Our Holiday Market debuts Saturday, Nov. 19.  The market and our 100-year old barn will be decorated for the holidays, plus we will have an expanded line of giftware made by local artisans.

Many of you have wanted to buy our vintage holiday decorations.  Starting this year, we are making some available!  We have added to our collection of decorations – just look for those with a special tag to see if they are available for sale.

Our “Old-Fashioned Visit with Santa” event is returning starting Saturday, Nov. 26.  Santa and Mrs. Claus enjoy taking a break from the frenzy of the North Pole to visit the nice families that come to our farm.  See our Santa website page for more information and the link to the reservation system.

Dates and Times:
Nov. 26 (9:30-11:30 am)
Dec. 3, 10, and 17 (9:30 am to 1:30 pm)
Reservations Recommended
Cost:  $20 per family

Our red and yellow sweet onions are available in 3-pound and 9-pound bags.  They are smaller than in past years due to a storm that ended their growing season early, but they taste just as sweet as ever!  They are ready to use now or store for the winter.

We still have pie pumpkins for making those wonderful baked pumpkin treats like pies, muffins, bread, dip, cookies, and soups.  They are easy to roast – cook them like a squash.  They are now $2 each (half off).

Check out Allrecipes tried and tested ways to use pumpkins – “Our 20 Best Pumpkin Recipes of all Time are a Fall Sensation“.

Our winter squash – acorn, butternut, carnival, and buttercup – are on special.  Individual squash are 50 cents off their marked price or fill up one of our handle bags with squash of your choice (about 1/2 bushel and around 10 squash depending on the size) for $20.

Who is ready for another fresh greenhouse tomato or fried green tomatoes?  Since we were too busy during apple picking season to take the greenhouse down, and with the weather being so mild, we walked in to find that the tomatoes were still growing!  So, we will have both green and red tomatoes available this Saturday!

The grapes are still holding on if you want to pick some for making juice or jelly.  Given the forecast for the weekend of freezing temperatures, this will be the last chance to get them before they freeze.  We have both Concord (blue) and Niagara (white) grapes.  Some of the grapes are very ripe, so you will need to pick over some of the overripe bunches.  The grape leaves have died back exposing the grape bunches making the picking fast and easy.  Call (269) 244-5690 to schedule an appointment or come on Saturday from 9 am to 2:30 pm.

Orchard Cleanup is still underway, but the freezing temperatures coming this weekend will make this the last week.  Please note that the apples have excessive hail damage, however they are fine for processing, cider making, or animal feed.

We have plenty of animal apples to sell in bulk this year.  You can purchase an 18-bushel bin and take out what you need on a weekly basis.  We will keep them in the cold storage for you.  Call for pricing and more information.

We have a decent selection of apples still available in first and second quality.  Smaller bags (quarter and half pecks) are sold as first quality.  Pecks, half bushels, and bushels are available in second quality only.  The second quality apples are discounted and perfect for your processing needs.  See explanation of first and second quality at the end of this newsletter.

We also have “bag your own” animal apples on the market for $4.50 a half bushel.  Bring your own half bushel basket or 5-gallon bucket and save 50 cents.

Thanks to all of you who have been accepting of and buying our Processing apples!  Sadly, most of our apple crop was damaged and we appreciate you buying them and supporting our farm.

We have started a “community bin” at the market if you’d like to buy an extra bag of apples, squash, or onions to donate.  We have been supplying food banks on a weekly basis this year, but requests have come in to support around 600 families for non-profit organizations who are providing holiday food boxes in November and December.

We are always grateful for the completed harvest and want to give back to the community which supports us and invite you join us in this if you wish.

While cleaning up the fields, we gathered up the remaining squash that we had yet harvested and will donate them to food banks.

Apple Cider.  We stopped making fresh cider at Halloween, but we did freeze some this year if you wish to purchase frozen cider.

Local Grocery Items.  Fresh products from our local suppliers – honey, maple syrup products, jams and jellies, salsa, eggs, and Jake’s meats.  It’s time to stock up!

U-Pick Herbs.  There are still some nice herbs in our herb garden you can pick for $1.50 for a snack size bag.  Scissors and bags are on the market, see clerk for assistance.  Time to pick your sage for use in fall recipes, especially the turkey.

Below is a picture of our beautiful Pineapple Sage, blooming by the herb garden.

We have a nice selection of hard ciders, wine, and fruit brandy perfect for relaxing.

We sell hard cider in singles, 4-packs, and 6-packs.  You may mix and match to make your own unique pack.  We have finished transitioning to our new labels.  Same great recipe, just a new, consistent look!

The bakery is closed for the year so the only baked goods available will be frozen pies and strombolis. 

Holiday Pies.  Plan now to pick up your “take and bake” pies to have ready for the Holidays!  Since we keep the freezer stocked, we will not be doing holiday orders, just come and get them!  All our pies are made onsite and are 9-inch, frozen, and ready to bake.  Flavors include: Apple-2 crust, Apple-Dutch, Blueberry, Cherry, Cherry Berry, Peach, Pumpkin, and Strawberry Rhubarb.

Strombolis.  We have frozen strombolis in assorted breakfast and pizza flavors.

The Norton Elementary Craft Fair is Saturday, Nov. 19.  Make time to visit our market and their show – the school is just around the corner.  While at Norton, pick up a CLO business card from one of our staff to show for a discount on bag(s) of apples.

We took advantage of the milder weather this week to work in the fields and orchards.

Well, what goes down, must come back up!  The great summer weather this week allowed us to get our fields cleaned up.  Below everyone is helping to pick up the plastic mulch and drip tape lines that we use to irrigate and provide weed control for our vegetables.

First quality apple bags will contain apples that are medium to large size, have few (1-2 minor hail marks or indents) or no blemishes, and may have full or partial color.  More apples than normal will lack full color this year because we picked them from the inside of the tree, where they were protected from the hail, but then were also shaded.  Those lacking color will still taste the same, they just look paler.

Second quality or Processing apples will be medium to large size and have multiple hail marks.  The marks will not be deep and can be easily cut out or eaten around.  If you are making applesauce or pies, cooking, freezing, canning, or baking these apples are perfect for your use.  They have the same flavor and are discounted – a much more economical way to get useable apples.  This is the first time we have sold processing apples as in the past we used all of them for our cider.

If you are new to processing apples (or any produce), you may want to check out the resources on our Food Preservation page on our website.

We are also selling food mills on the market; everyone must have one of these!  They are best way to make applesauce ever, without peeling!