The Heat Goes On…and So Do We. Welcome August.
Conventionally-grown produce available at the market:
- Apples (see note below)
- Blueberries (Picked and U-pick, see note below)
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Cucumbers
- Cut Flowers
- Green Beans, Picked or U-Pick
- Onions
- Peas! Sugar Snap Peas, Snow Peas and Shell-Out Peas
- Peppers! Bell Peppers, Sweet Banana Peppers, and Hot Hungarian Peppers
- Potatoes: Finally we are digging our own potatoes and have 3 varieties available: Yukon Gold, Red Norland and Adirondack Blue
- Summer Squash and Spaghetti Squash
- Sweet Corn
- Tomatoes (still from the greenhouse, no field tomatoes yet)
- Zucchini
Emma-Grace enjoying sweet corn as a teething toy!
Lodi Apples: Still available for about one more week. This variety makes a delightful tart applesauce and can be used in pies, breads and other recipes. Summer apples are not “keepers” so once you get this apple, you want to refrigerate it and use it soon.. They are priced at: $20 a bushel, $12 a half-bushel, $7 a peck, or a half-peck bag for $4. We’ll also have samples for those of you who want to try this mouth-puckering apple.
Picked Blueberries continue on the market: 10-pound boxes: $25, 5-pound boxes: $13.50, quarts: $5 or pints: $3.00. The blueberry variety is still Duke, which is a nice large, sweet berry. Some are coming out of our field and again this year we will be supplementing from Brookside Farms in Paw Paw, Michigan as we have done in previous years.
U-Pick Blueberries are still available: We have a relatively small field compared to most major blueberry growers (only three acres), so our u-pick blueberries are for folks who just want to come over to get a few pounds or so at a time and pick them because they want the fun experience! We are picking “Jersey” berries now which is a smaller but very sweet berry. Please call before coming to make sure our u-pick patch is open, as we will close the field when they are picked out and need to ripen. 269-244-5690
- The hours for u-pick will be 8 until 5:45 each day, must be finished and checked out by 6 back at market. We cannot let anyone start picking after 5:15 p.m.
- Pricing will be $2.00 a pound to pick (this makes it about $3.50 a quart)
- We will have them off and on probably through most of the month of July
- We have buckets for you to pick in and boxes to send them home in
- There is a 20 pound picking limit per group in order for us to accommodate the number of people who want to pick them here
For anyone who wants large quantities, we would recommend Brookside Farms as a great place to go. They are located in Paw Paw, their phone number is 269-657-3500 or find them online at: http://brooksidefarmsmi.com/
Naturally grown produce from Becca: Looking for lettuce? It’s in the pop cooler! With the summer heat, I’ve begun sticking a lot of my greens in there, as well as carrots and occasionally some other things. As always, my produce is grown with organic standards in mind without synthetic chemicals. If you want, call ahead and we’ll set some aside for you as often we sell out fast – 269 244 5690.
- Green Beans from the hoophouse, $3/lb., last ones of the season as I pulled the plants to seed fall and winter produce!
- Bell Peppers ($1/each), Jalapeno Peppers ($0.25/each), and Capperino Peppers (5/$1) from the hoophouse. These are like pimento (pimiento) peppers, just smaller. Great for shish kebabs, stuffing and pickling. Slightly spicy (though much less spicy than jalapenos)
- Cherry Tomatoes from the hoophouse ($3/pt.), Big Beef Slicer Tomatoes ($2.50/lb.), and the first of the Heirloom Tomatoes. I also have boxes of Plum Tomatoes which are sort of like a cross between a Roma and a Slicer…slicer flavor and texture but smaller and with few seeds.
Becca’s sungold cherry tomatoes are amazing–they sell out fast
Becca’s plum tomatoes not only look good, they taste good too
Red Russian, Curly, Siberian and Tuscan Kale, $3/half lb. bag. I will also be doing a sale on kale this weekend! You can bag your own Red Russian Kale for $3/lb.
- Lettuce
- Basil from the hoophouse and from the field, $1/bag or loose for $1/oz. Now is the time to order basil for pesto if you want it. Please call ahead with how much you’d like so we can make a bag for you. 269 244 5690.
The u-pick herb garden is open for u-pick at $1/bag, look for the bags and scissors hanging on the large bird overlooking the garden. Bring your recipes and pick them fresh! We know some of you just want to get your herbs already picked, so we are going to try to have some of the more popular herbs available picked and ready.
Brandy is available as is Cherries Jubilant Hard Cider and Kaiser Cyser (the traditional name for an apple-honey wine). Kaiser Cyser is a very strong-bodied wine, best served chilled. Both the cider and the cyser are now about ten months old. We will have open tasting at the market from 1pm-3pm on Saturday for people who would like to sample.
Other Local Products:
- Thick Greek-style yogurt
- Eggs
- Cheese
- Cards
- Pecan and Cashew Brittle
- Honey and Maple Syrup
- Michigan made chips
- Michigan-made Sanders Dark Chocolate Fruit Dip
- Gift items
We are sorry to inform you that our meat supplier, Drakes, is unable to continue to supply us. We are in the process of searching for a new supplier and this may takes us a while. We want to make sure we find the right supplier that can provide the quality of meats that we would want for our market and customers.
From the Bakery: Lots of requests for coconut-cream pie, so we listened and are making them for this weekend. Also, we are making a new muffin–lemon poppy seed to add to the other kinds we make. Let us know if you like these. This weekend in the bakery we will also have:
- Donuts: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Cherry, Buttermilk and Blueberry.
