Winter Squash including acorn, butternut, buttercup and hubbard,  $8 a bushel.  Super Special: 3 bushels for $20 - that's only 15 cents a pound!   Free instructions on freezing squash!

Freshly dug red and Kennebec (white) potatoes $14 a bushel. 

Hi,

2010 has been a tough year.  We started out with a very early spring where apple trees were in full bloom in April, then starting in the last few days of April and continuing until May 9^th with a real frost that wiped out our apple, pear and plum crops.  Normally a frost on May 9^th isn't a problem but this year our trees were past full bloom and into blossom set and the clear skies, calm winds resulted in low temperatures around 28F-29F which killed the tiny fruit.  By the way, the average last frost date here is around May 15^th, which, during a normal spring, doesn't cause any problems to fruit trees.  While the frost caused only minor damage to our peach crop, we have mostly young trees so our crop was naturally limited by tree size.  By the way, our peach trees grew unbelievably well this summer and we have a potential of a really good crop in 2011.

Our fruit wasn't the only problem.  We also had major problems with peppers and our sweet onions.  These problems were unrelated to frost and while we have ideas about why, we are not sure what exactly happened-which is disconcerting.  Both peppers and onions looked fabulous in mid June-the nicest crops ever.  There is a possibility that the heat of July and August caused the onion problems (especially the warm nights) we are pretty sure the heat didn't cause the pepper difficulties, although we are looking into that possibility.

The high points this year were the watermelons, muskmelons and sweet potatoes (Hmm, these are all heat loving crops, aren't they?)  We also had great crops of sweet corn, beans, tomatoes and squash, which made up a bit for our crop failures.  However, despite this, we are forced to make changes at Magicland Farms next year which we will be discussing in our spring newsletters.  Right now we don't have the details on the changes worked out.

Wednesday November 24^th, the day before Thanksgiving will be our last day for this season.  We plan on closing at noon that day.  I watched the TV8 weather forecast for Thanksgiving this morning and the forecast reminded me of the brutal cold days that sometimes happen here in JANUARY!  It is supposed to be only in the low to mid 20s during the day with snow AND HERE IS THE KICKER-with a bitter cold biting wind!  Normally during January the weather is a lot nicer here than this with sun, light winds and a temperature in the low 30s-in other words perfect ice fishing weather!  Well, it sounds like Thanksgiving will be the perfect day to enjoy a good meal of squash or sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and, of course, Roast Turkey! 

Speaking of the weather, the European Climate Model, which is generally recognized as the most accurate long range forecast model around, has just released its latest winter forecast.  It is calling for a warmer than normal winter for Michigan as well as a tad wetter than normal.  It also expects (as other models do) an extended and rather intense February thaw.  Also, the latest 8-14 forecast from NOAA is calling for being a tad colder than normal for Michigan and also drier than normal.  They also are expecting the southeast states to be much colder than normal.

Annemarie and I, along with Mark, Matthew, Bernadette, Rebekah, Catherine and Kelly want to wish you and your loved ones a very Blessed Christmas and a Holy and Wonderful 2011!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

Tom