Strawberries: We are now starting to pick a few strawberries each day of an early variety.  These are available for $3.00 per quart at the market.

The majority of our strawberries should be ready starting the week of June 12th, This is our best guess for now, depending on the weather.

Picked Berries will be:  $3.00 a quart; a flat of 8 quarts is $22.00; a case of 16 quarts is  $40.00, when available or ordered in advance.  We are now taking orders for flats and cases, and will call you when they are available.  Please call us on 269-244-5690 to order.

U-Pick Strawberries will be:  $1.30 quart.  Please bring quart containers if you have them.  If not, you may borrow ours to pick in, but bring containers such as boxes, buckets, tubs, to take your berries home in.

New for 2011 – Scheduling/Reservation System

This year we are going to try something new:  a scheduling/reservation system for managing the U-Pick strawberries.  We are doing this for several reasons.

1. In the past several years, as many of you know, we have had more customers than strawberries, causing us to be picked out within 30 minutes and having to turn customers away.  This is frustrating for us and certainly for those of you who took time off work or got the kids up early to pick berries, only to be turned away.  With the price of gas, it would be even more frustrating this year.
2. We do not have as many strawberries available for U-pick as we had hoped.  We have one acre which has developed a foliage problem leaving the berries exposed to the heat and sun.  We will not be able to open this field for U-Pick, so this leaves us with about one acre to pick.

We are sorry for the change, but feel this is the best way to handle U-Pick for at least this year given  the limited picking availability.    The scheduling system will allow us to make sure that we will have an ample supply of strawberries  available for you when you come.

How it Works:

1.   For picking 4 quarts or less as a group (not per person):  We know many of you like to come every few days just to pick a couple of quarts for shortcake or to give the kids “the farm experience”.  We will reserve a small section of the field and you can stop in during our berry picking hours (see below) to pick these – no reservations required.  The special area will close each day when picked out.

2.   If you want to pick over 4 quarts, please call (269-244-5690) and give us:

• Your name
• Your phone number
• How many people will be picking (adults/children)
• About how many you want to pick
• The days that would be best for you
• Whether you want morning or evening picking

3.    Scheduling:  We will use this information to schedule you for hopefully a time that is convenient for you.  We will call you back and start scheduling as soon as strawberries are ready.   We will try to give you as much notice as possible so that you can plan accordingly.

4.  U-Pick times:  We plan to be open for U-Pick each day weather permitting (closing only for a storm or for berries to ripen due to cool temperatures ) We will have both morning hours, 8 to 11 am,  and this year, because many of you have asked for this, we will try evening hours as well, from 6 to 8 pm.

We hope to be able to accommodate everyone.  If we get into the season and find that we can’t, we will let you know so you can find another source for your berries.  There are other local farms with U-Pick; we have a list of these with websites and phone numbers available at the market.

We appreciate your support and understanding as we try this modified system this year.

Frequently asked questions about strawberries:

How long will the season last? Depends on the weather, but typically about 2 weeks.

What variety of strawberries do you have?  We have several varieties mixed out in our field: Eros, Jewel and All Star.

How much does a quart of strawberries weigh?  About 1 and ½ pounds.

How many quarts in a flat and case?  There are 8 quarts in a flat and 16 quarts in a case.

If you have other questions, please feel free give us a call or send an email.  We’ll try to get it answered.

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Here’s hoping for good weather so that the upcoming berry season can be a good one!  Thanks from everyone at Corey Lake Orchards

Their offerings for pies will be:  Rhubarb, Rhubarb-Strawberry, Cherry, Dutch Apple, Blueberry, Sugar Free Cherry and Sugar Free Apple.  They will have both the regular 9-inch pie as well as a smaller pie (perfect for two people or I have actually been known to eat one by myself!)

They will also have Chocolate Brownies and 3 kinds of Cookies: Frosted Sugar Cookies in flower shapes, Monster Cookies and Frosted Lemon Cookies.

Eggs:  We are trying to supply you again this year with local eggs.  But…..the local chickens are not cooperating, (too hot?  too cold?  too much rain?) so for a while, our egg supply is going to be short.  You may want to call to make sure we have them before you come over for eggs.    One of our local suppliers is a family from Jones, who have a variety of chickens, which lay blue, white and brown eggs!    Sarah (12), Nathan (9) and Matthew (3) have around 50 chickens and this is their summer project.  When we have eggs, they are $1.75/dozen.

