September 2, 2026 — and it delivers an 18-variety list by name: Premier Honeycrisp, Blondee, Gala, McIntosh, Jonathan, Cortland, Empire, Crimson Crisp, Fuji, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Jonagold, Ida Red, Pink Lady, Chieftain, Granny Smith, Arkansas Black, and EverCrisp.

Pricing is equally specific and tiered by bag size. Standard varieties run $13 for a half-peck, $20 for a peck, $36 for a half-bushel, and $66 for a full bushel. Honeycrisp and EverCrisp — both in high demand and pricier to grow at most orchards — carry their own tier: $19 half-peck, $29 peck, $52 half-bushel, and $95 bushel. On top of the per-bag apple price, there’s a $5-per-person admission fee to enter, with children under 2 admitted free. Hours run 9am-5pm Tuesday through Sunday, closed Monday, phone 515-276-0852.

What 18 named varieties actually tells you

Having this many named varieties in one record is useful beyond bragging rights — it lets a visit be timed around what’s actually ripe. The list spans the full ripening calendar: early apples like Gala tend to color up first, mid-season staples like McIntosh, Jonathan, Cortland, and Empire follow, and late apples like Fuji, Pink Lady, Granny Smith, and Arkansas Black hold on into October. Honeycrisp, listed here as “Premier Honeycrisp,” typically sits in the mid-season window. Because the site frames its overall season as “Labor Day weekend through mid-October” rather than naming exact 2026 dates, a visitor chasing a specific variety should still call ahead to confirm what’s currently being picked, but this list at least gives a solid starting map of what to expect and when.

Last entry is an hour before close — read the fine print

One specific operational detail worth flagging directly: the site itself warns that open hours shift with weather and fruit ripening, and that last entry into the orchard is an hour before the posted closing time. In practice, that means showing up at 4:45pm on a 5pm-close day likely means turned away at the gate rather than a rushed picking session. This kind of built-in caution from the orchard’s own site is a good sign of a well-run, currently maintained listing, and it’s worth planning around directly.

What’s still missing

Despite the unusually strong detail here, a few things are absent. No cider mill or cider-donut program is mentioned anywhere in the record, so this reads as a pure picking (and pre-picked) destination rather than a bakery stop. And while the general season window is given, there’s no exact calendar date confirming when 2026 picking actually opens or closes — “Labor Day weekend through mid-October” is a helpful range, not a guarantee for any specific weekend.

Bottom line

Iowa Orchard is the most transparently priced and variety-documented record in this batch — 18 named apples and a clear, tiered price sheet make it easy to budget and plan a visit around a specific variety. The tradeoffs are minor: no cider donuts confirmed, and season dates given as a general range rather than fixed 2026 calendar days. For anyone in the Des Moines metro wanting the clearest picture of cost and selection before driving out, this is one of the better-documented stops in the state.