Concord Ridge Fruit Farms

Fresh, hand picked asparagus in one lb. bundles

Although it has been a challenging asparagus season with the cool temps, the recent upper 80-90 degree temps. have had us picking sometimes twice a day! We still anticipate having asparagus for another week or more, so stop by and pick some up for the freezer. To order a large quantity, please give us a call or e-mail us to place your order at (269)684-5865. Our FREEZER SPECIAL is 10 or more lbs. for $1.50/lb. For smaller quantities, we are at $2.00/lb. We also have rhubarb at the fruit stand while quantity lasts!

Terry and I walked the strawberry fields tonight, and were happy to finally see a few of our early variety strawberries beginning to ripen! Our first varieties will include Honeoye and Wendy and are a great tasting strawberry. We hope to begin picking sometime next week, depending on the weather. Our U-Pick will not open until sufficient quantities are available to meet demands. Please keep an eye on the website as I will keep you up to date on this.

Early variety strawberries begin to ripen!

Our sweet cherry orchard is loaded with rapidly sizing cherries, which should be available towards the end of June. We have 9 varieties of cherries from early to late, so we should have cherries available at our fruit stand for several weeks. We hope the warmer temps. will continue to help ripen and size our crops. This will help our crops catch up from the cooler than normal temps. we have been experiencing.

 Look forward to seeing you all soon! Tina

Our sweet cherry orchard in blossom!

Cool Spring temps. prevent an early bud break in our Concord vineyard.

I for one, am glad to see the winter of 2010/2011  in the past!  I’m sure you will all agree that with record breaking snowfalls, it was a very long winter. We were sure glad to turn the calendar to April and welcome the warmer temps., greener grass, and lovely spring flowers!

We are anxiously awaiting the start of our homegrown asparagus season.  We know many of you, too, are craving the first fresh vegetable of the year after such a long winter! Looks as though things will be a little later this year as opposed to last year.  We need warmer weather to warm the ground allowing the asparagus to grow and become productive.  We will let you know as soon as we pick our first batch and will have it available at our fruit stand.

We have stayed very busy this spring getting everything trimmed and ready for a new year. Temperatures have

Terry trims raspberries prior to Spring bud break.

remained relatively cool preventing an early budbreak like last year.  We are hoping and praying that we get a gradual warm up and avoid a spring freeze. We have a lot of exciting things going on at our farm this year including plans for a new strawberry field.  We look forward to seeing you all again and are excited and so thankful to begin another year.

There is nothing like freshly picked Michigan strawberries!

With the warmer than normal temperatures we have been having here in Southwest Michigan over the last few days, our early variety berries are beginning to ripen! We actually picked several flats out of the field today for the first time and sold out very quickly. It seems as though everyone is ready for some local, sweet and juicy, Michigan strawberries! Of course we had to sample the first ones and boy are they good! Made some shortcake and a strawberry pie that was a real treat! Picking will be sporadic at first as we will not pick every day. As the season continues, we will be picking daily and will open up our u-pick when we have sufficient quantity. Keep an eye on the website as I will post when we open our u-pick.

Aparagus Update

We are still picking asparagus daily and anticipate another 1-2 weeks for the season. Be sure to check out our asparagus coupon on the right hand side of this page for our “freezer special.” If you purchase 10 lbs. or more, the price would be $1.25/lb. This is the time of year to put some in the freezer so you can enjoy Michigan asparagus all winter long! For large quantity orders, please give us a call at (269)684-5865 or send us an e-mail by clicking on the “contact us” tab at the top of this page to place your order. We want to make sure we have your order ready when you come out. I hope you have all enjoyed our asparagus for another season…there is nothing like fresh Michigan asparagus!

We are currently picking our homegrown Michigan asparagus here at Concord Ridge. We grow Jersey Knight and Purple Passion varieties.  Due to cold nights, production has been slow,  but have been able to keep up with demand. If you would like a large quantity, please give us a call at (269)684-5865 and place an order so we will be sure to fill your order. Our current price is $1.50/lb. and are offering a special of 10 lbs. or more for $1.25/lb. Come on out and pay us a visit for some fresh, tender asparagus! Learn about all of the health benefits that asparagus has to offer at michiganasparagus.org.  Hours are 9:00a.m.-7:00p.m. 7 days/week.

A freshly picked lug of Michigan asparagus

We just finished putting all of our straw down in our strawberries and have been irrigating for several nights in order to protect our strawberries from the freezing temperatures. We are beginning to see bloom in our early variety of strawberries which means we will probably see an early season starting in mid-late May!

Last night on April 27, temperatures dipped into the mid twenties causing some bud damage to our grapes. It looks as though the damage could be substantial, but are still hopeful for a good crop.  Apples and cherries withstood the temperatures with cherries coming out of bloom and apples now in full bloom!