Indian Creek Orchard
opened our first WINERY & GRILLE location September 27th of 2008.
Our son Greg Miller (GM / Owner) has partnered with us to run the Wine Production and Grille.
We are leveraging Greg's restaurant experience to help create this new concept.
Our plan is to add additional locations in Western Wisconsin & Minnesota.
Our goal is to bring the Orchard / Vineyard experience to the municipalities all year long.
3 BUSINESSES UNDER 1 ROOF
WINERY / WINE MAKING SUPPLIES: We sell our HONEYCRISP Wines, Wine from 20 other Wineries (most local / regional)
and wine making supplies and ingredients. Full Bar with 37 wines by the glass, beer (regular & micro-brewery) & martinis.
Grille: Small Plates - Grilled foods, salads, pastas, appetizers, specialty dinners, food parings, local foods
Have a light plate or build a 5 course meal!
Specialty Foods (retail): local meats, sausages, cheeses - jams, jellies, preserves - oils, vinaigrettes, sauces - local honey,
maple syrup, our apple syrup - salsa (corn, garden, cherry, raspberry, cranberry, black bean, etc.), pickled veggies -
our Elk meat, fresh cider, apple pies from scratch and of course our apples and veggies we grow.
UPDATE: We recently launched our new menu which
added more appetizers, salads and a new Dinner Menu.
Based on business, it appears to be warmly received. HOWEVER, if you are planning to dine with us on Thursday, Friday or Saturday Evenings, reservations are strongly suggested for parties of 6 or more.
Also, If you are dining prior to going to one of the Festival Theatre Productions (usually starting at 7:30 PM), allow at least an hour for us to prepare your Dinner Menu Entree. If you are short on time, try our
Regular Menu or the Light Plates Menu.
BUT, IF YOU CAN, PLEASE COME EARLY AND HAVE A FLIGHT OR TWO FROM OUR WINE MENU
(40 WINES BY THE GLASS). THIS WILL ALLOW US A LITTLE EXTRA TIME TO PREPARE
YOUR MEALS ON THESE BUSY EVENINGS!
ORCHARD IS OPEN FOR THE SEASON!
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ABOUT OUR ORCHARD:
Our orchard is 6000+ apple trees along with plum, crab-apple and pear trees. We also raise Elk and Elk Hybrids for our meat
production at Elk Ranch, not located at the Orchard.
We encourage families to come out and pick - their - own apples.
- Over the years we have planted blackberries, blueberries, red / golden / black raspberries, hybrid strawberries, white/ pink / red
currants / highbush cranberries and grapes, some at our Orchard, some at our Elk Ranch.
- We also plant pumpkins, squash, gourds, sunflowers, cut flowers, beans, heirloom tomatoes, regular tomatoes and a wide
variety of veggies each year. Our underground trickle irrigation systems help us keep everybody watered and healthy!
- Many years ago we added a bakery and then we also started pressing fresh cider, nothing is better than bakery items made
from scratch and fresh apple cider. With the extra cider, we start experimenting with "hard cider" and making wine.
- we added benches, picnic tables, gazebos, walking paths, kid's play sets, horse carriage rides, pony rides...well you kind
of get the picture, we keep adding fun things for the family to come out and do.
- Come out and visit us, hit the map tab on this web-site for directions.
WE OPEN WHEN THE APPLES START TO RIPEN. THE EARLY VARIETIES START LATE IS JULY TO MID-AUGUST.
Usually we open towards the end of August: Call for an up-date in July - 715-653-2689.
DO NOT TRY TO TEXT US, it is a communist plot to erode American productivity, our children have a different opinion.
Last year (probably due to Al gore's global warming) we had an extremely cool summer.
I think it only got over 90 degrees 1 day all summer. This was after a very long cold winter, once again "global warming" I'm sure. We didn't start picking apples until early in September.
Several visitors to the web-site thought I am too sarcastic about "global warming". HEH, GET A LIFE!
This winter (2008 - 2009) was even longer and colder, hopefully spring and summer will be warmer than last year.
Update: Our Spring this year seems to be rather NORMAL. Apples are currently in FULL BLOOM, if we have a reasonable amount of degree days, we should see apple picking open up in August.
New update: once again the summer was "cooler" than normal!! The Apples and Harvest Dates are backed up at least 2 weeks.
HISTORY OF THE OUR ORCHARD
The first trees were planted in 1985.
- The trees are on dwarf and semi-dwarf root stocks.
- Unfortunately at the time, a rootstock was used that was suppose to be able to survive Zone 4 and Zone 3 winters. Since then it has become apparent (thousands of trees died) that the root stocks could not survive Zone 3.
- Over the past 13 years we have re-planted a good deal of the orchard with new cold hardy root stocks.
- The Orchard is laid out with each row being a certain variety of apple.
- There were 18 varieties of apples, most of them coming from the University of Minnesota , as well as various crab apple trees which were used as pollinators.
- The entire Orchard has an underground trickle irrigation system, which means each row has its own water source.
- This means that drought or not, the apples will get an ample supply of water.
- The orchard was set up with a sales building and a small cooler.
- The small cooler was replaced with a larger “drive-in” cooler that could handle a larger yield.
- The new building housing the large cooler also was set up with apple washing, grading, sizing and packaging equipment.
- Most of the sales were wholesale, there was a small retail area set up in the original building.
- Now virtually all sales are to people visiting the Orchard from surrounding communities including the Twin City Metro Area.
- Originally we do not believe pick-your-own apples was offered, now almost all of the apples are picked by families visiting the orchard.
- Over the years new varieties were added, including Honeycrisp apples.
- gazebos, picnic tables, teepee, camp fire, kid's play sets, paths through the orchard were added over the years.
- Horse Carriage and Pony rides seems to be something apple pickers like to do.
- A bakery was added. We hand pick, peel and make the pies from scratch. We do bake some, but many of our customers prefer to take them home frozen and bake them at home.
- We started squeezing cider....fresh, no preservatives.
- We started selling Wisconsin Wine and Beer. Then we started making our own Wine.
- If anyone is making a licensed locally made food product, we would be happy to help them market their product. But, it needs to be unique, local and high quality!
- We added jams, jellies, sauces, marinades, pickled veggies, local cheeses, meats, sausages, etc.
- This spring we added to our second orchard (250 trees) at our Elk Ranch (for when we retire). Over the past 4 years we also have planted 3 varieties of currants, 3 varieties of raspberries, northern wine grapes, thornless blackberries, 4 varieties of blueberries (200 more this year), high bush cranberries and rhubarb to pick and blend with our apple wine.
- Last fall we opened our first WINERY & GRILLE concept restaurant/winery, basically bringing the orchard / vineyard to town. Good local wines, grilled foods and specialty food products. Our son runs it, we help him select the wine.
- NOW WE ARE LOOKING AT THE NEXT LOCATION.
- The orchard is located further north than virtually any other orchard in the state which is not protected by a natural source, such as the orchards in Bayfield, which are protected by Lake Superior.
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