The time all apple lovers have been waiting for is here! Honeycrisp apples are ready and available in the fruitstands! We also have Gingergold, McIntosh, and Gala apples available. Cortlands will be arriving soon, along with Jonagolds. Come out to the orchard or order online to get a taste of Michigan apples at their best!
We have raised the price of tart cherry juice concentrate for the first time in many years. We are going to $16.99/quart. This is a steep increase.
We had a large cherry crop in 2009 and much of the surplus was made into concentrate. The 2010 crop was very small but we still had enough concentrate to get us to June and the new crop. However, the 2011 crop picked out 20% less than expected. The large processors were not getting enough cherries for their commitments to their large contracted accounts so they sent fewer cherries to be made into concentrate.
Cherry juice concentrate has been growing at a fast pace and now the market was being shorted. We were unable to get a commitment for the amount of concentrate we need for the coming year from the processor who had done 100% of our juice for the last 2 years. We responded by sending all of the tart cherries that we grow to be concentrated. We also put out the word that we needed cherries for concentrate to the other growers. We were able to get 10 growers in our area to send us fruit for concentrate. However, in order to influence growers to send us their fruit we had to match or surpass the grower price that they were being offered from the big processors, and because the crop was short the prices were up 50% to 100% over the prices offered for the last several years. No one has ever paid prices this high for juice cherries but we think we were able to get enough fruit to last until next July when we start all over again. I hope you will bear with us and that we have a big cherry crop next year.
John
We really have a nice crop of pears this year. The Bartletts are in right now and they are large size and real nice. We will start the Bosc pears this week they are also big and beautiful. The Stanley Prune Plums just are taking their time getting ready. We like to let them hang until they have turned sweet but they won’t be ready until late this week, at the earliest.
The M88 apple block has been laid out with u-pick in mind, and we have promoted our u-pick for several years. However, as the apples on the M-88 farm began to develop this year I realized that they were all russeted. Russet is a brown rough finish on an apple skin that is usually the result of cold wet weather during bloom. The severity of russeting can be influenced by sprays as well, usually during bloom time. Russeted apples do not size well, and may crack.
My response to the russet problem was to remove all of the fruit from the affected trees. Most of the trees in our M-88 block are under 4 years old and by removing the fruit we would encourage very strong growth and increase our capabilities for a good crop in years to come.
This has been a very bitter pill but the net results are that there will be no u-pick this year at King Orchards, and that the apple trees grew vigorously this year and should be in great shape for u-pick next year.
The good news is that the M-88 apple block is about 25% of our apple acreage, and the apples at Jim’s and Russell Ridge farms were not affected, so we will still have all of your favorite apples in the markets for this year, just no u-pick.
We will have raspberries for u-pick and the orchard is open for anyone to take a walking tour (unguided unless I am available).
John
The first of the McIntosh apples just started coming in today! We also still have Gingergolds available, however not for too much longer so get ‘em while they’re still around! We have been seeing the first of the Bartlett Pears coming in as well this week. They are perfect right now… we should have them in for about 10-14 days.
Peaches and nectarines are coming to an end very quickly. We are running a sale until they are gone so this is the time to get them! They should be done this weekend. We will have softs available throughout the week in the fruitstands for all of you last minute canners. Give us a call so we can save you some.
Pears!
We are looking forward to a busy weekend ahead. The main question we have been getting- “What will you have for u-pick?” Raspberry picking will be strong this weekend. There are still some peaches on the trees, but we cannot guarantee that they will go through the entire weekend. Call us ahead of time and we can give you the status of the peaches. Hope to see you at the orchard this weekend!
Raspberry u-pick
Daisy would love to see you this weekend