FRESH CIDER IS BACK

Are you missing our Almar Orchards fresh organic apples? Well, some people regard our cider as the best they have EVER had because of the fabulous apples it’s made from! Simply put, we choose only the best apples to go into our apple cider. There will not be any ground-picked apples in our batches of cider – the pigs get those. The trained professionals at our Almar Orchards pick all the apples, beginning in July and going strong until just before a freeze, around Halloween. Then, the 16-bushel bins are stored at very specific temperature and humidity settings in our giant walk in storage coolers. When they have been properly seasoned, they are hand sorted, although we may run them on the sorting machine for a preliminary grading. The prettiest apples are sold in our store and in our partner establishments, like CSA Farmer’s Market. The apples that have more than a blemish or two are sent to the juice bin and then ground and squeezed.

Here is a great article stating some health benefits of apple cider:

Apple Cider Article

Lettuce Loves The cooler Temperatures

YES—Dale from White Pine Farm grows some wonderful lettuce. When the weather turned super hot this last summer for a long time it made the lettuce bolt and become bitter, so the ground was reworked and eventually new lettuce was planted. Again NOW there is wonderful lettuce on the website.

Growing Season Update Aug 25, 16

YES!!! Rain and cooler temperatures. It is too late for many of the crops, although others it will benefit. For some extremely hot and dry crops they were overly thirsty and drank too much so they sometimes can explode overnight. Kind of like us humans when we have been out in the heat too long we drench ourselves drinking so much water we get a belly ache. We are very glad the heat wave is over with and some growers had to plow under there failed crops to start preparing the ground for other crops.

Lettuce loves the cooler weather so you should be able to have some lettuce soon. When the heat wave hit the lettuce became bitter.

Sweet Potatoes are looking good, they like the heat.

THANKS for your patience and understanding!!

Please at all times let us know if there are any problems with your order or produce. We want to fix, fix, fix. We are motivated to give you the best Michigan Organic Grown Product possible. Even if they are totally beautiful when they leave here things can happen and we need to know so we can correct the problem.

NEW!!

We will be sending a small follow up survey from now on to all customers who have picked up their orders. It is a quick survey asking if there were any problems with the order.
We did it for the first time this week and were pleasantly surprised to get so much positive feed back we also a couple of comments from customers that alerted us to some problem areas in which we promptly fixed.

Thanks to all those that replied.——It is greatly appreciated!!

Now Accepting Credit Cards

We are finally accepting credit card payment, but only over the phone. If you would like to pay your invoice with a credit card please call us at 810-688-7442.

CUSTOMER COMMENTS

Farming this year has been rough for those that live in Lapeer and Genesee County. The intense heat and the lack of rain has created havoc. I truly have learned greater appreciation for the farms out West, that the last few years have experienced extreme drought.
Michigan’s west coast, Saginaw Bay and some other areas in Michigan historically get more rainfall than the farms in our area. Even though we would much rather be selling our own corn which unfortunately did not make it a Saginaw Bay Organic Farm (Englehard) is harvesting his sweet corn for us.
Here is a letter we received thanking us for this.

Hi, Marian,
Just wanted to say that your efforts to find another sweet corn supplier are very much appreciated – the corn was great! I picked up my order late on a Friday, didn’t store them very well other than throwing them in the refrig, and didn’t get to roast the ears until late Sunday. I expected the kernels to be soft and lacking in flavor. To my surprise, they were still sweet and crisp-fresh! We had gone to another corn roast (but boiled) on Friday, with corn from another local farmer. The ears looked great, but the flavor wasn’t quite there; it paled in comparison to your supplier’s!
Thanks again! For the best stuff!
Blessings!
Pat Gall

Cucumber Problems also occurred this year, under normal weather conditions short stays in the walk in cooler have not been a problem, this year the drastic temperature change created condensation on the cucumbers causing them an earlier demise.
We have since remedied the problem and given credit to many customer.
In the mass emails that went out asking for feedback we also heard good things.
My cucumber was perfect! Deb
The cukes I received were perfect and tasty No complaints here. Thx Dale Mike
We are grateful to a customer who brought this to our attention the cucumber problem. Cukes sales went down somewhat after our experience and Because of this we are now pursuing a license through MDA to can product so we can now preserve and sell the excess over the full year.
Milk from Hilhof!!! Does not like getting over 50 degrees and we are sticklers to make sure that it doesn’t although accidents do happen and not all customers are aware of the temperature. In an email sent to all who ever bought the milk we also received some nice feedback.

