Corey Lake Orchards

While we had hoped stay open a bit longer to sell apples, Mother Nature is forcing us to change those plans.  For those of you out over the weekend watching us brush the snow off your purchases and trying to keep the credit card machine from freezing….you will agree with us that it is time to move off our open air market to another plan.

So our last official day the market will be open with normal hours will be this Wednesday, November 27th from 8 until 6.  After that, we will be open the month of December by appointment only (call us on 269-244-5690) or….if you happen to catch us here at the farm when you come by.  We have lots of apples left and they will remain at their Buy one, Get one pricing.

Cyber Monday Sale:  To promote our new on-line store–any apples or pears which you purchase on Monday, December 2nd will be half price—(offer is for fruit only–half price does not include shipping and handling.)  Orders must be placed on Cyber Monday.   To find our store, you can click the “online store” button on the right hand side of our website, or click here.

The Brandy House will be open on Saturdays only from 1 – 4, through the month of December.  So….you will be able to purchase your holiday/New Year’s gifts of our brandies or Pole Cat wines then.

The Bakery is closed for the year except for doing Thanksgiving and holiday orders.  Don’t forget to pick your Thanksgiving order up on Wednesday from 8 until 4.  Also, you can still place an order for the December holiday season by calling us on 269-244-5690.   Please place your order by December 18th, those orders can be picked up on December 23rd.

In this week of giving thanks, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.  This year brought many changes.  Thank you for enduring our months of construction on our parking lot, bakery addition and new cold storage building.     We owe a huge thank you to the many great local suppliers who helped make this possible, this list includes:  Roberts Brothers Excavation, Byler Electric, Manchester Mechanical, Portage Mechanical, Howard Overbeek Architectural Services, Rick Leland Construction, Ora Hostetler Construction, J and K Paint, Huddlestun Lumber Company, Roderick Plumbing, Flametamer Fire Protection, Tomas Mosier Well & Drilling Company, Walking Tall Drywall and Construction, Jeff Todd Construction, Sherwin Williams, Sanderson Insulation, Harvey Harshberger Cement Work, Elliott Food Equipment and Dustin White.  They were all great to work with, did excellent work and went out of their way to keep our project on schedule and within budget.    We would recommend any of these suppliers to you for your needs.    We also would like to thank the many organizations that supported us.   This list includes:  Fabius Township Inspectors, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and our local St. Joseph County Health Department.

Please join me in thanking our wonderful employees at Corey Lake Orchards.  We thank those who toil in the fields, vineyards and orchards year round–sometimes in relentless weather conditions; that maintain and repair our equipment; to those who got our bakery up and running smoothly, even learning how to make donuts on the fly; to those who make cider and brandy–both messy and long processes; to those who serve each customer with a smile and do their best to make sure our customers have a great experience while they are here.

Closing for the year always brings mixed emotions for us.  While we are grateful for a few months at a slower pace, we really miss our customers.  One of the best parts about our job is being able to interact directly with our customers… when you sample something on the market that was just picked or just made in the bakery—your “Wow…that was delicious,” is what keeps all of us going and makes our hard work worth it.  So thanks to all of our customers—from those who have been coming here for over 50 years to the many new ones that came this year….we truly appreciate your business and buying local.

We will keep you updated during our winter season.  Just remember…..only 5 months to go for fresh asparagus, 6 months for our first greenhouse tomatoes and 7 months until strawberries are in season!!!

Beth

This weekend will  be our last weekend for cider and donuts—-while we had hoped to press cider one more time, nature once again rules and with the below freezing temperatures—we have had to turn off the water to our cider mill and jugging room.  So hurry out to get cider in the next few days.  On Saturday, we will make our last batch of donuts for the year—so we will have them available on Saturday and then what is left for Sunday.

The bakery is still taking orders for Thanksgiving and Holiday pies and other goodies.  Stop in and fill out an order form or call us with your order, 269-244-5690–and let our wonderful bakers do the work for you!  The last day to place a Thanksgiving order is Sunday, November 24th.    Pick up for Thanksgiving orders will be Wednesday, November 27th, from 8 until 4. 

