(Strawberries from our 2009 crop)

Sunday evening meant inspection of the strawberry patch to determine when sales would begin. There were strawberries almost ripe for picking so it was determined that we would start selling the strawberries on Thursday, June 3.

Along with the strawberries we will have radishes and sometime next week will have snow peas available for sale. Remember we also have sugar snap peas coming but they are not ready yet.

The crew has been busy picking today despite the hot weather (which we are grateful for as it really helps the crops).

We still have strawberries for sale, this will be the last week for that. We have now added snow peas and radishes. Sugar snap peas are coming.

In the near future (hopefully) we will be having our famous green beans, potatoes and zucchini.

Happy eating!

Despite the rain today, the crew managed to get some strawberries picked, along with garlic scapes. The strawberries have been wonderful and we hope to be picking them for the next several days.

Hopefully we will have peas for sale next week. We have both snow peas and sugar snap peas planted and hope to have a nice crop of each.

The crew just picked 18 quarts of strawberries this morning. Kind of surprising how many ripe strawberries they are finding given the lack of sunshine around here over the past few days. However, we are glad the strawberries are ripening. 

The other evening we had strawberry shortcake for supper and boy was it good! The berries are absolutely delicious, nicely sized and just wonderful. 

Hurry down and pick up a quart or two. You’ve got to enjoy them while they last.

Strawberry season has begun at Magicland Farms!

This morning the crew picked 13 quarts of strawberries.  They are for sale at the stand. 

For those who aren’t familiar with our place, we are located at 4380 S Gordon, Fremont, Michigan. You can go to our website for directions and a map: Magicland Farms.

Our hours are 1oAM to 6PM, Monday through Saturday, closed Sundays. At the start of the season, we only stay open as long as we have produce to sell so I would recommend you not wait until the afternoon as I don’t know how long the strawberries will last. Once we start to have more produce to sell, we remain open for our stated hours.

So head on down to Magicland Farms for the best strawberries you have ever had!

I found this story in the Phildelphia Citypaper online (story here). The author explains why buying your produce from your local farmers is the best choice you can make which almost goes without saying. But the reason I link this article is her list of some early produce and its nutritional benefits for the consumer. Here at Magicland Farms, we will soon be having strawberries and peas available for sale. Below are her comments on those two crops:

Peas

With 134 calories in a whole cup of peas, these seasonal beauties are delicious examples of why we eat veggies. A great source of calcium (43% of your daily requirements!), potassium, magnesium and phosphorus, fresh peas contribute fiber to our diets, folic acid for strong blood and immune-boosting vitamins A, C and K for all you antioxidant lovers out there.

Strawberries

With a harvest season that can seem like just minutes, when you see local strawberries at a farm market, grab them – especially if they are not sprayed or are organic! Their sweet-tart flavor is just one bit of their allure. With only 49 calories in a cup, these vitamin C-rich berries give us all the immune-boosting power we need, in a delicious way. A great source of fiber, magnesium and potassium, strawberries go a long way towards helping us feel balanced. And once you have tried locally grown, you’ll understand: they are worlds away from the flat-tasting, out of season, ripened-under-grow-lights versions you find at the supermarket.

So be sure to check back for the announcement of the start of the strawberry/pea harvest. Come on out and get some of the goodies for yourself; you won’t be sorry.

(Early Redhaven Peach Blossoms)

(Red Delicious Apple Blossoms)

Here are some beautiful photos of some of the fruit trees blooming in our orchard. The blossoms are pretty much gone by now. There were a lot of blossoms on the trees so we are hoping for a bumper crop of fruit. Because of the large number of blossoms, we will have to do some thinning.

Remember our first apple of the season is the Quinte apple which we usually have for sale in mid-July. Quinte is a great tasting summer apple.

Sorry about the lack of posts; I will try to one update to cover the last few days and then will start posting daily again.

Last week we worked on fertilizing the peach trees; there are tons of tiny peaches on them which means that we need to thin the fruit.

We also worked on the electric fence last week. Pretty soon it will be difficult for the deer to get into the crops and do damage (at least we hope so.)

Since it was rainy last week, we did more transplanting:

Tomatoes:

• Big Beef

Peppers:

• Giant Marconi – an 8 inch long Italian type sweet pepper
• Telica – a large jalapeno
• Bianca – an ivory bell pepper
• Vivaldi – a bell pepper
• Mandarin – an orange sweet bell pepper
• Ariane – an orange sweet bell pepper

Eggplant:

• Zebra – a purple and white variegated eggplant
• Hansel – a deep purple finger shaped eggplant
• Millionaire
• Machiaw – an Asian type eggplant up to twelve inches long and slender
• Vittoria – a purple eggplant

Today was a busy day planting more strawberries. I believe that we now have 1400 strawberry plants just waiting to produce fruit.

Note: The photos are from a strawberry planting session earlier this year. The fields are really wet right now from the recent rains.

We have been trying to take advantage of the weather to get some of the early crops planted. Last week, we got the ground ready for planting the cabbage, for example, but then the rains came and made it impossible to plant.

Well, today’s weather was much more cooperative so some planting got done today. The kohlrabi, broccoli, cabbage and beets were planted. I believe that we are going to try to get another patch of sweet corn planted this week, weather permitting.

Even though the weather wasn’t good for planting yesterday, the crew managed to clear out the rest of the brush from the orchard. Pruning the trees over the winter leaves quite a bit of brush to clear and it is not one of the favorite things to do in the orchard. So everyone was quite pleased that this task got completed fairly quickly.

This morning some tomatoes were transplanted from seed flats to peat pots. Among the varieties transplanted were Big Beef, Black Prince, Green Zebra, Cherokee, Mortgage Lifter, Martin, Sun Sugar and our secret variety that provides a lot of the delicious slicing tomatoes you find at Magicland Farms during the summer. If you haven’t tried any of our heirloom tomatoes yet, make sure to give them a try; they are a tasty treat!