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

• Sweet Corn
• Green Beans
• Cucumbers (all sizes)
• Peppers, both green bell and sweet banana
• Egg plant
• Onions
• Red Potatoes
• Cabbage
• Yellow summer squash and zuchinni

Tomatoes:  Finally, this morning we picked our first half bushel of field tomatoes, but they are coming on slowly.  It will be several more weeks before we will have U-Pick tomatoes.  We still have our greenhouse tomatoes in the meantime.  Plus…..since we have now taken out our greenhouse for the year, we stripped the plants of the remaining green tomatoes, so we are offering a special on green tomatoes:

          Green Tomatoes:  1/2 bushel for $5.00 !!     In addition to making fried green tomatoes, you can make green tomato relish and even salsa!

Blueberries:  Our blueberries are just finishing for the year, we will hopefully have them through this coming weekend.

Peaches:  We have a light crop of peaches again this year due to the spring freeze, as well hail as damage from the May hailstorm , but we hope to have some in about 10 days to two weeks.

Melons:  Both watermelon and canteloupe are still several weeks away.

Pears:  We have a great crop of pears and will give you an update about mid August as to when they will be ready.

New!!  Baked Goods!!  Starting this week, on Fridays and Saturdays, we will have homemade baked goods.  Michaela (who you will find working in the market most afternoons) and her mother, Patti Eberhard, are the bakers, and I can personally attest to how great their baked goods are!  They will have pies (made with our fruit), cookies, cupcakes and cinnamon rolls.

Lawn services.  Several of you who have summer homes here or are leaving on vacation have asked me about whether I know of anyone who can help with your lawn.    In fact, my son Jay, who also works here on the farm and many of you know, has a side business of lawncare services, including mowing, trimming and this fall, leaf pick up.  He can be reached on 517-507-2525 or at JayKitzinger@verizon.net.

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

Beth

Freezing and Canning quantities:  Many of you are asking about getting larger quantities for freezing or canning on things like blueberries, beans, corn, tomatoes, etc.  We are happy to take your name and phone number and call you when we can pick those for you.   269-244-5690.

So, since we don’t have a lot to report this week, I thought I would invite you to view a short video that has been posted on our website that you may not be aware of.    The BPA group from Sturgis High school made a wonderful video this year called  ”America’s Heartland.”    They tried to select a range of different types of farming and farmers to be featured in the video and asked myself and my son Jay to participate.  We were honored to participate and want to thank and congratulate the Sturgis High BPA group on their award winning video.  They won 2nd place at the National competition!   Take a few minutes and click the link below to see it.

http://www.coreylakeorchards.com/videos/

So, have a safe and wonderful weekend and thanks as always, for supporting us by buying fresh, local produce and other goods from us.  Hope to see you soon. 

Beth