Asparagus:  We are still picking asparagus daily and hope to for about another week. $1.65/pound.

Rhubarb:  We will have rhubarb through strawberry season.  $1.50/pound.

Greenhouse Tomatoes ($2.00 pound) and Cucumbers ($1 each).     We are picking these daily and have a pretty good supply coming in.

Strawberry Sighting!  we picked a couple of quarts today.  We have a new early variety we are trying this year called AC Wendy.  This early berry is just beginning to ripen so we may have a few quarts for sale starting this weekend.  The rest of our berries are for mid-season, so we still think they are 7 – 10 days away.  Pricing for this year is:

• Picked Berries:  $3.00 a quart; a flat of 8 quarts is $22.00; a case of 16 quarts is  $40.00.  We are now taking orders for flats and cases, and will call you when they are available.  Please call us on 269-244-5690 to order.

• U-Pick Berries will be $1.30/quart.  We will update you in about a week on picking conditions and availability.

Vegetable plants are now gone for the year.  We still have hanging flower baskets for sale.

Brandy Tasting:   Reminder, we are open every Saturday from 1 – 4 for Brandy tasting.

Thanks again for buying fresh, local goods.  Hope to see you soon.

All of us at Corey Lake Orchards

Vegetable Plants:  We are now sold out of plants for the season.

From our greenhouse:  We are picking fresh cucumbers and tomatoes from our greenhouse daily, but they are coming on slowly so we  tend to sell out early each day.  Our tomatoes are $2.00 per pound and the cucumbers are $1.00 each.  But finally, it is so good to have a REAL tomato sandwich again!

Our greenhouse tomatoes growing...

What everybody wants to know……the questions of the day:

How much longer will we have asparagus and when will strawberries be ready?  I know you don’t like our answer which is:    It depends on the weather…but given the extremes of our weather this spring, you can see why it difficult to predict anything….

We are going to try to keep picking asparagus for hopefully another week or 10 days.

The strawberry crop looks good right now, loaded with blossoms and little strawberries coming on.  My best guess is that they might be ready the week of June 12th, but again, totally dependent on how hot it really gets this next week and for how long.   Of course we will keep you posted via our website and emails.  But I would check back with us around June 4th or so to see what the latest is.   We will determine our pricing next week and we are already taking orders for those who want a flat (8 quarts) or more.  Call us to order on:  269-244-5690.

Strawberries in full bloom, week of 5-23

We will leave you with one final picture of the farm that I took today on my rounds, the blueberries blooming!  They have such a delicate blossom, and as the petals fall away, you can see the formation of a tiny blueberry.    So while the weather extremes this spring have been difficult for us, it is these marvels of nature and the promise of good things to come, that keep us going….

blueberries blooming, 5-27-11

Happy Memorial Day from everyone at Corey Lake Orchards,

Beth

Here’s hoping for some warmer weather soon,  Beth.

We have a nice selection of various vegetable plants, with several varieties of tomato  and peppers plants.  They are 30 cents per plant, or a 4-pack for $1.00.  We also have hanging baskets, the 10-inch pots sell for $15 and the 20-inch pots sell for $20.

Ruth’s Candy is back!!   Many of you have been asking for her famous pecan and cashew brittle.   She delivered it today and we will have it now for the 2011 season.

All of the orchards are blooming now, the apple trees are at their peak blossom stage, so if you come out, make sure to take a look as you drive by them.

Baked goods.  Some of you may have gotten some of the wonderful Mother’s Day baked goods we had last weekend with the amazing rhubarb-strawberry pie.  Sorry to say that we won’t have baked goods starting back up for the year until June 3.    The baker is busy graduating from high school!

Everyone at Corey Lake Orchards looks forward to seeing you soon!

Beth

Asparagus:  We do have asparagus, but it continues to come on very slowly due to the cool weather.  Due to this, we anticipate we will sell out most days and may not have any for sale on the days that we can’t pick.  (Right now we are only able to pick every other day.)   So, please call ahead to make sure we have it and we will save it for you.  244-244-5690.  It is $1.65 pound.

The winner of our tomato plant contest!!  During the Rivers of Justice film festival which we helped to sponsor, we had a drawing for a tomato plant.  We drew out a lucky winner today: Caryn Wilson!  She was delighted to get her plant.  Caryn is the owner of the Voyager’s Bed and Breakfast in Three Rivers and if you stay there sometime, you may be lucky enough to eat one of the tomatoes!!  Check out her quaint B&B:  http://voyagers-inn.com/

Beth presenting Caryn with her tomato plant that she won!

