• Cortland:  $18 a bushel, $9.50 a half bushel, $6.00 peck
• Honey Crisp:  $1.00/lb.  We try to have these on the market at all times, but they are not ripening consistently, so there may be days we don’t have them, you may want to call in advance to make sure we do before you drive over  269-244-5690.  We also try to offer bags of “not so perfect” Honeycrisp for half price.  Check these out when you are at the market.
• JonaGold:  $18 a bushel, $9.50 a half bushel, $6.00 peck
• Jonathon:  $16 a bushel, $8.50 a half bushel, $5.00 peck

Apples which are gone for the year:

• Jon-A-Mac: (very light crop)
• Gala:  (very light crop)
• MacIntosh:   (very light crop)
• Molly’s Delicious:  (very light crop)

U-Pick Apples:   An estimate on when U-Pick apples might be available is the 2nd week of September.  We hope to provide an opening date by the end of this week.  Of course it depends on the weather and how they ripen.  We will post the opening date and send an email as soon as we know this.  They will be the same price as last year to pick which is $12/bushel.

Thanks,

Beth

The unusual summer weather pattern has brought a different look than normal to the market for Labor Day.  Many of the summer fruits and vegetables have already finished for the year, such as sweet corn, green beans, summer squash, cucumbers, peaches, plums and pears.    It is starting to look and feel like fall with apples coming in.  Here is what we have available this weekend:

• Apples:   Jon-A-Mac’s, Cortland, Molly’s Delicious and Honey Crisp
• White Niagra Grapes
• Raspberries
• Watermelons
• Eggplant
• Peppers
• Onions
• October or “shell out” beans
• Lots and lots of beautiful tomatoes, already picked or for you to pick

Homemade Baked Goods:  We have pies, cookies, cinnamon rolls and apple dumplings available on Saturday and Sunday and since it is a holiday, we will have them on Monday too.    My recommendation for this weekend is the pear pie, it is a once a year exclusive using our Barlett pears; it is amazing!

U-Pick Apples:   An estimate on when U-Pick apples might be available is the 2nd week of September.  Of course it depends on the weather and how they ripen.  We will post the opening date and send an email as soon as we know.  They will be $12/bushel, the same price as last year.

 U-Pick Grapes:  We have plenty of white Niagra and blue Concord grapes this year.   However, for those of you who have picked grapes in previous years, you will notice there are fewer than in previous years due to early frost and some hail damage.  We have a total of 120 acres of grapes.

• White Niagra grapes:  We are going to go open the white Niagra grapes for picking this weekend for those who just want to get a few to eat.   If you pick carefully, you can find some bunches that are ready, but most are not. If you want larger quantities  for grape jelly, juice or wine, you need to wait for them to ripen more.   Since the weather has cooled down, I would recommend waiting to pick larger quantities the week of September 13th. 
• Blue/Purple Concord grapes:  Our best estimate is these will be open for U-Pick the week of September 13th. 
• If you want both color grapes, you should wait to come when the Concord picking opens.  There will still be plenty of white grapes available then.
• U-Pick Grape Pricing:  Will remain the same as last year which is 20 cents/lb.   If you pick over 100 pounds, it is 15 cent/pound.  A bushel of grapes weighs approximately 50 pounds
•  As most of you know, once we open the U-Pick grapes, they will be  available up until Welch’s comes to harvest them.   Preliminary information from Welch’s says they will probably harvest our grapes the week of September 20th.  However, this can change, so we will keep you posted with the latest.   I would also encourage you to check back on the website or call to confirm since we are only able to give estimates right now.  269-244-5690. 
• Picking Instructions for U-Pick Grapes

1. Please bring containers to pick your grapes in such as buckets, baskets, tubs, etc.
2. Please check in with the market clerk when you arrive and make sure your containers are weighed before you pick.
3. Please bring garden clippers/scissors/knife or a similar tool to cut the grapes, this makes it easier.
4. Dress appropriately for a vineyard setting where natural hazards exist: Bees/hornets/wasps/poison ivy or poison oak and places where the ground is not level, etc. You might want to wear enclosed shoes/socks and pants due to the tall grass. (We cannot mow the grass this close to harvesting….)

Brandy House Tours and Tasting:  Since we are embarking upon cider season, we will not be able to have our Brandy house open on Saturdays from 1 – 4.  We apologize for this and will advise you when we will offer this again.

