M-88 Market Winter Hours
We do go down to shorter hours during the winter months. We still have apples in the market, as well as honey, syrup, dried cherries, cherry juice concentrate, jams and […]
Category: In the Markets
Summer FruitCast
Summer at King Orchards Here at King Orchards, we have been working diligently throughout the year to provide you with the premier produce of the summer. Our trees have […]
M-88 Market Open Year ‘Round
Did you know our M-88 Market is open year ’round? Come warm up at our Central Lake Market this winter. We will be offering apples and squash through Christmas as […]
August is the time for Northern Michigan Produce
Northern Michigan produce is at its peak! Tomatoes, sweet corn, peppers and pickling cucumbers along with all kinds of good veggies from the garden are in the fruit stand. It’s […]
Montmorency Tart Cherries are Here!
Tart Cherry time is now! It’s a limb busting year with every branch loaded to the max. The fruit is bright red and full of flavor. Come out and pick […]
Pre-Order Your Thanksgiving Pies!
Homemade Thanksgiving Pies from our Family to Yours… Pre-Order Your Thanksgiving Pies Apple- $12.00 Caramel Apple Walnut- $13.00 Cherry- $14.00 Cherry Crumb- $14.00 Pumpkin- $12.00 Cherry Raspberry- $15.00 Triple Berry- […]
Saucing Saturday & Craft Fair 2015
Saucing Saturday November 21st Saturday, November 21st, King Orchards will be hosting our annual Saucing Saturday & Craft Fair at our M-88 Market. We will be peeling, coring, and slicing […]
A Wonderful Pumpkin Harvest
A Great Pumpkin Harvest this Year! John King is so excited about our pumpkin harvest this year! He sought out the best seeds to grow the biggest and best pumpkins! […]
Saucin’ Saturday
Our 2nd annual Saucin’ Saturday and Craft Show will be November 21st, the Saturday before Thanksgiving at our M-88 Market. For those of you who have not attended, we will […]
Canning Tomatoes and More!
Canning Tomatoes are at their Peak! We have excellent fresh produce right now in our markets! We have beautiful canning tomatoes from Iott Ranch & Orchard. We also have slicing […]
Bay City Sweet Corn is Here!
Bay City sweet corn means Michigan veggie season is here! Our market is full of fresh veggies from Michigan farmers as well as our own cucumbers and pickling cucumbers. It […]
Pick Your Own Michigan Sweet Cherries in Full Force!
U-pick Michigan sweet cherries are in full force! We have an abundant crop this year and the picking is great! The season should last for about 3 weeks. Pick your […]
Pick Your Own Sweet Cherries Update
The crop of sweet cherries this year is huge! We are opening u-pick on July 4th. It is always a challenge because the cherries don’t ripen evenly so the first […]
Saucin’ Saturday/Craft Fair November 22nd
November 22nd, King Orchards will be hosting our 2nd annual Saucin’ Saturday at our M-88 market from 9am-5pm. We will be combining this with our 2nd annual craft fair. If […]
Fresh Pressed Unpasteurized Apple Cider
Rack and cloth cider press We just finished pressing our first batch of unpasteurized apple cider! We are making small batch cider using an older style rack and cloth press. […]
Michigan Apple Shipping Straight from the Grower
From Michigan and have moved away or want to surprise that special someone with a taste of Northern Michigan’s fall? Maybe you should think about Michigan apple shipping straight from […]
Pick Your Own Apples Means it is Officially Fall in Northern Michigan!
Fall in Northern Michigan wouldn’t be the same without a walk through the orchard to pick your own apples! At King Orchards, we strive to make a fantastic apple picking […]
Gingergold Apple U-Pick is Open!
We have officially opened apple u-pick on Gingergolds! They are available at both of our markets as well. We also have a few Zestars, Sansas, and Paula Reds. The price […]
Michigan Canning Tomatoes!
We just brought in a truck full of beautiful Michigan canning tomatoes from our farmer friend, Katrina Iott out of Petersburg, MI. We have them available by the 1/2 bushel. […]
Summer Apples
Summer apples are in full swing with Zestar, Paula Red, and Sansa apples! The first Gingergolds are arriving in the market too. We are all getting excited to open apple […]
Red Haven Peaches
All the peaches are off the trees but our coolers are filled with them! We have Red Haven peaches available by the 1/2 bushel. We also have nectarines and apricots […]
Apples for Labor Day Weekend!
