Homemade Baked Goods: Our bakers will be selling baked goods all four days of the Holiday weekend, including Monday (yes, we are open all day!)  This would be the perfect weekend to have a fresh blueberry or cherry pie or some of their specially-decorated red/white/blue star shaped cookies.

A young customer thoroughly enjoying the homemade cookies

Come pick some sour cherries and make your own pie!  We opened our sour cherries for U-Pick this past Wednesday and they are still available to pick.   Since we never know how many customers will show up on any given day and how long they will last, feel free to call before you come to make sure they are still available.  (269-244-5690) Bring the family and pick a few pounds, eat a few, spit the pits at each other and then go home and make your own pie, starting your own 4^th of July American tradition.  What  you might find much to your surprise is that you might like these tart cherries better than sweet cherries.  Many of our customers do, including myself.

Here’s a family that picked 177 pounds this week, to make into pies, jam and cherry syrup.  The Shank family had 11 of their 12 children helping out, certainly verifying the old adage that “many hands make light work.”

Hubbard’s Brandy:  Bruce Ruesink has joined the Corey Lake Orchard family as the distiller for our Brandy House.  He expects to bring to market a ten-year-old special version of our apple bandy and perhaps a special edition of our grape brandy as well.  He has other exciting projects in mind, so don’t neglect your visit to the Brandy House.  Bruce expects to complete his first brandy run at the end of tart cherry season (if our customers leave him enough).  Stop in and meet him and taste the fire in our fruit.  The Brandy House is open for tastings from 1-4 p.m. every Saturday during the season and anytime by appointment.  Welcome, Bruce!

We are just starting to bring in a few summer vegetables, like fresh dug new red potatoes. peas, summer squash, fresh dug onions. We have to admit the market looks a bit bare while we wait for most of summer’s bounty to ripen.

So, as there is not yet a long list of fruit and vegetables to update you on, we’ll provide a market enhancement update.

This spring we completed the renovation started last year with re-doing the flower bed in front of the market.  As we have completed these changes, we have tried very carefully to re-use everything, as we firmly believe in the concept of reuse-recyle.  As we replaced old cement, we took those slabs and made them into the terrace gardens that you see holding the old planters on the side of the barn.  When we took out the old wooden planks on the side of the market, we used them to make shelves.  For this year’s change to the flower bed, we took out the old cement blocks and replaced them  with  field stone that we picked up yes, out of the field!    This project was designed and completed by Cathy Zimont.  As we watched her select the rocks to fit in place, it was like watching someone do a large jigsaw puzzle.  We think she did a great job and it greatly enhances the look of the market, so please join me in thanking her personally for this.   By the way, the flower growing over the rocks in front is nasturtium, for those of you who knew the late Allene Hubbard, her green thumb was known for making this flower thrive.  Many of you remember cutting a few to put on your salad (yes, they are edible!)

Market changes, 6-28-11

The second change was the addition of a cutting flower garden adjacent to the driveway and the house.  When a few pine trees had to be removed this spring, tearing up the lawn; it provided an incentive to create this.  This garden is filled with hummingbird items as well as frequently – many live hummingbirds.  This garden was created by myself in memory of my mother, who had a special connection with hummingbirds.  This is my first attempt at this sort of thing; this year was the “just try it and see what happens” approach.  I am learning quickly the changes I will need to make next year, (okay….I guess the sun flowers kind of took it over….) .  I need to thank my friend Sandy Struble for giving me the idea of a cutting garden, several books to guide me, in addition to her own personal help and support along the way.  Starting this weekend, we will offer fresh cut flowers for sale at the market.  You can get them arranged in a vase or you can select your own to create your own arrangement.

Hummingbird Garden, 6-29-11

So Happy 4th of July, and thanks again for buying local!

Beth and everyone at Corey Lake Orchards

We will open our Sweet Cherries for U-pick on Wednesday June 22.    This is earlier than expected, but the weather from this week (rain on 6-20) followed by today’s extremely hot weather and more rain, have caused the cherries to start spoiling.    We have four different kinds in our small orchard across the street  from our market, some are ready now and the others will be ripening in the next 3 – 5 days.  Please realize that we have an older orchard with about 15 – 20 very large trees.  Since we do not have a lot of sweet cherries, we would recommend you not travel a long distance to get them, but if you are in our local area and want to get a few cherries to enjoy eating, please come on over.  We know for many of you, it is a tradition to come pick a bowl of cherries!  We have several colors:

• Dark red (black)
• Red
• Yellow
• Red/Yellow blush

Picking information:

• The sweet cherry trees are very tall (15 – 25 feet).   Please bring your own ladder.
• Be sure to dress appropriately (closed shoes, long pants and sleeves) as you may run into poison ivy/sumac in the orchard area, among other hazards.
• Please bring your own containers.  We have buckets you may borrow to pick in, then you can transfer to your own containers (bowls, tubs, buckets, etc.)
• Check in at the market first for directions and to weigh the containers you are picking in.