Labor Day Weekend Remembrance: Labor Day marks the 5th year of the passing of Allene Hubbard, who was the owner and creator of this beautiful farm market, and of course, my mother.  Her spirit and our wonderful memories of her remain strong as the family works to carry on her legacy. 

We thank you again for your support of our farm and for buying locally grown produce and goods.  Have a great weekend,

Beth

Homemade Baked goods.    This Friday, our bakers will be introducing two new items:  Pear pie (made with our Bartlett pears) and apple dumplings (made with our Cortland apples)   Both of these are truly amazing and you will want to try them.  Baked goods are in the market on Friday, Saturday and Sundays.

U-Pick tomatoes, Help us to help others:    This week, we have been offering a special to anyone picking tomatoes:  Pick a bushel for yourself  and then pick an extra half bushel for us to donate to a local foodbank, and we will only charge you $10 a bushel instead of $12.    We are offering this to the first 10 (ten) customers each week day who are willing to do this.   (We are limited to 10 due to the need to coordinate  with the foodbanks during the weekdays.)    A big thank you to everyone who has done this, we have sent off ten bushels in two days to the area foodbanks and the recipients have been very thankful.  Our tomatoes are in their peak right now, plentiful,  beautiful and very easy to pick.   So please help us to help others.  We will continue to do this on weekdays while the tomatoes are plentiful and the food banks can use them.

Grapes:  Everyone wants to know when grapes will be ready, including us!!  We had sugar samples taken today and they are not as sweet as they need to be.  I’ll try to give you an update by the weekend on when we think they will be ready, but it is difficult to predict given the weather, but we will update you with everything we know.

Beth

• Jon-A-Mac:  $12 a bushel, $6.50 a half bushel, $4.00 a peck, 55 cents/lb.   This is an excellent cooking and eating apple.
• Gala:  $5.00 a peck, 65 cents/lb.   Very few this year, so no bushels.
• Molly’s Delicious:  $6.00/peck, 75 cents/lb. Very few this year, so no bushels.
• Honey Crisp:  $1.00/lb.  We have some trees of early Honey Crisp which allows us to have some so early in the season!
• Cortland:  We have brought in just a few Cortland so far, they are $18 a bushel, $9.50 a half bushel, $6.00 peck.

Apple Varieties we will not have this year due to weather related issues:

• Northern Spies
• Macintosh

        We know that both of these apples are favorites for many of our customers.  We recommend you try Jon-A-Mac’s this year in place of Macintosh (these are in the market now) and Cortland in place of Northern Spies.    While they are not perfect substitutes, they are the closest.

Apple Varieties that we will have when they are ready.  Most of these are several weeks away yet, but you can check the website or call for an update.

• Braeburn
• Cameo
• Cortland
• Fuji
• Ida Red
• JonaGold
• Jonathon
• Mutsu
• Nu-Red
• Red Delicious
• Golden Delicious

U-Pick Apples:   An estimate on when U-Pick apples might be available is the 2nd week of September.  Of course it depends on the weather and how they ripen.  We will post the opening date and send an email as soon as we know this.  They will be the same price as last year to pick which is $12/bushel.

Grapes:  We have plenty of white Niagra and blue Concord grapes this year.    The white grapes may be ready the first week of September with the blue ones possibly the 2nd week of September.  We will take our first samples in for a sugar check on August 31st and depending on their ripeness, try to determine when we will open.    We will post the opening date on the website and send an email as soon as we know this.  As most of you know, once we open the U-Pick grapes, we will have them available up until the time that Welch’s comes to harvest them.   Preliminary information from Welch’s says they will probably harvest all of our grapes toward the end of September.  However, this can change, so we will keep you posted with the latest. 

U-Pick Grape Pricing:  Will remain the same as last year which is 20 cents/lb.   We will have more information coming about grapes later.

We would like to thank you as always for your continued support and for being there for us in the ups and downs we have experienced this year with our crops and the weather related problems. 

Here’s to our early fall, hope to see you soon,  Beth

Grape Tomatoes:  Have you tried our grape tomatoes yet this year?  If not, you should.  They are firm and sweet, perfect for snacks.  As evidenced below, even our young customers like them! 

Ben and his sister enjoy our grape tomatoes!

