Friske Orchards

Michigan is apple country. One of the best places to appreciate that fact is the apple room at Friske Orchards. When you open the door of this room within the farm stand – a room filled with baskets and bags full of a dozen different varieties of apple – you may get dizzy from the smell. There is an apple intensity in the air that, while unfermented, is positively intoxicating. You can buy them by the bushel or single apples for eating out of hand.

If your tastes run towards more creative things to do with fruit, step over to the bakery area and get yourself a piece of caramel apple pie a la mode to eat at one of Friske’s tables. Or a warm apple dumpling, apple fritter, apple donut, or slice of German apple cake with cream cheese frosting.

All these items are available to eat by the piece here or to take home. Those who hanker for a meal before dessert can sit down at a table in Friske’s Orchard Café, where the menu includes cold-cut sandwiches and such local specialties as an apple brat with kraut and apple relish, a cherry brat served with cherry-flavored barbecue sauce, and chicken salad made with dried cherries. Pizzas are a specialty, available to eat here or take-and-bake. Salads are made with fresh fruit; and of course the beverage list includes flagons of apple cider.