Today was an exciting day! We got the first few apples in- Zestar, Paula Red, and Sansa apples! We all enjoy that first big crunch of the season. The apples […]
Fresh Michigan Produce from the Eastern Market
For the past few weeks, Jack and I have been going down to the wholesale Eastern Market in Detroit which runs from midnight to 6a.m. We have been selling apricots, […]
Red Haven Peaches are Here!
The Red Haven peaches all you canners have been waiting for are in! The extreme winter temperatures took a toll on the trees so it is a slightly lighter crop […]
Last Day for U-Pick Apricots (8/18); Red Haven Peaches Later This Week!
Today (8/18) is the last day for u-pick apricots. We hope to still have them in our markets through the weekend. Red Haven peaches will be in the markets soon! […]
Michigan Produce In the Markets…
Our markets are filled with wonderful Michigan produce! From our own gardens, we have pickling cucs, slicing cucumbers, yellow squash and zucchini. We have some amazing produce from our friendly […]
U-Pick Apricots are in Full Swing!
The apricot season has officially begun! Both markets are open for u-pick apricots and they are beautiful, juicy, and sweet! There is absolutely nothing like a tree ripened apricot. Just […]
Sweet Cherry U-Pick at our US 31 Market
Our US 31 Market has a later variety of sweet cherry called a Hudson that is just now getting ripe. We should have these available for u-pick through the weekend […]
Pick You Own Tart Cherries Through the Weekend; Pick Your Own Apricots Strong by the Weekend
U-pick tart cherries is still going strong and will go through the weekend. They are $1.00/lb and $1.00/bucket to pit them. Pick your own apricots are slowly starting to roll in. […]
Great Pick Your Own Tart Cherries
Pick your Own Tart Cherries in their Prime! Pick your own tart cherries are still going strong and our pitter is running at our M-88 Market! Tart cherries are $1.00/lb […]
Tart Cherry Picking OPEN!
Montmorency tart cherry picking is open for just $1/lb (same price as last year)! We have a great crop out there and can pit them for you for just $1/u-pick […]
Tart Cherry U-Pick Open by the Weekend! Pick Your Own Sweet Cherries Open!
The Montmorency tart cherries are almost ripe and ready to pick! We should be in full swing by the weekend if we get some warmer weather. We will still have […]
Open for U-Pick Sweet Cherries!
We have officially opened up the orchard for pick your own sweet cherries and raspberries. We also have sweet cherries available in both markets. The u-pick sweet cherries will last […]
Sweet Cherry U-Pick by the Weekend
The sweet cherries are moving right along. The Calvaliers (which are the first sweet cherry variety ready) are getting dark and sweet. We will have a few trickling into the […]
The Fruit is Developing!
After a busy spring, we are finally seeing the fruits of our labor! The fruit is beginning to develop on all the trees. Right now, the crews are busy at […]
Frozen IQF Montmorency Tart Cherries Ready for Shipping!
We are now going to begin shipping Montmorency frozen tart cherries. We apologize to all you Balaton cherry fans, but we do not have them available this year. There is […]
October News
It has been a great few weeks for us. Honeycrisp quality is excellent and demand is crazy. Galas picked more than our estimate so that is good news too. We […]
Winter News
Hello everyone! Even though it is winter we are still here on the farm and working hard. 🙂 The winter is progressing and so is our new building. We are […]
Getting Ready for Cherry Season!
The markets are starting to prepare for the busy season ahead! Our cherry crop should be very good this year! We are looking at the sweet cherry crop starting around […]
Fruitstand Update & Top Ten Ways to Eat Asparagus
We’re still in the thick of asparagus season. Stop by the M-88 or US-31 markets from 9 until 6, and pick up a pound or ten of these fresh, delicious […]
Beautiful Baker’s Blueberry Birthday Breakfast
Please bear with me and today’s overly-alliterated blog post. When Lexi (Bakin’ Girl) was a baby, one of the first books we read to her was The Berenstain Bears “B” […]
Pickling Cukes
PICKLES ARE IN!
Summer Vegetables.
There are so many vegetables in the market this time of year. It’s heaven for a vegetarian like me! We get some of our vegetables from Bay City, MI, but […]
What’s Happening this Week?
Things have been so busy in the market! Our sweet cherry u-pick crop has been small, but it’s lasted through the 4th of July weekend, which is very good. We […]
U-Pick Update
U-pick is now in full swing here at the orchard. We opened up apricot picking this morning and they are delicious! We just started on a few trees today, but […]
“Meg’s Market Update”
Hey there! It’s Megan, Betsy and John’s niece. I’m going to be taking over the blog a little, along with Courtney and a few of the other “fruit stand girls”, […]
Stop by Friday for Free Cherry Pie!