Our grape tomatoes 8-19-10

Bartlett Pears:  We have just started picking the Bartlett pears.  This is an excellent canning and eating pear.  We have them for sale by the bushel for $17.00, $9.00 a half bushel, $5.00 a peck (a quarter of a bushel) or a 4-pound box for $4.00.  We are going to let them continue to grow for a few more days and will start picking the majority of them this coming week.  If you have signed up on our list for bushels of pears, we will be calling you this coming week as we pick your orders. If you want to reserve bushels, please call us at 269-244-5690.

Bartlett Pears 8-19-10

Stanley Prune Plums:  We have picked all of our Stanley prune plums (we had a very small crop this year) and have them for sale for $6.00 a peck or a four-pound box for $4.00. 

Stanely Prune Plums being picked on 8-17-10

Apples are Coming!!    Because of the hot summer, everything is ripening early, so today we started picking our Jon-A-Mac  and Gala apples.   The Jon-A-Mac apples are $12.00 a bushel this year, reduced from last year due to hail marks on them.  (Note:  all of our apples got damaged by a hail storm in May.)   The Gala apples got hit by frost and hail, so we will not have enough of them to sell by the bushel, sorry.  They are in the market now for 65 cents/pound or a peck for $5.00.    We will advise you when each type of apple variety becomes ready by an email and posting it on the website.    Within the next several weeks, we will try to give you an estimate on picking dates and when U-Pick will be ready.

Grapes:  Please check back with us around the 1st of September for an estimate of when grapes might be ready.  Again, everything is going to be early this year.

Onions:  Our Red, White and Yellow Sweet Spanish Onions have all been harvested, tied in bundles and hung to dry and are being bagged into ten-pound-bags for sale.  We did not have many onions this year due to weather related issues.  They are $7.50 for a ten-pound bag.

Our Sweet Spanish onions bagged and ready for sale!

 Summer Vegetables:  As I mentioned last week, the market is bursting with all of the summer vegetable at their peak.  We have beautiful eggplant, peppers, onions, squash, green beans, shell-out beans, sweet corn, cucumbers and cabbage.

As always, thanks for supporting us by buying local fresh produce and products.

Beth

Fruit:

• Peaches
• Apples
• Cantaloupe
• Watermelon
• Tomatoes (Slicing, canning, roma, green, grape and cherry tomatoes)

Vegetables:

• Sweet Corn    ****  We currently have a very nice bi-color corn in, picked fresh daily, $4.00/dozen or 3 dozen for $10.00!!****
• Yellow, Red and White sweet onions
• Zuchinni and Yellow summer squash
• EggPlant
• Cabbage
• Cucumbers
• Bell Peppers (Green and Red)
• Hot Cheyenne peppers
• Mild Sweet Banana peppers
• Hot Hungarian Peppers
• Green Beans

Tomato Update:   This heat has our tomatoes really coming in.  So, we have reduced the price of picked tomatoes on the market to $1.50 per pound or 4 pounds for $5.00.  You can also get bushels of tomatoes while we have an abundance of them for $20.00 per bushel.  It would really help us if you call and order them at least a day in advance. 

U-Pick tomatoes:  Everyone out to pick this week has been very pleased with how easy it is to pick tomatoes and how nice they are this year.  There are a lot there to pick right now, so plan to get yours soon.  There are so many tomatoes right now that there should be plenty for everyone, but just in case we get lots of customers on the same day, it is always better to call ahead just to make sure there are plenty left to pick.  269-244-5690.

Homemade Baked Goods:  Our baked goods, particularly the pies and cookies are becoming so popular, that our bakers are now bringing them Sundays, as well as Fridays and Saturdays.     This week I recommend their apple pie, which is made from our Earli-blaze apples.  This is an amazing pie and apple sauce apple that we currently have for sale in the market.

What’s coming next? 

Bartlett Pears:  We expect our pears to be ready next week.  Bartlett pears are a great eating and canning pear.  If you would like to get bushels of pears, please call us or email us and let us know how many you would like.    Due to a pear shortage in Michigan this year (but not at our farm) we have many new customers who want to get pears.  But….we want to make sure all of our regular customers get them first.  So, we are keeping a list of customers and phone numbers and will call you when they are ready.  Please call us to give us your order at 269-244-5690.

Stanley Prune Plums:  We expect our plums to be ready next week.  If you are looking for bushels of plums, please call to get on our list to be called.

Apples:  Check with us toward the end of August  for an apple update.  Like everything else, we expect them to be early this year to due to hot weather.  The website and an email will be sent out when each variety comes in so you will know when your favorite is ready!!  We will have U-Pick and picked apples.

