The Best Apple Orchards and Cider Mills Near Ann Arbor

Michigan’s oldest cider mill takes cash only.

That is the single most useful sentence in this post, and almost no list tells you. Cider season around Ann Arbor runs roughly ten weeks, most of these places are closed two days a week, and the two closures rarely match. A wasted Monday drive to Dexter is the classic Washtenaw County fall mistake.

So this is sorted by the things that actually end a trip: when the season opens and closes, which days the gates are shut, and whether your card works. Every date and time below was checked against the farm’s own site or the city’s own page in September 2026.

Apples started in early September and the good picking runs through late October. You have about six good weekends. Here is where to spend them.

Start here: the one that closes Mondays and takes cash

The Dexter Cider Mill

The oldest continuously operating cider mill in Michigan, pressing since 1886, on the Huron River in a wooden building that has not been prettied up. You order at the window, you eat a warm donut standing outside, and the cider tastes like it was pressed that morning because it was. This is the trip to take if you take only one.

Two things will ruin it if you do not plan. It is closed Monday and Tuesday, and it does not take cards. There is an ATM on site, but bring cash and skip the fee. Dogs are welcome on the outdoor patio but not inside the mill.

3685 Central St, Dexter. See the listing.

Open Wednesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cider season runs late August through November, with the mill posting its final day in late November. Cash or check only, ATM on site. Some menu items are only available on certain days. Verified 18 Sep 2026.

U-pick apples and a full afternoon

These three are the ones to bring kids to. You pick your own, and there is enough else happening that nobody gets bored in twenty minutes.

Wiard’s Orchards and Country Fair

Ypsilanti, farming the same ground since 1837, and the biggest fall operation close to Ann Arbor. Apple and pumpkin u-pick, a cider mill, a country store, mini golf, and the haunted attractions that older kids come back for every October.

The detail that catches people: the store and the Country Fair run on different schedules. The store opens Tuesday, the rides do not open until Wednesday, and everything is closed Monday. If you are coming for the attractions rather than the apples, do not come on a Tuesday. November hours change every year, so call before a late-season trip.

5565 Merritt Rd, Ypsilanti. No listing on this site yet.

Country Store open Tuesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Country Fair open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Both closed Mondays. November hours vary, call 734-482-7744. Verified 18 Sep 2026.

Jenny’s Farm Stand and Cider Mill

Out on Island Lake Road toward Dexter, and the most forgiving option on this list because it is open every day. Produce, homemade donuts, cider, hayrides, pony rides and a petting farm, plus a straw maze that goes up for September and October.

It is a genuine farm stand rather than a destination attraction, which is the appeal. You can stop for twenty minutes on the way back from somewhere else and still come home with cider. Hours track daylight more than a clock, so late in the season call ahead.

8366 Island Lake Rd, Dexter. See the listing.

Open daily, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. through the fall season, running May through December. Phone 734-424-3431. Because the stand runs dawn to dark, confirm before a November evening drive. Verified 18 Sep 2026.

Wasem Fruit Farm

South toward Milan, and the pick of the litter if what you want is the fruit. Pick-your-own apples from September into November, plums in early September, pumpkins in October, and tart cherries back in the summer. They press unpasteurized cider and fry several kinds of donut daily in the fall, including apple, blueberry and pumpkin batter.

Note that unpasteurized means exactly that. It is the better-tasting cider and the reason people drive out, but pregnant visitors, small children and anyone immunocompromised are usually steered to pasteurized cider instead.

Their own website was offline when this was checked, so phone rather than click.

6580 Judd Rd, Milan. No listing on this site yet.

Open Wednesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday. Apples September through November. Phone 734-482-2342. Verified 18 Sep 2026.

Worth the drive for the apples themselves

Alber Orchard and Cider Mill

Manchester, about half an hour southwest, and the one serious apple people drive past three closer orchards to reach. More than a hundred varieties, traditional and heirloom, which means you can taste your way through apples that no grocery store has carried in fifty years. There is a winery on the property pouring hard cider and wine.