I have their cream and love it! Martha
I opened a bottle of ours and it is perfect. Pamela
My milk has been good!!! Tina
I ordered milk from Hilhof one time a few weeks ago. It was good. It lasted at least two weeks. Alicia
I love the milk & cream! No problems with spoilage here. Thanks Barb
The milk I’ve gotten from Hilhoff has always been wonderful. Karen
I’m always impressed with how long the milk lasts in our refrigerator. Amy
We fairly regularly buy your wonderful organic chocolate milk. My spouse puts a generous amount in his morning coffee,so very decadent. Every quart has been fresh and sometimes lasts almost two weeks. So, not only do we have no complaints, we do have loads of kudos to offer the farmers who provide this delicious treat. Many thanks Donna

We love all feedback!!! Good and bad!!!
The sooner we hear that there is a problem the sooner we can rectify it, so all feedback is important to us.
By your supporting CSA Farmers Market you are helping to preserves thousands of acres of farmland in Michigan that are in organic production. By giving us feedback you are helping us to improve.
We love the partnership and the relationship we develop with our customers and all customers are welcome to visit the farms.
When we do not hear from a regular customer we worry. Sometimes the system kicks them off because of internet email problems which we have very little control over (although we will be working to rectify that) and sometimes they have moved, or become ill. We also worry that they may be unhappy with us.
Please everyone stay in touch with us, we are very busy farming getting very little sleep while trying to keep up and we never want to neglect anyone, there just isn’t always enough hours in the day.

To Contact Us

The Cumming Harvest
thecummingharvest@live.com
Facebook
Twitter

THIS WEEK

Here we are, nearly to September!
This week I want to shine a light on the local areas of growth in sustainable agriculture.

-Cane Creek Farm is a working and educational farm here in Cumming offering classes in organic gardening, as well as lunch n learn classes throughout the year. The best and most convenient farm to visit and learn to grow! www.canecreekfarm.net

-School Gardens I have visited a few and heard of more schools building school gardens in Forsyth Cty. More and more County Directors, Principals and Teachers are interested in making improvements and supporting Farm 2 School. North Forsyth HS Agriculture students and the Food and Nutrition departments are working together to expand their Farm 2 School programs. Currently, the Food and Nutrition department is growing a garden with the intention to harvest herbs to use in their cooking lessons. The Business Agriculture students may be opening a farmers market so that they can learn the business and marketing side of farming.

-UGA’s sustainable agriculture program didn’t even exist a few years ago, and already it’s become one of the premier programs of its kind in the country. Not only are students getting immersed in it full time, but the program also offers workshops and classes for new and long-time growers alike, all across the state. Looking at the calendar of events here: http://sustainagga.org/news.html, I see workshops of small ponds, livestock management, attracting honeybees and other pollinators to your garden, growing cover crops, and field trips to working sustainable farms. All of these are open to the public, and you can find details and registration links there on the calendar.

They also offer a journeyman training program for interested beginning growers, even those who want to start part time. They have a whole section of information and links elsewhere for people interested in small farms and other small food producing operations, located here: http://sustainagga.org/SmallFarms.html. That page is one of the most comprehensive resources for beginners.

-Forsyth County UGA extension is working to improve community awareness of our local farmers and Agritourism. For the first time, there will be a table and display set up at the County Fair this October highlighting our local farmers, Farm 2 School, and our local farmers markets. Make sure to come by and show your support.

-The Place, a local food bank and thrift store off of Pilgrim Mill Road has built 40+ raised beds in a sustainable community garden next to their building. Master Gardeners and volunteers are planting and harvesting food to be added to the food bank.

-University of North Georgia is developing a university-wide sustainability plan. Take a look to see what they are doing. https://www.facebook.com/sustainable.ung

It’s wonderful to see so much progress in so little time, especially since Georgia agriculture has such a reputation for being anti-organic for so long. The overall emphasis is still overwhelmingly in favor of industrial agriculture, but no longer exclusively. And it’ll only get better from here.

Pick-Up

Market Location and Pick Up
135 Enterprise Drive, Suite I, Cumming, GA 30040
Google Map