Fruitful Orchard and Cider Mill

The Fruitful Orchard, located just west of Gladwin on M-​61, is a popular seasonal business offering fresh apples, cider, donuts and pies and a small gift shop. There is a small dining area incorporated into the gift shop so that you can enjoy these autumn treats on premises. We love their donuts — nothing fancy, but delicious, in a variety of flavors ranging from buttermilk to blueberry to apple cider; fresh from the kitchen they’re melt-​in-​your mouth. Their cider is also very good, made from a seasonally changing mix of apples. Despite the plethora of fruit orchards elsewhere in Michigan, this orchard is really the only one in the Clare-​Gladwin County area… but it’s worth adding to regional fall apple tours; it’s a cute, friendly little place. It’s also in the heart of the local Amish community — it employs many Amish people in the kitchen and cider mill — and is close to a variety of home-​based Amish farmstands and other businesses as well as picturesque Amish farrms. And the whole area is great leaf-​peeping territory come fall. And unlike some of the larger mid-​Michigan cider mills, while it can get very busy during peak season there isn’t the sort of circus atmosphere of screaming children and befuddled adults that sometimes keeps non-​young-​parents away from such establishments; you definitely feel like you’re on a working farm, and the focus is on the apples. So if you’re in the Gladwin area between September and November, take a meander into the surrounding countryside (nearby Grout and Bard Roads and their surrounds, and the southern half of neighboring Clare County, are your best bet to encounter Amish culture and commerce), before or after a cider-​and-​donut break at the orchard… it’s a great excuse for a relaxing weekend road trip.