Stop by the M-88 Market this Friday, February 19th, between 9 and 5, and enjoy a free slice of cherry pie. Happy National Cherry Month!
Real Pumpkin Pie Recipe
I know it’s past Thanksgiving, but I couldn’t resist sharing my first real pumpkin pie recipe experience. Hard to believe that during all my tenure at King Orchards, I’ve never […]
Dried Cherries and Chocolate
We are very proud of our dried tart cherries at King Orchards, and now we have even more of them to love. We recently added two new products to our […]
USA Today: 10 Great Places to Pick Your Own Apples
King Orchards is proud to have been named in USA Today’s 10 Great Places to Pick Your Own Apples! “Enjoy the recreation playground of northern Michigan when you pick apples […]
Red Haven Peaches: Ripe for Picking and Canning
RED HAVEN PEACHES: Red Haven is the all-time favorite of peach lovers for both canning and eating fresh. They are freestone, which means that the fruit comes free from the […]
Fruitstand Update :)
Help! We’re being overrun by cucumbers!!! If we can’t get to the phones, it’s because we can’t make it through the mountains of pickling and slicing cukes we’ve harvested from […]
Fruitstand Report :)
Dipping Day: From now through the weekend you will be able to come and scoop out as many tart cherries as you wish from our shaking tanks without having to […]
Balaton Tart Cherries
We have a wonderful crop of Balaton tart cherries this year. Balaton cherries are a darker morello-style variety of sour cherry traditionally grown in Hungary, near the Soviet border. The […]
Tart Cherry Crop Report
Betsy and John were out checking on the tart cherries this morning. They’re still a bit orange-y, so we’re looking at 4 to 5 days before prime picking time. Picking […]
The turning point
Well today we began picking in earnest and u-pickers are showing up. This is the turning point when we start taking in money on the crops which have been getting […]
Sweet cherry picking starts today
To encourage lots and lots of Michigan cherry picking, we are rolling back our u-pick prices to 2006! We’re calling it our Cherry U-Pick Stimulus Plan (CUSP for those of […]
Happy 4th of July!
We drove the golf cart in the Central Lake parade today! The market has been busy and the pies were piled high this morning. With no cherries ripe there has […]
Market Update
The strawberries are looking great. We should have them through the 4th. It has been a little hard keeping a constant supply of strawberries, but we are trying to keep […]
Strawberries in the markets
Today is the first day for strawberries in the markets. They are beautiful and delicious and totally worth the wait. Prices this year are $4 per quart; 11.00 for 3 […]
U-Picking Open for Apricots
Apricots are in! We have a large, beautiful crop this year, and have opened them up for u-picking at $1.75 per pound. It looks like we have a few days […]
Rain, Rain, Rain!
It’s been raining so much lately! In the past 40 days, we’ve had rain on 24 of them. Hopefully it dries up soon, because the rain can cause the cherries […]
Coming Soon… Strawberries and Raspberries!
Hey everyone! Megan here, writing for Betsy while she’s at church. (For those of you that don’t know me, I’m John and Betsy’s niece that lives here on the farm […]
Update on Strawberries and Sweet Cherries
Things are finally warming up here! We’ve had rain the past few days, and the sweet corn is beginning to sprout. We have asparagus in the market for one more […]
New look for the U.S. 31 market
A new face lift for the kitchen down at the 31 market is happening right now. This past week-end people were looking for pies. Because we are in construction the […]
Made in Michigan
Michigan tourism is focusing on things “made in Michigan”. What a great idea for Michigan Farmers. Although a trip to the orchard to pick cherries isn’t the high light of […]
Frozen Cherries
The market has lots of frozen cherries available. Montmorency and Balaton cherries are in 10lb bags. I have small tubs of montmorecy cherries enough for just one pie. Remember my […]
There IS a difference in Dried Cherries!
I had to make a really quick Trail Mix for Scouts with M&M’s, Mixed Nuts, Pretzel sticks, Goldfish and Dried Cherries! Yummy! So quick I love to make it for […]
Discussion on dried cherries
Yesterday was our high school regional ski meet. The parents put on a big spread for the kids for lunch. I was talking to a mom who brought a broccoli […]
Apples are almost gone
February 29 is the last day to get apples. We have Ida red and Empire apples. The markets are open Mon-Fri 9-4. Applesauce is still easy and Ida reds or […]