- Fruit Pies: Apple, Blueberry, Blueberry Rhubarb, Cherry, Strawberry Rhubarb, and Rhubarb
- Specialty pies: Fresh Blueberry Glaze and Coconut cream
- Cookies: Zucchini-Chocolate Chip, Cut Out, Monster, Lemon, Peanut Butter, Ginger Molasses and Chocolate Crinkles
- Bread: Blueberry-Zucchini, Cinnamon, Whole Wheat, Vegetable, Honey Oatmeal, Italian, Whole Grain, Tuscan, and Hamburger Buns/Hot Dog Buns
- Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns
- Muffins: Double Dutch Chocolate, Cherry-Almond, Pistachio, Wildberry, Raisin Bran, and Lemon-poppy seed
- Dessert Bars: Cream Cheese Cookie, Caramel Brownie, Mississippi Mud, Tiramisu, Lemon, Chocolate Truffle, Peanut Butter Mousse Brownie, Chocolate Caramel Mousse Brownie
- Frozen Slushies: Welch’s Black Cherry or Apple Cider
Lodi apple pie coming out of the oven–so juicy!
Happenings on the farm this week:
Yes, it was hot! Our heat loving crops loved it, those of us working in it, not so much. Water was the big deal on the farm this week—making sure everyone who works so hard here stayed hydrated in these true days of summer, plus having to turn on all of the irrigation systems.
The u-Pick tomato field getting a much needed drink of water
We thinned our peaches–which may seem strange given that we don’t have that many, but we want to give each peach a chance to grow to a nice size, and get enough off so that the branches don’t break.
Taking off peaches to make room for “keepers” to grow
If you have been wondering about the tent-like structure made out of old doors, it is going to be a shelled corn play area. We are in the process of getting the corn to fill it, and toys (little dump trucks, small pails and scoopers, etc) for kids to play in (like a sand box). If you would like to donate any toys you have to the cause, please bring them over!
The new corn crib play area–still in process
We really appreciate all of the new people we’ve met via the Texas Township Farmer’s Market. If you live near Texas Corners, feel free to visit us Tuesdays from 4pm-7pm! You can even call ahead and have Becca bring you specific items. The Huss Project (and *culture is not optional) also sells our baked goods and produce at the Three Rivers Farmers Market. Feel free to call ahead if you would like us to send something there for you to pick up.
This week we thought we’d bring you something new and fun, the beekeeping and honey update:
- We have 18 managed honeybee hives, providing critical pollination for almost everything we grow on the farm. Charlotte Hubbard and her husband Marshall Beachler are the beekeepers, assisted on occasion by Becca (who is Charlotte’s daughter).
- In honor of our parents–Corey Lake Orchards founders Dayton and Allene Hubbard, and our uncle, who spent many summers at the farm and was a state apiarist in Virginia, we have three commemorative hives. Our beekeepers report they were stunned to find Dad’s hive (a first year colony) with excess honey this week. They tell us that most first year colonies don’t usually produce excess honey, but we all know Dad’s amazing work ethic!
- This photo shows them “bearding,” a term beekeepers use to describe what happens when the field workers come in for the day. With so much going on inside (fanning to reduce honey to the right moisture level, raising ba-bees, etc.) the field workers just hang out on the “front porch” when the hive is crowded and / or the humidity is high.
- Here’s a shot of their hard work — a beautiful frame of honey. We sell this from-the-farm honey on the market, and all profits go to charity.
- The excessively wet and cool conditions have challenged the bees this year, and most of the colonies are behind where we expect them to, well, bee. They’re working hard to make what they’ll need to survive the winter … except for hives like Dad’s hive, which is producing honey for human consumption.
- On a personal note, the Sparty hive, a second year colony, is also producing excess honey, and boasts a better beard.
- Cantaloupe and watermelon: mid to late August
- Plums: Some eating varieties around August 6, but the Stanley prune plums probably the last week of August. If you would like some of these to can, please call us and get added to our list, we’ll call you when they are ready. (269-244-5690)
- Pears: late August, probably the last week. Please call to get on our Bartlett pear bushel list (269-244-5690)
- Apples: Fall apples probably mid to late September
- Grapes: mid to late September
- Peaches: We are all still waiting for peaches. We hope to have some in a few weeks, but sadly, we will not have very many peaches this year due to the harsh winter, so we will only be selling them in small quantities, like a 2-quart box. We grow three kinds of peaches: Coral Star, Flamin’ Fury, and Red Haven. If you are looking for some place to pick peaches yourself or to buy by the bushel, we would recommend that you try some of the farms on the west side of the state (Benton Harbor/Coloma/Bangor) or in the South Haven area. A good website to search is michiganfarmfun.com and you can sort by peaches.
It is hard to believe that this is the end of July, a huge accomplishment for me this week was finally finishing the flower planting in the terrace garden (and 3 flats of them were annuals!!). As the farm picks up its pace with so much produce coming in and so much daily maintenance needed to keep everything growing right–it truly gets overwhelming for us. Sometimes the goal for the day becomes to get through the day–hoping we have made a dent in the long to-do list. Customers often comment that we must really enjoy eating all of this fresh, healthy produce. And yes—we nibble frequently during the day, a green bean here, a tomato there, lots of sugar snap peas, an apple, but we are usually so tired at the end of these long days that preparing a meal with the bounty of our farm just doesn’t happen. But we never get tired of any of you telling us how good something was that you got here, or how you prepared it, or that you ate the entire pie or loaf of bread because it was so good. That’s what keeps us going. So thank you. We appreciate you.
As always, everyone at Corey Lake Orchards thanks you for buying local. Hope to see you out at the farm soon.
