Days and Hours Open 

Thursday – 9 am to 6 pm
Friday – 9 am to 6 pm
Saturday – 9 am to 6 pm
Sunday – 9 am to 4 pm
Monday – Closed
Tuesday – Closed
Wednesday – Closed

Sunday, Oct. 27, last regular business day for the 2024 season. 

Call us at (269) 244-5690 or check for updates on our website: www.coreylakeorchards.com

This Thursday through Sunday, will be our final week with our normal hours.  After that, we will be open on various days and hours throughout November and some in December.  Watch for upcoming announcements.

This week is an excellent opportunity to stock up on items for the upcoming winter months.  Shop our “buy two, get one free” sale on many items (see below).  We are motivated to clear the cold storage and barns as we wrap up our harvest season!

Buy 2, get one free of nearly everything!

  • Buy any 2 same size bags of apples and get a third free!  You can mix and match across all varieties including Honeycrisp.  Second quality (processing) and third quality (animal) are excluded from this sale.
  • Buy any 2 bags of onions, get a third free!
  • Buy 2 squash of any kind, get a third free!
  • Buy 2 pumpkins (large, medium or pie pumpkins) and get a third free

Can’t use that much of anything?  Donate the extra to a friend, neighbor, sports team, or leave it in our “food bank collection” bin on your way out and we will send it to local food banks for you!

This is also a good time to stock up on other things you may need – alcohol, honey, maple syrup products and our frozen “take and bake” pies.

Fall Apples
Already Picked
Current apples on the market:  Braeburn, Cameo, Cortland, Fuji, Goldrush, Golden/Yellow Delicious, Honeycrisp, Jonathan, Northern Spy, Pink Lady, Red Delicious, and Red Rome.  Ida Red and Mutsu available upon request.  See descriptions of these varieties at the end of the newsletter.

Processing and Animal Apples
If you are canning apples, making applesauce, or pressing your own cider, we have some apple deals right now.  It is “potluck” – the availability and apple varieties vary each day depending on what we are sorting and bagging for the market.

  • Processing apples (second quality) are $10 a half bushel.  The apples are perfectly fine, they just have blemishes or are an odd size or color.
  • Animal apples (third quality) are ideal for cider or animal feed and sell for $5 a half bushel.  These make a great treat for all your “horsey” friends.
  • Bulk.  Call us if you want to get 18-bushel bins of either of these.
Apple Gleaning / Orchard Clean Up
The orchard is open for gleaning or orchard clean up for what you can find on the trees or on the ground.  Orchard is open during our business hours.  Allow sufficient time to check-in, go to the orchard, and return to the market to check-out before closing.

Price is $10 a bushel, sold in whole bushels only.  For example, the price for 2.5 bushels is $30, not $25.  Orchard clean-up is an economical way to get apples for animals, applesauce, apple cider, or any need for a lot of apples.

Please bring your own containers.  If you don’t have bushel baskets, we will loan you some to pick in for measuring, then you can transfer them to your own containers.  You can also purchase our half bushel bags to pick in for 50 cents each.

Other useful items (optional) to bring include a small kitchen ladder/stepstool and wagon.  Dress appropriately for uneven ground, no climbing trees please.

Pumpkins
Pumpkin Patch
We still have already picked (large and medium), and u-pick pumpkins (medium) available and they are included in our sale.

We love these girls and their pumpkin dresses out picking pumpkins!

Check out this interesting article on carving your pumpkin from the bottom rather than removing the stem top to make them last longer.  I learned a lot of new things!
Stop carving your jack-o’-lanterns from the top

Pie Pumpkins
We have pie pumpkins available.  These are perfect for making pies, bread, or muffins, and are also the perfect size (about 4-6 pounds) for small children to use for Halloween or decorating.

 What is on the Market
Fall Apples – Braeburn, Cameo, CortlandFuji, Goldrush, Jonathan, Northern Spy, Pink Lady, Red Delicious, Red Rome, and Yellow/Golden Delicious available in quarter-pecks to bushels.  Honeycrisp available in quarter-pecks and half pecks.

Bankson Lake Produce – Fresh vegetables: Just Lettuce, Spicy Lettuce, Spinach, Arugula, lettuce heads, garlic, radishes and mushrooms.  The lettuces are prewashed, bagged, and ready to use.

Hard Winter Squash – Specialty squash: delicata, mashed potato, baked potato, sweet dumpling, carnival.  Fall squash: acorn, buttercup, butternut.

Sweet Onions – Our sweet candy onions are cured and available individually and in 10-pound mesh bags.

Baked Goods
In our freezer section, just “bake and enjoy”:
— Fruit pies in assorted farm fresh flavors.
— Stromboli’s – various types in breakfast, sandwich, and pizza styles.

Freshly baked:
— Assorted cookies, breads, muffins
— Donuts in Fall flavors – buttermilk, pumpkin, and apple, available Saturday and Sunday.  Last weekend!

