Iowa Orchard U-Pick - Granger IA

Today, Jun 24 my family and I visited a sunflower field, and it was an incredible experience. From the moment you arrive, the view takes your breath away: a sea of giant sunflowers that look like something straight out of a postcard. Admission is $5 per person, and includes the opportunity to pick a sunflower 🌻. If you fall in love with more (and it's hard not to), each additional sunflower costs only $2. We strolled along the paths, took tons of beautiful photos, and simply enjoyed the scenery. It's a perfect place to unwind, appreciate nature, and make memories with your family. The staff was friendly, attentive, and helpful, always willing to explain how to pick sunflowers without damaging the plant and give you tips on keeping them fresh. Definitely an experience we would repeat in a heartbeat. Ideal for a family getaway, a getaway with your partner, or even just to reconnect with nature and the sun. 🌞🌻✨

We visited Iowa Orchard at Granger over the past weekend - for Apple picking and Sunflower picking. There were around 7-8 varieties of apples for picking - Jonathan, Honeycrisp, Cortland, Fuji, Empire, Red Delicious, Ida Red. These varieties were spread across around 25-30 rows. Though the area is not very huge, but it's a decent size for the experience. There were more rows which were fenced off and not yet ready for picking. The apples were fully grown, nice size and great taste. We were very disappointed to see several apples that had fallen on the ground which may have been due to the picking. The staff and workers take so much pain, attention and effort to grow these, and then, due to a small negligence of people who visit these orchards, these apples which drop to the ground are a loss. We also visited the Sunflower patch. The area was little too less as compared to what we had expected, but we still had fun and were able to capture some nice pictures. They provide the Cutting shears for the sunflower. Overall, a pretty decent experience. You can easily spend around 2-3 hours with your family in here.

We went today, and I must say I am impressed. The organization was great as they give you 1 row to pick and a flag to signal what you have and haven't picked. Making it so others and yourself do not have to search in order to find strawberries. They also email you with all information nesecary, and limit reservations so that its not too crowded. Most u picks simply let everyone come in at a time and you have to scavenge and search to no avail. Picking was easy, and quick. Staff is very friendly, and we will be back to pick apples. I drop one star for one reason only. The price. It is $4.25 per pound if it goes over 10 lbs, and $4.75 per pound under 10 lbs. The average for strawberries is $1 to $4 per pound. They get very expensive, very quickly. Which for quality of the experience may be worth it. I must say that these are probably the sweetest strawberries I have picked. Albeit the most expensive.

Nice orchard plenty of space between rows of trees. Young lady that helped us found the Gala apples was very helpful. They need a sign to show were to turn off the busy highway. Better explanation of how their pricing system works. Just know it cost 5$ person to go in. Even if you are together, imagine what it would cost for a large family. Then you pay for the size of bag you want to use to put your apples in.. Premium apples are more. One staff person was teaching a new employee. He was a little smart al-eck-y when we.. as new to this place asked questions.

Convenient location to go strawberry picking in the Des Moines area. We did end up with some smaller berries compared to some photos we saw from the previous weekend. No biggie, they all taste really good and the smaller ones were used for some jam. The mini donuts are great too, bring your own coffee and them on the drive home.