Grapes:  We expect grapes to be early as well, check with us the first part of September for an update on when they will be ready.  We will have U-Pick grapes, the white Niagra and the purple/blue Concord.

Thanks as always, for supporting us by buying fresh, local produce and other goods from us.  Hope to see you soon.

Beth

Beth

Homemade Baked Goods:  Based on the popularity of our baked goods, we have decided to sell them on Sundays now, as well as Friday and Saturday. 

Thanks,

Beth

We will be monitoring what is picked and how many are left daily.    If the field  gets picked out, we will close it for ripening, so PLEASE call before you come out to make sure that the field is open and that there is still good picking.  We will have tomatoes up until the first frost hopefully.  269-244-5690.

2010 Field Tomatoes

Picked tomatoes:  We have lots of our own homegrown field tomatoes now on the market, at $1.50 per pound.  We also have Roma tomatoes, grape and cherry tomatoes.  If you need larger quantities of tomatoes picked, they are $24.00 a bushel, but please call to order them in advance. 

Sweet Corn:  If you want to freeze sweet corn, we recommend you get it within the next several weeks.  Bushels of sweet corn, which are 5 dozen, are $17.50 a bushel (or $3.50 a dozen.)  Please order in advance if you can so we can make sure to have it for you.

Peppers:  Our bell peppers are beautiful this year, thanks to the rain and heat which they like!  If you need large quantities, they are $14.00 a bushel, but please call ahead to order in advance.    We also have Hungarian Hot peppers and Sweet Banana peppers this year, only 10 cents each!!  A few weeks ago we got them mixed up when picking and we apologize to those several customers who got hot peppers when they wanted sweet peppers and vice versa.   Since then, we have marked each plant with a color coded flag and also color coded the picking containers!    Since the plants and the peppers look almost identical, the only way to truly know was to taste a pepper off each plant……yes….these are just some of the few things I do for you that you would never know about if I didn’t tell you; and I don’t even like peppers!!

Flags marking Sweet and Hot Pepper plants, 2010

Melons:  Our cantaloupe and watermelon are starting and we are bringing a few in each day.

Apples:  We have some great summer apples in called Earli-blaze.  They are good for eating or cooking! 

Fall Red Raspberries:  We are fortunate to have two local farms which can supply these for us.  They are early this year and we have them now.

Peaches:  We are still only picking a few bushels of peaches each day since there are so few due to the frost and hail storm earlier.  So we only have them available in a 4-pound box for $4.00.\ and do not have larger quantities like bushels.

The market is full of summer vegetables:  summer squash, zucchini, cabbage, beans, cucumbers, onions, eggplant, etc.

Homemade Baked Goods, reminder:  We have them every Friday and Saturday.   Great pies, cupcakes, cookies and cinnamon rolls.

Thanks as always, for supporting us by buying fresh, local produce and other goods from us.  Hope to see you soon.

Beth

Peach Update:  We are starting to bring in a few peaches each day.  The early varieties were hit the hardest by the frost, we have very few each day and tend to sell out early.   If you are coming out for peaches, you might want to call ahead to make sure we have them or ask us to save them.    They are $4.00 for a  4 pound box.

Blueberries:  This weekend will be our last weekend for blueberries, the season has come to an end.

Field Tomatoes:  Finally, they are starting to come in, we picked 7 bushels today.   We will advise you within the next few weeks as to when we will open the U-Pick tomato field and the price.

Weather related issues:  This has been one of the most difficult years ever for us due to weather problems.  My father who has farmed here faithfully for 43 years has seen things this year he has never experienced, like the  May 20th hailstorm, the torrential rains that bring so much rain  so quickly at one time, leaving our crops sitting in water, and the days and days of scorching heat.  All of this has taken its toll on some of our crops,  which is causing us to bring in some produce from other area local farms.  We  pride ourselves on “growing what we sell”  but we also realize that when you come to our market, you want to get the produce you are accustomed to getting.  So on a select basis, we will be bringing in other produce from growers that we know,  with the quality we know you expect.  

We enjoyed this visit yesterday by a group from France stopping at the market as they were biking through the area.   Not everybody can ride a bike balancing a dozen sweet corn!

Group from France Visiting the Market

Thanks as always, for supporting us by buying fresh, local produce and other goods from us. Hope to see you soon.

Beth