Alcohol
Check out our assortment of alcohol products – wine, hard ciders, and spirits.  Our products are made on-site in small batches.  We distill the brandies on the farm and use our fresh apple cider as the basis for fermenting our hard ciders.
Grocery
We carry local grocery products.  Please note that we are no longer stocking many grocery items and inventories are decreasing as we near the end of our season.

  • Amish made jams, jellies, and salsas, made by Scherger’s Kettle, Shipshewana
  • Pure honey from bees buzzing just a couple of miles away at Babcock’s Apiary.
  • Maple syrup products including Barrel-Aged Bourbon Maple Syrup (non-alcoholic) made by Maple Row Sugarhouse using our bourbon barrels.
  • Sunflower oil and butters
  • Olipop prebiotic sodas
  • Pork products from Jake’s Country Meats, Jones.
Gifts
Check out our wide range of hand-crafted gift items and original artwork, most of it made by our local artisans.

  • Paintings
  • Jewelry
  • Kitchen items
  • Tote and shopping bags
  • Candles
  • Note cards
  • Seasonal lakeside living gifts
  • Corey Lake Orchard branded items – insulated bags, notebooks, coffee cups, key chains, magnets, shirts
  • Corey Lake Orchard gift certificates
Happenings on the Farm
Michigan Apple Crunch Day
Each year, thousands of children and adults across Michigan crunch into a Michigan-grown apple as part of the Michigan Apple Crunch. The Crunch is an annual event hosted by Michigan State University Extension and the Michigan Farm to Institution Network.

Last Thursday, October 17, we provided apples to several participating local schools in Three Rivers, Constantine, White Pigeon, and Battle Creek.  And especially to Norton Elementary who are conveniently located right next to our apple orchard!  The students at Beadle Lake Elementary made math guesses, graphed, taste tested, and even dressed in their favorite color of Apple!

Apple Variety Descriptions
Already Picked:
Braeburn: Sweet with a hint of tart, and a firmness that stores well.  These traits plus the fact that they bake well have made them a very versatile apple.
Cameo:  A firm, crisp, and sweet apple that resists browning.  Great for fresh eating, applesauce, or baking.  Keeps well in your refrigerator
Cortland.  Slightly tart, great for eating, cooking, and baking, a descendent of the McIntosh and slightly sweeter, juices well.
Fuji.  Sweet flavor with a low acid content, good for all purpose use like snacking, baking, and cooking.
Goldrush.  Tart when initially harvested, but when kept in storage, the flavor balances, creating a sweet, acidic, and tangy taste.  A cross between Golden Delicious with Rome Beauty and Winesap.  Stores for months.
Golden/Yellow Delicious:  A gingery-smooth, sweet taste under a thin skin. It is the most popular yellow apple, good eaten fresh, baked or cut in salads.  Makes a nice apple sauce and many people use for canning pie filling.
Honeycrisp.  A popular favorite, crisp, an excellent sweet flavor with a “bite” to it, great for eating fresh or using in salads.
Ida Red:  Suits your every use!  Eat fresh or for cooking.  Taste is both tangy and tart.  Flesh is white, crisp and juicy.  Favored for sauces, pies and desserts.  Texture holds up well when baked.
Jonathan.  Pretty and popular, used for fresh eating and cooking, a favorite for apple butter and taffy apples.
Mutsu:  Also called Crispin, it is a cross between Golden Delicious and the Japanese Indo apple.  It has a sweet-honeyed flavor mixed with sharp, tangy, and acidic notes.
Northern Spy: The professional baker’s dream, cooks up well in applesauce, pie and other dishes. Easy to remember by saying “Spies for pies”.
Pink Lady: Medium size apple with a firm, crisp flesh, and a tart taste with a sweet finish.  Stores well.
Red Delicious:  America’s most popular apple, known for the “five little bumps” on the bottom. Best for fresh eating and snacks.  Full-flavored sweet taste, yellowish flesh, and crisp texture.
Red Rome: A big, round, red apple right out of storybooks!  They have a mild, sweet flavor. Most popular for baking because it holds flavor and shape well.

Gleaning: 
Golden/Yellow Delicious:  A gingery-smooth, sweet taste under a thin skin. It is the most popular yellow apple, good eaten fresh, baked or cut in salads.  Makes a nice apple sauce and many people use for canning pie filling.
Jonathan.  Pretty and popular, used for fresh eating and cooking, a favorite for apple butter and taffy apples.
Northern Spy: The professional baker’s dream, cooks up well in applesauce, pie and other dishes. Easy to remember by saying “Spies for pies”.
Red Delicious:  America’s most popular apple, known for the “five little bumps” on the bottom. Best for fresh eating and snacks.  Full-flavored sweet taste, yellowish flesh, and crisp texture.

Thank you for your continued support and for buying local.
Everyone at Corey Lake Orchards wishes you a blessed and bountiful Fall!
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