The cider mill, bakery and parking are genuinely free, but the Funland activity area is separately ticketed, runs only Thursday to Sunday, and Blake's does not publish a price for the Armada location anywhere on its site.
Parking and entry to the property, farm store and cider mill are free - Blake's FAQ states 'Blake's does not charge for parking to visit our property/store.' The Funland activity area is separately ticketed and admission is required for every guest including adults; children 2 and under are free with a paying adult. Blake's does not publish Funland prices for the Armada location on its website - tickets are sold online by date and onsite. U-pick carries a $20 minimum purchase.
Free to walk in. Your spend here is whatever you choose — pumpkins, food, and any paid activities. That makes it a low-risk stop if you are not sure how long the kids will last.
Blake’s Armada is two businesses on one site, and the money question depends entirely on which one you came for. Walking in costs nothing. The parking, the property, the bakery, the market and the open-air cider press are all free, and Blake’s says so directly in its FAQ. You can spend an hour here, buy a bag of donuts and a half gallon of cider, and leave having paid for groceries rather than an outing. That is the cheapest good fall morning in Macomb County.
The other business is Funland, a gated activity area with more than 25 things in it, and that is where the budget disappears. Every guest needs a ticket, adults included, with only children 2 and under free alongside a paying adult. Blake’s does not print the Armada price. Tickets are sold online by date, which means the rate moves with demand, and it also means the only way to find out what a Saturday in mid-October costs is to open the booking flow and select that Saturday. Do that before you drive out, not in the lot.
The farm and the mill are open every day, 8:00am to 6:00pm. Funland is Thursday to Sunday, 10:00am to 6:00pm. That gap is the single most common way a visit here goes wrong. A family that drives out on a Tuesday because it is quieter arrives to find the cider press running, the bakery open, and the pedal-tractor track and the animal farm shut. If the children are the reason for the trip, Thursday is the earliest usable day, and Thursday or Friday is the best combination of open rides and thin crowds.
More than most free cider mills. The open-air press is visible rather than hidden behind glass, there is a market and bakery, a lavender artisan market, and the Cider Mill Grill if you want lunch on site. The tasting room pours hard cider and wine, which makes this a viable stop for a group of adults rather than a children-only errand. Christmas tree sales come later in the year from the same property.
Apples are the anchor crop and the 2026 season opened around July 23 with Ginger Gold, Zestar, Paula Red and early Jonathan. There is a $20 minimum purchase on u-pick, which is worth knowing before you hand a child a bag. That is not an unreasonable minimum - it is roughly a peck - but it converts a casual five-minute pick into a committed purchase, and families who wanted a photo op rather than twenty dollars of fruit should skip the rows.
No pets at Armada. Blake’s is specific about this: the Armada orchard and Big Apple are both closed to animals, while South Lyon and Blake’s Backyard in Almont allow them. If you were planning to bring the dog, you are at the wrong Blake’s.
The farm also flags limited shade in the parking lot. In late September, with an 8:00am open and afternoon sun, that matters more than it sounds - park with it in mind if you are leaving anything that melts.
Finally, do not confuse this site with Big Apple. They are about four miles apart in the same town, under separate phone numbers, and the Halloween attractions are all at the other one.
Armada runs year round, so no 2026 fall opening date is published - the farm, market and cider mill are open daily 8:00am to 6:00pm. The visit that matters is a Thursday or Friday morning: Funland is closed Monday to Wednesday, so a midweek trip early in the week gets you cider and donuts and nothing else, while a Thursday or Friday gets the rides without the Saturday crowd. An 8:00am opening is unusually early for a farm and worth using.
An hour to ninety minutes if you are there for cider, donuts and the market. Three to four hours if you buy Funland tickets, since the activity area is priced as a day and a 25-plus activity list is not worth doing in an hour.
This is the flagship site of a multi-farm operation inside easy reach of metro Detroit, and Funland tickets are sold by reserved date, which means peak October weekends can sell through before you arrive. The farm side has no gate to throttle numbers, so weekend queues land on the donut counter and the cider press rather than at an entrance.
Free - Blake's FAQ states plainly that it does not charge for parking to visit the property or store. The farm does warn there is limited shade in the parking lot, which is a real consideration on a warm September afternoon if you are leaving anything in the car.
Not published. The market, bakery and cider mill are the flat, indoor part of the property; the orchard rows, u-pick blocks and Funland are field surfaces and will be soft after October rain.
You need to know what the day costs before you leave the house. Funland prices for Armada are not printed anywhere on blakefarms.com, and every guest including adults needs a ticket. Skip it too if you are bringing a dog - pets are not allowed at the Armada orchard - or if your only free day is a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday and the children are expecting rides.
Blake's Big Apple sits about four miles away on North Avenue in the same town and is the Halloween-focused site, with Zombie Paintball, a haunted hayride and a haunted barn. It has its own phone number and is open Friday to Sunday only, so do not treat the two as interchangeable.
The property, farm store, bakery and cider mill are free, and so is parking - Blake's FAQ says it does not charge for parking. Funland is a separate ticket that everyone including adults must buy, and u-pick carries a $20 minimum purchase.
Blake's does not publish Funland prices for the Armada location on its website. Tickets are sold online by date and at the farm, so the figure you pay depends on the day you pick. The sister farm at South Lyon does print prices, but those are that site's rates and not a quote for Armada.
Thursday to Sunday, 10:00am to 6:00pm, while the farm, market and cider mill run daily 8:00am to 6:00pm. A Monday to Wednesday visit gets the mill and the bakery only.
No. Pets are not permitted at the Armada orchard or at Blake's Big Apple. Blake's does allow leashed pets at its South Lyon farm and at Blake's Backyard in Almont.
2026 dates had not been published when we last checked. In past seasons it has run: Daily (farm, store and cider mill); Funland Thursday-Sunday. Check with the farm before driving out.
Admission is free. Parking and entry to the property, farm store and cider mill are free - Blake's FAQ states 'Blake's does not charge for parking to visit our property/store.' The Funland activity area is separately ticketed and admission is required for every guest including adults; children 2 and under are free with a paying adult. Blake's does not publish Funland prices for the Armada location on its website - tickets are sold online by date and onsite. U-pick carries a $20 minimum purchase.
17985 Armada Center Road, Armada, MI 48005, in Macomb County. It is one of 10 patches we track in Metro Detroit.
We track 10 patches in Metro Detroit, 9 of which are free to walk into. Entry here costs nothing, which puts it in the minority even in a region with several free options.
What sets it apart locally: it has rides and play structures, which most Metro Detroit patches on our list do not.
One caveat worth repeating: this farm had not published its 2026 dates when we last checked, while 5 of the 10 patches we track in Metro Detroit had. Treat any date you see elsewhere as last year's until the farm confirms it.
There are 2 other patches we track in Macomb County. All Metro Detroit patches →
Map pin is set to the town centre. Navigate to the street address above, not the pin.
blakefarms.com
Checked August 2026.