Pricing: $1.50 per pound to pick

Picking hours are 8 – 6 daily, we ask that you finish picking by 6:00 pm. 

Note:  Some of the cherries have started to spoil and others the birds have started snacking on unfortunately.

Picked Sweet Cherries: We  have them available to sell at the market now for $3.00  per pound.  We hope to have them through June 26th, but they may only last a few days given the weather.

Sour Cherries: Check back around June 27th for an update on Sour cherries.  They are just starting to turn red, but need to gain some size yet and color and finish ripening.    We have not set a price for these yet.

Strawberries: The strawberry season is coming to an end.  We hope to have picked berries for $3.00/quart available through this weekend.  As most of you know, we had to move to a U-Pick reservation system this year due to having fewer strawberries, if you are still trying to pick some, you may come out during the hours of 8 – 11 on Thursday through Sunday, without needing an appointment.  We expect Sunday will probably be the last day.  Since the weather is changing things every day, call first to make sure we have picked berries and check on the picking conditions:  269-244-5690.

We apologize for how crazy strawberry season has been this year, especially for those of you who wanted to pick your own.  We did our best to accommodate as many of you as we could, some of you we could not fit in and for that we are sorry.  We know we made a few mistakes as we tried a new reservation/appointment system.    We would very much like your feedback as this winter when we have a little down time we’ll think through how to manage next year’s strawberry season.

As we close out the season, here’s a few pictures that remind us how special strawberry time in Michigan is, especially for our youngest customers:

Summer vegetables are starting: We are pulling fresh “Candy” onions daily, our snow peas, snap peas and shell-out peas are just starting to come in, and we have several varieties of lettuce available.

Happy First Day of Summer from all of us at Corey Lake Orchards!

• We will be closed for U-Pick Strawberries on Thursday, 9-16 due to the cool weather to allow the berries to ripen up again.   We apologize to those of you who had made an appointment to pick on Thursday, we have tried to call all to advise you of this and hopefully you got our message.

• U-Pick Strawberry Situation:   Due to the fact that we have a minimal amount of strawberries this year because of a plant problem, we had to move to an appointment/reservation system.  However, we are no longer able to make any additional appointments as we do not have enough berries this year.  We truly apologize and would encourage you to find another local farm in your area.  If you need help with this, we have a list of other farms available at the market if you call us:  269-244-5690 or a good website to find U-Pick strawberry farms in your area is:  http://michiganfarmfun.com/.

• If you have been scheduled for U-Pick: We are working hard to be able to accommodate those of you that we have scheduled for berry picking at the time you were scheduled.  But we have already called a number of you to reschedule due to lack of berries.  Once we get through this week, we will have a better idea of how many berries there will be for next week.  If we feel there won’t be good picking, we will call you as soon as we can to advise you of this so you can make plans to find berries elsewhere.

• Picked Berries:  We hope to have picked berries on the market for about another week.  They are $3.00 a quart, or a flat of 8 for $22 or a case of 16 for $40.  We need you to order flats and cases in advance.  Please call us at 269-244-5690.

Given our berry shortage this year,  we find ourselves in a difficult situation of not being able to satisfy our many loyal customers and having to refer you to other local farms.  We apologize and hope to see you later this year for other produce.    Thanks for your understanding.

Rhubarb:  We are out of rhubarb and will probably not have any more this year…..sorry.

Father’s Day weekend:  We have several recommendations for helping to make Father’s day special this year.  Our bakers are bringing pecan pie (for Father’s Day weekend only), plus their special shortcake for you to make strawberry shortcake.   My Dad tried the shortcake tonight with fresh strawberries, he couldn’t tell which he liked better:  the shortcake or the strawberries he grew!   He truly enjoyed it all!!

Despite the difficult berry year we are having, strawberry season is one of the best times of the year. It seems to signal the change from spring to summer.  Berry season is just too short!

Thanks for buying local goods and produce, we hope to see you soon.