Our “we still have too many apple problem” continues.  We’re thankful for those of you who are still coming out and taking advantage of our end of season specials (listed below.)  But we have decided to offer you a few other ways to get some apples out to folks:  a local delivery service and a shipping service.  We have received many calls from customers asking if we could ship apples for them and so we are now set up to do that.  Finally….you can send a taste of “Corey Lake Orchards” to your friends, relatives or even yourself any where in the country.

Shipping information:

• We’ll be shipping apples by UPS or the US Postal Service (your pick)!   For apple shipping, you need to visit our New Online Store.   You can click the “online store” button on the right hand side of our website, or click here.
• To ensure quality, we’re offering apples that travel well: Fuji, Golden Delicious, Rome, Red Delicious, Pink Lady, and Northern Spy. We’ll be shipping on Mondays to ensure fresh delivery by Friday. We’re also shipping bosc pears, so take a look.
• Check out our Corey Lake Orchard’s Student Care package in our new on-line store.  If you know a student who could use a boost (remember finals are approaching), check out our campus care package which contains apples, pears, brownies from our bakery and a special surprise.  Simply place an order with us through our new online store and click the Campus Care Package option.
• Do you know a Western Michigan University student? Since they are local, you could show your support by buying a half-peck of apples through our apple delivery service, or you could take advantage of our WMU student Care Package! Exams start December 9^th, and we’ll deliver care packages for free, complete with an encouraging smile, on Friday, December 6^th. Go to our new online store to order.

Apple Delivery information: 

• Introducing apple delivery! That’s right! If you live in Constantine, Kalamazoo, Portage, Schoolcraft, or Three Rivers, we’ll deliver up to 5 bushels of apples straight to your door for a delivery fee of $5. Click this link to look at a map of our delivery area, and give us a call at (269) 303-7157 to order and ask for Becca.     These orders need to be prepaid with a credit card, so please have that available when you call.
• We’ll be delivering apples to Constantine and Three Rivers on Mondays, and Portage, Schoolcraft, and Kalamazoo on Mondays and Tuesdays every week.  We can only do these deliveries if we have at least five people sign up each week, so if you’re interested, make sure you get a friend, neighbor or coworker to sign up too.
• For delivery we currently have:  Fuji, Golden Delicious, Northern Spy, Rome, Red Delicious, Cortland and Jonathan in stock.
• All of the above apples are priced at $24 bushel, $13 half-bushel, $7 peck and $4 a half-peck  (Plus the $5 delivery fee.)

The Brandy House will remain open for tasting and tours on Saturdays, from 1 to 4, through December.  A sip of our brandy is sure to warm you up on these chilly days and come smell the wonderful aroma in our brandy room with all of the apples we are fermenting for apple brandy.

We will continue to be open daily in November, from 8 – 6. (we will be closed on Thanksgiving day.)  Our last day of normal hours will be Saturday, November 30th.   Depending on how many apples we have left then, we will publish our reduced hours in December.

Picked apples:

• Our “Buy one;   Get one or Give one” special will continue until we close for the year, so come on out and take advantage of it.
• Here’s the deal: You can buy any quantity of apples, and we will give you the same size quantity for free.** So, buy a bushel, get a free bushel….buy a 1/2 peck, get a free 1/2 peck, etc.    Can’t use the extra bag of apples?  Then we will be happy to donate it on your behalf to one of the many food banks in the area that we are supplying.
• This special will apply to the following varieties of apples which we currently have:  Fuji, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, Northern Spy, Rome
• (**The BOGO offer is not a 50% off special, you must get the 2nd bag of apples).
• The BOGO special will not apply to the following varieties of apples which are already specially priced:  Red Delicious (Bag your own 1/2 bushel for $5) and Cortland & Jonathan (1/2 price or $12 a bushel)
• Needless to say, this is a great time to stock up for the winter on apples. The apples that keep the best are:   Northern Spy, Red Delicious, Rome, and Fuji.   Pick up one of our information sheets when you are here on the best way to store apples.
• Note:  The following apples are now gone for the year:  Macintosh, Golden Supreme, Mutsu, Ida Red, Cameo,  JonaGold, Braeburn, Pink Lady and Gala.
• For a description of these and all of the apples that we grow, please go to the apple listing on our website:  http://www.coreylakeorchards.com/seasonal-offerings/apples/