Just some of the things we do for you….. Mother Nature fooled us again this week, so because of the frost warning Wednesday night we covered all of our tomato plants, around 1500, to protect them from frost so that hopefully we will have tomatoes for you later this summer.

Dayton Hubbard covering tomato plants on 5-4-11

Greenhouse tomatoes: Despite our early problems of freezing out the greenhouse and losing our plants, our second planting seems to have caught up and they are doing great.   We hope to have tomatoes by the end of May for you!

Greenhouse tomatoes, 5-3-11

Brandy: Our Brandy House will be open this weekend for tasting, on Saturday afternoon between 1 and 4.  We will have both brandy and our Polecat wine for sale.

Other Weekend offerings will include:  Baked goods, honey, eggs, vegetable plants, rhubarb, cards,  tote bags and artwork.  We hope to see you!!

From everyone at Corey Lake Orchards

Beth and everyone at Corey Lake Orchards

We now have picked berries available in the market for $3.00/quart.  When available or when ordered in advance, you can buy an 8 quart flat for $20.00 ($2.50/qt).  If you would like to place an order, please call us at 269-244-5690 and we will call you when we can get them for you.

Strawberries for Sale

Strawberry U-Pick Opening Date

We will open our U-Pick patch on Thursday, June 3^rd for picking.  They will be $1.00 per quart.  Please bring quart boxes to pick in if you have them, or bring containers (bowls, boxes, buckets) to transfer them in if you need to borrow our quart containers.

Picking Hours:  This year we will open the field at 7:30 a.m. to begin picking.    On busy days, we will hand out numbers when people come in and assign rows to those who arrived first.  When all of the rows have been picked for the day, we will close the field.  In the past few years, we have usually picked out within several hours, especially at the beginning of the season. 

The majority of the berries are still growing and ripening and the best picking should be the week of June 8^th.   But there are still plenty of berries to pick when we open this week, especially to get some for the first strawberry shortcake of the season!  The strawberry season usually lasts about 10 days to 2 weeks, but of course it is totally dependent on the weather.  To inquire about the picking conditions, you can call us at 269-244-5690.

Hail Damage to the strawberries:  We had an extremely bad hailstorm on May 20^th which damaged some of the berries.  On some berries you will see small marks, like a skin abrasion, where the hail hit the berry.  This does not damage the flavor or hurt the berry, but you will see the marks and they are not as “pretty” as we would like them to be!!

Rhubarb:  We will try to have rhubarb available for the entire strawberry season, as so many of you like to combine rhubarb and strawberries.

Asparagus:  Is now gone for the season!

Sweet Cherries:  We have a good crop of sweet cherries this year, but do have some hail damage.  Based on everything running about two weeks early this year due to the early warm weather, check back about June 10th for an update on when they might be ready.

Sour Cherries:  We do not have as many sour cherries as we normally have each year,  check back around June 1oth for an update on when they might be ready.

Greenhouse Tomatoes:  We have lots of them, so make sure to get some when you come for your berries!

Hope to see you during strawberry season,

Beth

Green House Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Zucchini:    We have lots of tomatoes now and they are beautiful this year!  We also pick cucumbers fresh daily.   This week we have fresh zucchini squash from another local greenhouse for sale.  

Green House Tomatoes

Strawberries:  Check back next week (around June 3rd) for more information.  We are still assessing the extent of the damage done to the strawberry crop by last week’s hail storm.  Until the berries and remaining blossoms mature a bit more, we really won’t know how significant the damage is.  We will keep you updated.    Pricing will remain the same as last year: 

• U-Pick:  $1.00/quart
• Picked Berries:  $3.00 quart or a flat of 8 quarts for $20.00.    We will take orders for flats and call you when/if they are available.  Please call us at 269-244-5690 to leave your name, phone number and how many you would like to get.

Other items available now:    Several of the local folks who supply us have now stocked our market for the year:  Ruth’s candy,  pecan and cashew brittle;  Honey from Babcock’s Apiary and Tom’s Bees;  Artwork and cards by Artists Larry and Becky Hackenberg:  Cards by photographer Barb Kroggel.    We love these locally produced products and appreciate the opportunity to carry them.

Hanging Baskets:  We still have a nice selection of hanging flower baskets left. 

Have a safe and good Memorial Day Weekend! 

Beth