UNTIL YOU’VE VISITED Minnesota’s largest candy store along US Highway 169 in Jordan, you can’t imagine a place quite like this. Better than Candy Land or the Chocolate Factory. Sprawling, brimming with candy. And more.
This 30-plus years family-run business—officially known as Jim’s Apple Farm—is an experience. A tourist attraction. A fun and unique place to shop. Think polka music pulsing through the jolting yellow machine shed style building. Think a lengthy yellow picket fence stretching along the highway like a navigational arrow. Think discovering candy you never knew existed. Think bacon.
Yes, bacon. There’s an entire section devoted to bacon.
And taffy.
And licorice.
And chocolate. And…
Soda. Soda of common and unusual flavors, some with attention-grabbing names.
I laughed and I smiled in this magical world of creativity, colors and candy.
If you crave happiness, this place excels in that emotion. It’s the type of playful setting that spirits you away from negativity. Erases worries. Offers a temporary reprieve from reality. And we all need that. Especially now.
There are pumpkins
and puzzles
and peeled apples (baking in pies). Reminders of Grandma’s kitchen. Scent of cinnamon. Red checked tablecloths. Pied Piper nuances leading you to pie still warm from the oven. Caramel apple pie for me crafted with locally-sourced apples.
But I resisted Lucky Lights, remembering the chalky taste of those addicting slim cylinders from my childhood days when smoking candy cigarettes seemed cool. I skipped purchasing any candy, which is possible if you convince yourself that you really don’t need the sugar. Other shoppers fully compensated for my solo pie purchase, bulging their shopping carts with candy.
For me, exploring Minnesota’s largest candy store was about the experience. And about the fruity sweetness of caramel-laced apple pie tasting of sky and rain and autumn in Minnesota.
TELL ME: Have you visited Jim’s Apple Farm or a similar candy store? I’d like to hear about your experience.
FYI: Located at 20430 Johnson Memorial Drive, Jordan, Jim’s is open seasonally from 9 a.m. – 7 p.m. daily, June – November. I’d advise visiting on a weekday, like I did, because I’ve heard that on weekends the store is packed. Check Facebook for more info; there’s no website or business phone. Bring cash. Credit cards are not accepted.
Please check back as I bring you more images from this mega Minnesota candy store.
© Copyright 2016 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
What a FUN Place to Explore! Some of that soda sounds interesting as well as nasty. Happy Weekend – Enjoy 🙂
You would have fun here, Renee. I agree about the soda.
I would not be tempted by the candy at all, but the pie and fresh fruit is always good with me. Ooh, and I might be terribly tempted by caramel apples!
Good for you and what a good eye to notice the “caramel apples” sign.
I am less tempted by sweets than I once was given I rarely bake anymore. With the kids gone, I just don’t need cookies, bars and the like sitting around my kitchen.
I have been to the candy store…it was a fun experience. I walked away with caramel corn. I think the puzzles was a good discovery. I will remember that if I am ever looking for a special one. There was a great variety.
The puzzles were unexpected. And, like you, I need to remember this selection when I need a puzzle for a puzzle lover in the family. And that would not be me.
Oh my….
You should take your grandchildren here. Just remember the cash.
As much as we love them, the wonderful thing about grandchildren is returning them to their proper parents. This difficult and frequently impossible if you sugar them up. I personally have been stuck with six grandkids for an entire weekend after I failed to adequately secure the candy dish.
Point taken. Since I am a new grandma, I have much to learn.
I have driven by it so many times. I always think about stopping but it always looks like a tourist trap. I am going to have to pull in nex time.
Oh, you need to stop. It’s fun, just plain fun. If you don’t want to buy anything, you don’t have to. But you must stop. You will leave smiling. Just remember my advice about avoiding the candy store on weekends.
Love the store, the music, the new bathrooms and the creative layout of candy, food, pop, puzzles ect. Thank you for taking such great pictures of the store!
More pictures to come in several additional posts, Patty.
So the Minnesota’s Largest Porta Potties I saw while there have been replaced by “real bathrooms?”
OK……..your post is wonderfully awfully enticing!!!!!! But the real “kicker” are the pies (actually anything “homemade”+ fruit)!!!!!! It’s a good thing it’s almost lunch time!!!!!!! LOL!!!!
The pies always get me, too. Walk into this business and the scent of baking pies will lead you right to them.
I am all over that bacon. I know a lot of my Iowa friends would love it!
Time for your Iowa friends to road trip to Jordan.
Do you know some “Iowegians” in Iowa! We used to live in Austin, where the jokes are prolific!
Oh, yes, Iowegians. Love them.
But no photo of the TARDIS in the corner?! Sad. We stopped there Halloween weekend. We always pass by on our way to The Cities but don’t always stop. Closed in the winter and no on-line presence. He does his own thing! And yes, weekends are wall to wall
People, no kidding.
Oh, not to worry. I have a photo of the TARDIS that will be forthcoming as I continue my series on Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store.
Jim’s Apple Farm has a Facebook page.
Oh my, the memories flooded in. In times past (about every month on average) I remember driving to MSP on hwy 169, and passing Jordan. Back then it was only Jim’s Apple Farm and I recall that fondly having purchased many apples there. Wow what a change they have made! I too am not a huge fan of candy but apple pie, count me in on that! I would also be interest in the PEZ candy and their all to numerous kinds of dispensers. Bacon tooth past and soda, along with ranch dressing soda hummm, but hey, I’ll try anything once. Next time I am in the Jordon area I will be sure to stop there and the Happy Chef restaurant in Mankato, Emma Krumbees, in Bell Plaine and all the places I used to pit stop at, if they’re all still there…………………..
More photos forthcoming to draw you back to Jim’s Apple Farm, but not as you remember.
When I was in college, I spent a lot of time at Happy Chef in Mankato studying over a mini-loaf of bread iced with powdered sugar frosting. Kind of like a roll. I don’t know if Happy Chef is still there. Emma Krumbees is and I stopped there and photographed that too while on my way to Jim’s.
Oh Audrey the memories……………………………….. Thanks!
You are welcome.
Oh my goodness what a fun place. I once bought my Mom a cat piddle flavored soda. She still has it sitting on a self in her house. Bacon flavored tooth paste sounds interesting.
I can understand why your mom wouldn’t drink that pop.
I enjoyed my visit there. Went with some ladies as a little field trip. We all bought more than a solo apple pie. Such nostalgia wandering the stores. i was glad did not have any children with me as would have been a hazard 🙂 The clarity of your photos really captured each product perfectly.
More photos to come. And what a fun field trip. Thinking just like a teacher. 🙂
Amazing.
I’d def. be exploring this store and go directly and immediately to the chocolate section
Oh, & the pies!
Oh. My. Goodnesssssssssssss Gracious!
Fabulous photos, Audrey!!
Thank you, Kim. My willpower must have been strong on the day our visit given I did not purchase any chocolate.
This looks amazing! I have never been to this candy store. Looks like a future road trip 🙂
Oh, yes, road trip. With the grands. Remember your cash.