Beth and everyone at Corey Lake Orchards

If you have left your name and phone number to be scheduled, you should have received a message by now giving you a time.  If you did not, please call us on 269-244-5690.  If you have any questions on U-Pick or need to change the time you were given, please call us and we will try to accommodate you.

We appreciate your patience and support as we try this scheduling system this year.  Please give us your feedback on it, whether it worked well or not, as we constantly want to improve and better serve our customers.

Picked Berries:  We are bringing in a good supply of picked berries daily.  If you ordered flats or cases, you also should have received a message back confirming your order and the date.  If not, please call us on 269-244-5690.   Pricing is $3.00 a quart, a flat of 8 quarts for $22 and a case of 16 quarts for $40.    We sometimes have these on hand when you come in, but it would help us if you could call us and order flats and  cases in advance.

Beth's dog Denim, guarding the strawberries on the market, 6-10-11

Shortcake Available: Our bakers will be baking strawberry shortcake daily through strawberry season for you to pick up when you get strawberries.  Sorry, we can’t help you with the ice cream or whipped topping…..!!

Cherries:  It appears right now we will have a good crop of sweet and sour cherries.  Please check back the last week of June for a better estimate of when they will be ready.

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.

________________________________________________

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

When will you have sweet corn?  We hope we will be able to start picking some this weekend, probably Saturday.

Why don’t you have any tomatoes?  Remember those really hot weeks we had in May and June?  It caused all of our greenhouse tomatoes to ripen at the same time.  Many of you commented that you could not believe how our counters were overflowing with tomatoes.  We try hard each year to time this just right so that our greenhouse tomatoes carry us to our field tomatoes, but due to the hot weather we had early, we missed it.  Knowing that many of you want a tomato to slice on a hamburger or BLT this weekend, we purchased tomatoes today from another grower that we know in Indiana who had extra greenhouse tomatoes.  We normally do not do this and prefer not to, as we like to hold true to ”growing what we sell,” but we have made an exception and so…..this weekend, we actually do have tomatoes, they are just not grown on our farm.

How come we have missed strawberries and cherries?  It is hard to believe these are gone for the year, but again, due to those extremely hot weeks we had earlier this year, everything is running 10 days to 2 weeks early.  So, keep this in mind as the year progresses. 

So, what else do you have in the market this weekend?  We have yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, fresh onions, new red potatoes, green beans, snow peas, sugar peas, cabbage, and cauliflower.  And…..blueberries!  How much of everything we pick each day varies, so you are always welcome to call the market before you drive over to make sure we have what you are looking for or to ask us to save it for you.  269-244-5690.

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

Beth

U-Pick Pricing:

• 75 cents per pound to pick
• 60 cents per pound for 100 pounds and over

Picking information:

• The sour cherry trees are about 10 – 20 feet tall.   For good picking, you should bring your own ladder.
• Be sure to dress appropriately (closed shoes, long pants and sleeves) as you many run into poison ivy/sumac in the orchard area, among other hazards.
• Please bring your own containers.  We have buckets you may borrow to pick in, then you can transfer to your own containers (bowls, tubs, buckets, etc.)
• Check in at the market first for directions and to weigh the containers you are picking in.

Picked Sour cherries:  $3.00 per quart (approximately 2 pounds).  Orders of 30  pounds or more are $1.25 pound, please call and order these in advance.

Sweet Cherry Update:

We opened for sweet cherry picking on June 12th.  We still have plenty left, but you will need a ladder to reach most of them.    Here are some pictures taken over the last several days of Sweet Cherry Picking:

Customer who picked 149 pounds of Sweet Cherries on 6-13-10

A Beautiful bowl of cherries picked by a customer on 6-14-10

A customer who did not check in or pay for their sweet cherries!!

How Long will the Cherries last? This is definitely the most frequently asked question and one that we unfortunately do not have a good answer to.  It will depend on how many people come out to pick and also on the weather.  The amount of rain we have been getting is causing the cherries to split.    The best advice we have is for you to call the market between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on 269-244-5690 and we’ll tell you what the latest is.

Strawberries: Strawberries are winding down for the season.  We will try to have picked strawberrries on the market through Saturday June 19th as well as U-Pick .

Hope to see you during Cherry season!!

Beth

We hope to have berries possibly through around June 17th or so, depending on the weather.  If it gets as warm as predicted this weekend, that should ripen them back up again for better picking.

Just wanted to give you this update so for those of you trying to come pick, you were aware of the current situation.

Beth