The catch is the schedule. Alber is a four-day operation, open Thursday through Sunday only, and it opened for the 2026 season on Thursday, September 10.

13011 Bethel Church Rd, Manchester. No listing on this site yet.

Orchard and cider mill open Thursday and Friday noon to 6 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Monday through Wednesday. 2026 season opened 10 September. Freedom Winery on site opened 12 September, Thursday through Sunday 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Phone 734-428-9310. Verified 18 Sep 2026.

Kapnick Orchards

The longest drive here, down into Lenawee County near Tecumseh, and the one with the most generous hours by a wide margin. Open seven days, and open at 7 a.m. six of them, which makes it the only orchard on this list you can reach before work. Good apple and pear crop this year, and fresh cider came back around September 10.

Plenty of Ann Arbor people already drive this road for the day out. If you are making the trip, it is an easy pairing with the rest of an afternoon in Tecumseh.

4245 Rogers Highway, Britton. No listing on this site yet.

Fall hours Monday through Saturday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fresh cider returned around 10 September 2026. Phone 517-423-7419. Verified 18 Sep 2026.

Plymouth Orchards and Cider Mill

East toward Plymouth, and the one with the clearest published end date, which is genuinely rare. Wagon rides, farm animals, pumpkin picking, live music on weekends, and a viewing area where you can watch the cider actually being pressed.

Read the two date ranges carefully, because they are different and they are at different addresses. The cider mill itself closes November 8. The Red Shed Market stays open more than two weeks longer, to November 25, which makes it the last stop standing for Thanksgiving cider.

Cider mill at 10685 Warren Rd, Plymouth. Red Shed Market at 10260 Ann Arbor Rd, Plymouth. No listing on this site yet.

Cider mill open 5 September through 8 November 2026, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Red Shed Market open 5 September through 25 November 2026, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Verified 18 Sep 2026.

Cider and donuts without leaving town

Some weekends you want the cider and not the drive. These three are inside Ann Arbor and stock what the farms above are pressing.

Argus Farm Stop, Liberty Street

A year-round grocery that sells on consignment for local farms, which means the apples and cider on the shelf in October came from growers within an easy radius. Open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, so it covers the gap when every actual mill is closed on a Monday night. There is a coffee bar in the same room.

325 W Liberty St. See the listing.

Open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Phone 734-213-2200. Verified 18 Sep 2026.

Argus Farm Stop, Packard

The Packard operation is split across two storefronts a few doors apart, a cafe and a market, and between them they keep the latest hours of anything on this list. Same consignment model, same local fall produce.

Cafe at 1200 Packard St, market at 1226 Packard St. See the listing.

Cafe open 8 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. daily, market open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Phone 734-585-5441. Verified 18 Sep 2026.

Ann Arbor Farmers Market

In Kerrytown, and in October it is the shortest path to the same apples without any driving at all. Several of the growers who run the orchards above sell here, so you get the u-pick fruit without the u-pick. Over 150 vendors in season.

Two market days, Wednesday and Saturday, and both start early and end at 3 p.m. The Wednesday market runs only May through December, so it is available now and gone in January.

315 Detroit St. See the listing.

Open Wednesday and Saturday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., May through December. January through April it is Saturday only, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Verified 18 Sep 2026.

The closing dates, in one place

Two patterns worth noticing. Monday is the worst day to attempt this, with four of the ten either closed or partly closed. And if you leave it until the middle of November, Plymouth’s Red Shed Market and the Farmers Market are close to the last things open.

Weather moves all of it. A hard frost or a bad picking week can end u-pick early even when the store stays open, so call the day before rather than the week before.

If you are building a whole day around this, the Dexter mill pairs naturally with an afternoon in the village, and Kapnick sits at the end of a Tecumseh day trip. For the rest of the season, our things to do in Ann Arbor guide tracks what is open right now, and the Ann Arbor Farmers Market guide goes deeper on the Kerrytown vendors.