The strawberries, that is. At least here in southwest Michigan. All the local patches (including my strawberry patch that meanders around some of our raised beds) wrapped up the strawberry season over the weekend.

The strawberries started early and left just as quickly as they arrived. We made the most of them and enjoyed fresh strawberries on cereal, pancakes, waffles and ice cream. I ate countless bowls of strawberry shortcake as well. In fact, with that in mind it is probably just as well that the season is over – at least as far as my waistline is concerned.

Here is what our local orchard, Corey Lake Orchards, had to say about the season –

Due to the early spring heat, everything is running about 10 days to 2 weeks early this year. It’s almost unheard of for strawberries to be over and to be in the middle of cherry season during the middle of June!

Sounds like we had better get our fill of cherries as quickly as possible – they might go just as fast as the strawberries.

Another great local market for asparagus, strawberries, and blueberries is Riverland Farm Market. They are supposed to have Michigan blueberries in starting this Friday, June 25th.

I didn’t know there was a National Chocolate Chip Day, but I guess I’m not surprised. There are days dedicated to just about anything imaginable. Anyway, with today being National Chocolate Chip Day I figured we should honor the chocolate chip properly by putting them in cookies . Doing some quick research it appears that there are actually two National Chocolate Chip Days. One was already celebrated on May 15 – who knew?

I shared my Great Aunt Florence’s Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe a couple of years ago. It’s a simple and delicious recipe that you have just got to try.

Also, I created a page dedicated to Creating the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie. It’s well worth the visit .

Enjoy your chocolate chips today nestled in some wonderful cookies!

I’ve been hearing reports from people that the Michigan sweet corn crop is just starting. The weather has certainly held up the crop a bit this year and it looks like it might be rather staggered as well. In other words, if you see some for sale on the side of the road and think you’ll just stop by later – you’ll probably be out of luck. I’ve been told, “if you see it, buy it because odds are it will be sold out later.”

Remember, for best results cook your sweet corn the day you buy it. After being picked, the sugars in sweet corn break down into starches and greatly affect the flavor/quality of the sweet corn. If you can’t cook it right away – put it in the refrigerator to at least slow down this process.

After our previous trip to the blueberry patch resulted in over 20 pounds of blueberries my wife and I knew that we would need to shoot for a goal of 40 pounds in order to have enough blueberries to freeze and enjoy all year long. We went above and beyond that by picking over 47 pounds of blueberries at Locke’s Fruitful Acres just north of Volinia, Michigan. The picking was easy and you just can’t beat the fun of picking your own blueberries and chatting away while you work. We honestly didn’t know that we had been there for three hours when we were all finished.

I now sit here typing this with sore shoulders, aching back, burning calves and the satisfaction of knowing we have enough blueberries put up in the freezer to enjoy at least one pound each week. Fresh Michigan Blueberries in the summer taste great and are extremely enjoyable. Eating blueberries in the winter over hot cereal, in pancakes, or pies is a great way to remember and appreciate the work it took to have such a treat in the winter and it helps (in some small way) to get through those darkest and coldest of winter days.

There’s still plenty of blueberry season left so be sure to get out and enjoy some fresh Michigan blueberries!

Picking blueberries with your kids can be fun and challenging all at the same time. Our goal for today was 30 pounds of fresh-picked Michigan blueberries, but we fell short of that by just under 9 pounds. The picking was excellent out at Locke’s Fruitful Acres near Decatur, Michigan and should last another three weeks or so according to the owner.

I’ve been picking blueberries at this location since I was about my son’s age (he’s just under five) and it’s neat to see how he goes about picking (and then subsequently eating) blueberries. I can remember eating more than I picked and hiding from both the sun and my mom underneath a canopy of blueberry bushes. Good times, and good memories.

Here’s a bowl full of some of the fruits of our morning labor:

Looks tasty, doesn't it?

At Locke’s Fruitful Acres it is $1.50 per pound for U-pick this year (2009). With two kids under five running around and “helping” we were able to pick over 20 pounds in just an hour and a half. Next time we’ll leave the kiddos with grandma so we can reach our goal of 60 total pounds of blueberries for this year.

I noticed an uptick in the number of people finding our humble little blog here when they searched for “picking blueberries” or “u-pick Michigan blueberries” and the like. So, I figured it must be that time again when one of the tastiest Michigan fruits were ripe for the picking. A quick call to our favorite local blueberry farm, Locke’s Fruitful Acres, confirmed that the picking has indeed begun. One huge local blueberry producer here in southwest Michigan, Leduc Blueberries, will not be having u-pick this year due to “due to extreme winter conditions.”