Everyone at Corey Lake Orchards thanks you for buying local and we hope to see you out before we wrap up our season for good.   Please have a very safe and wonderful Thanksgiving.    Thanksgiving reminds us once again how thankful we are for our customers.    Beth

If you are trying to pick apples or grapes, we would encourage you to try to do that within the next few days, given the weather forecast for this week.  If it gets below 25 degrees for 3 or 4 nights in a row….that could be enough to freeze the apples and grapes.   So, hurry out!!

Below we a re repeating the same information as last week for our schedule and what is available: 

We will continue to be open daily in November, from 8 – 6.  We will remain open as long as we have picked apples left to sell.  With as many as we have left, this could be a long time, probably at least up until Thanksgiving.

Our “Buy one;   Get one or Give one” special will continue until we close for the year, so come on out and take advantage of it.

Here’s the deal: You can buy any quantity of apples, and we will give you the same size quantity for free.** So, buy a bushel, get a free bushel….buy a 1/2 peck, get a free 1/2 peck, etc.    Can’t use the extra bag of apples?  Then we will be happy to donate it on your behalf to one of the many food banks in the area that we are supplying.

This special will apply to the following varieties of apples which we currently have:

• Fuji
• Golden Delicious
• Honeycrisp
• Northern Spy
• Pink Lady
• Rome
• (**The BOGO offer is not a 50% off special, you must get the 2nd bag of apples).

The BOGO special will not apply to the following varieties of apples which are already specially priced:

• Red Delicious (Bag your own 1/2 bushel for $5)
• Cortland & Jonathan (1/2 price or $12 a bushel)

Needless to say, this is a great time to stock up for the winter on apples. The apples that keep the best are:   Northern Spy, Red Delicious, Rome, and Fuji.   Pick up one of our information sheets when you are here on the best way to store apples.

Note:  The following apples are now gone for the year:  Macintosh, Golden Supreme, Mutsu, Ida Red, Cameo,  JonaGold, Braeburn, and Gala.

For a description of these and all of the apples that we grow, please go to the apple listing on our website:  http://www.coreylakeorchards.com/seasonal-offerings/apples/

Apple Gleaning “Plus”:  Our end of season gleaning is open and we are calling it Apple Gleaning “Plus” this year because it is not a typical end of harvest situation..  Because we did not finish harvesting the apples this year….there are many trees that have not been touched with beautiful apples on them.    So this is a great way for folks trying to get a lot of apples to do it very economically.  You may pick apples left on the tree or off the ground for $5/bushel.    So for those people who want to press their own cider, make a huge amount of apple sauce, get “animal” apples, etc, this is the time.

U-Pick grapes:  The White Niagara grapes and Purple Concord are still open for picking.  We have plenty of both types left to pick.  We expect to have grapes available up until the first hard–killing frost.  We have had enough frost to kill off part of the foliage, so the grapes are very easy to pick now because the leaves are out of the way!

The Brandy House will remain open for tasting and tours on Saturdays, from 1 to 4, through December.  A sip of our brandy is sure to warm you up on these chilly days.

The bakery is now taking orders for Thanksgiving and Holiday pies and other goodies.  Stop in and fill out an order form and let our wonderful bakers do the work for you!

Due to popular demand, we are going to try to continue making donuts on Saturdays and Sundays  only in November as long as the market remains open.  We will also try to continue to press cider into November as well.  We seem to have some customers who claim they are addicted to our donuts and cider and want us to keep them coming as long as we can! So, we are willing to give it a try.

 Everyone at Corey Lake Orchards thanks you for buying local and we hope to see you out soon.     Beth