My goal this year is to pick around 50 to 60 pounds of blueberries. I had joked about it earlier this spring with my wife as we ran out of frozen blueberries that we had picked last summer that this year we needed to pick at least enough to have one pound of blueberries a week all year long. So, that’s the goal anyway.

Locke’s said their picking season will last about three weeks so we’ll be making a couple of trips over there. It’s too hard to pick 60 pounds in one morning with a couple of kids running around. Picking about 30 pounds per visit is much easier. I’ll post our results later in the week .

The blueberry picking season got me thinking about my favorite fruit produced here in Michigan. I would say that blueberries are my absolute favorite. How about you? Vote in the poll for your favorite Michigan produced fruit.

It’s maple sugaring time again and with National Pancake Day (February 24th – dang, how did I miss that?) recently behind us it got me wondering just what exactly people like to put on their pancakes. I’m partial to real Michigan Maple Syrup. Once you try pure maple syrup you will never buy the maple “flavored” syrups again (unless you don’t care about tasting awesomeness versus ho-hum-ness).

Quick Maple Syrup Fact:
It takes about 40 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. Now you know why the “real” maple syrup is more expensive than the nasty sugary corn syrup maple syrup. Here’s more maple syrup facts.

You can probably guess which one I’m voting for. How about you?

UPDATE: I created a new page with a rather comprehensive listing of Michigan Corn Mazes and Michigan Apple Orchards – Michigan Fall Colors.

We stopped by Hubbard’s Corey Lake Orchard on our way home from church yesterday to pick up some fresh veggies and we were pleasantly surprised to find a few early varieties of apples for sale. Gala, Jonamac, and everybody’s favorite Honeycrisp. We picked up a bag of the Gala apples with the promise that we would definitely (and we will) be back to do some picking.

It’s only $8 a bushel (that’s a lot of apples, folks) to pick your own and if you’ve never been apple picking – you should. For three quick reasons – 1) It’s a great family outing, 2) Isn’t it nice to know exactly where your produce is coming from and 3) That you’re supporting local farmers.

One thing to note, I think it is $12 (or more) a bushel to pick the Honeycrisp apples. Plus, they don’t have as many Honeycrisp apple trees so if you snooze you lose. In other words, he who hesitates will miss out on the Honeycrisps.

We’ve been picking our apples there for the last few years and it’s just a lot of fun for us and the kids. The Gala apples are nice because they are so versatile. They make excellent apple sauce (my wife’s homemade apple sauce is THE best), pies, apple crisp, apple butter, and for just plain eating as well.

According to the Michigan Apple Committee the Michigan apple crop is expected to be “1/3 or more below average.” April snow, a May freeze, and weather too hot for ideal pollination all contributed to the expected fewer apples this fall.

The first apple (and most in demand) variety available in Michigan is the Honeycrisp. These apples are usually much more expensive than other varieties due to the demand far outstripping the supply. With a lower yield this year you can expect to pay a lot more come mid-September when the apples are ready.

One thing you can do is to find your local apple grower and either go apple picking (a highly enjoyable event in our household) or purchase their already picked selection. Visit www.AppleJournal.com to find an orchard or cider mill near you.

Michigan has been blessed with just the right amount of rain for most areas where sweet corn is being grown. It looks to be a much better crop than last year’s which saw too much dry weather in most of Michigan to produce a good crop.

I’ve had a meal of Michigan sweet corn and have been anticipating more, but we got that corn from the other side of the state. The sweet corn here in Southwest Michigan looks like it is just now ripening up. I can’t wait.

Of course, everything is costing more this year than last so look for retail prices on sweet corn to be around $4 per dozen. Shop local at roadside stands and farmers markets to keep money in your community and state. We get our sweet corn at Hubbard’s Corey Lake Orchard (out near Corey Lake of course) or Brad’s Strawberry Farm in Constantine.

Quick Tip
Ask the vendor if the corn was picked the day you are buying it. If it is (and is should be for best flavor and texture) then make sure you husk it and cook it that same day. The sweet corn loses it’s sugar (the sugar breaks down) over time which also means it loses its flavor.

Read an article on Michigan Sweet Corn at the Detroit Free Press