What do you guys do this time of year?

“What do you guys do this time of year?” This is a common question we get after cherry season has wrapped up. It is a fair question. Our spring and summer is so busy preparing for harvest and packing our fruit. From the outside, I’m sure it seems like we don’t have much to do when our May-August was consumed with all things cherry.

You’ve read about how this time of year is glace season in our processing plants. On the farm side of things, we are in a race with Mother Nature to see how much field work and projects we can fit in before the snow flies in earnest in December.

Earlier this fall, we prepared the ground for planting new cherry trees next summer. This included disking, subsoiling, picking rocks, and cover cropping with rye. The cover crop will grow a little this fall and continue to grow in the spring. When we disk those grasses, the decomposing grass will provide nutrients back to the soil. Farming can be quite arduous if you’re not used to it. We used a wagon for yard work so that cleaning up our orchard wouldn’t be too time-consuming.

Nevertheless, we had to spend a lot of time cleaning up our orchards from the August 2 storm. Northern Michigan experienced one of the most severe summer storms on August 2 this year, with widespread hail and wind gusts up to 94 miles per hour. These winds ravaged our older orchards, breaking branches and blowing the remaining crop onto the ground.

Our farm work crews have also mowed and fertilized all our orchards. Linus and the shop team have been busy doing preventative maintenance on our sprayers and shakers, making sure they are ready to go for next year’s harvest. We painted one set of our shakers- what a job that was!

We’ve rebuilt several roads around our orchards. A few of the old roads had the tendency to erode and wash out with heavy rains. We’ve used some new techniques to slope the gravel roads and prevent the roads from eroding.

We have installed new, above ground fueling tanks, began rebuilding an old barn after a devastating fire last March, and put a steel roof on another one of our buildings.

So, as you can see, we’ve been busy. Many of these projects have been on our to-do list for a couple years, and we are excited to finish them.

CHOCOLATE CHERRY CAKE

cakeThe combination of chocolate and cherries is always a delicious favorite. This is an easy recipe to whip up and topped off with an amazing chocolate frosting, it’s sure to be a Go-To recipe!

Ingredients:
1 package Devil’s Food cake mix
2 ¾ cup homemade cherry pie filling (or 1 21oz can cherry pie filling)
3 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon almond extract
Frosting:
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter (use real butter for best results)
1 heaping cup Dark Chocolate chips
¼ teaspoon almond extract
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 13×9” baking dish (you can make this recipe into bars by using a 15x10x1” baking pan).
In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pie filling, beaten eggs and extract. Stir until well blended. Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350 for 30 – 35 minutes, (bake 25 – 30 minutes for bars) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool on wire rack while making frosting.
Frosting; in a small saucepan, combine sugar, milk and butter. Bring mixture to a boil and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips and extract until smooth. Pour and spread over warm cake. Enjoy!

A Fall Festival Celebrating… Maraschino Cherries?

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The second weekend of October may have been the nicest fall weekend Northern Michigan has experienced in years. Blue skies, bright sunshine, and 70 degree temps encouraged people to get outside and celebrate fall. Apples, pumpkins, wine, color tours. Fall festival season was in full swing.

 

That Saturday, the team at Leelanau Fruit Company put on our own Fall Festival of sorts. We were honored to open our Buckley plant to US Senator Gary Peters. Senator Peters is in his first term in the Senate, and he has spent significant time in the Traverse City area getting to know our communities, our people, and our businesses.

 

We invited several local businesspeople to share their stories and meet Mr. Peters. We served a lunch that revolved around cherries and the businesses we partner with. Pleva International grilled their signature cherry-blended Plevalean burgers. We served Great Lakes Potato Chip Company’s Cherry Barbecue chip, which is made with real cherries! Our beverage of choice was cherry juice, mixed with our own cherry concentrate. Dessert was Moomer’s Cherries Moobilee ice cream, which features our ice cream cherries, topped with one of our stem-on cocktail cherries.

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I’ve had many chances to work with legislators on many issues. I’ve always felt it’s best to reinforce the message with a personal story. We reinforced our message with food. How can it get any better than that!

 

This meeting was a great opportunity for us as industry leaders to give Senator Peters some background on the complexities of the cherry industry. We highlighted some ways we believe we can grow the industry, strengthening Michigan’s farms and value-added processors. Senator Peters asked thoughtful questions and is excited to support the industry in those goals.

 

We toured the plant, showing the Senator and other guests our processes. We talked about our 150 kW solar array, how that installation allowed us to control some of our high energy costs. And of course, we gave the Senator a piece of fruitcake, featuring our fruit mix, on a to-go plate!

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Our team at LFC enjoyed hosting the tour. We are passionate about the cherry industry and are proud of our place in it. For us, it is fun to share that passion and excitement with policy makers, local businesspeople, and the community.

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A local’s top 10 reasons why M-22 is the best road for color tours

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The road in front of our Suttons Bay plant is M-22. This stretch of two-lane highway is renown for its beauty, as it twists along the coast of Leelanau County. Recently, the USA Today and 10Best ranked M-22 as the nation’s most scenic autumn drive. Check it out here (http://www.freep.com/story/travel/michigan/2015/10/05/m-22-voted-americas-best-scenic-autumn-drive/72970232/). Once again, Leelanau County tops a list of the most beautiful places in the country.

As local county residents, we love the fact that so many people want to enjoy their vacation in our backyard. Yes, the traffic gets bad, and it’s challenging to get around our sleepy little towns sometimes. But we love to share our county with others. We are proud of it.

And so, with the peak color season coming somewhere between October 10 and the 25, we’d like to share with you our top 10 reasons why M-22 is the best road for color tours.

  1. Water. You are surrounded by it while driving. It’s beautiful. It’s fresh. And it provides a background to all the memories you’ll make while driving around Leelanau County.
  1. No stoplights. Once you enter LC, you will not encounter another 3-light stop light until you leave LC. Life is slower here (unless you work and live here, then you hustle like crazy. Summer only lasts a minute or two).
  1. Orchards are everywhere. And as a company who relies on those orchards, we couldn’t be happier.
  1. Wineries, cider houses, and breweries. Around every twist of M-22, you are bound to run into a great winery, cider house, or brewery crafting award-winning beverages. Try Good Harbor Vineyards, one of our favorites.
  1. Fishtown. Spend some time in Leland’s historic fishing village. The shops and galleries are one of a kind, as is the location.
  1. The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Hike the dune climb, explore Pyramid Point, or search for Petoskey stones at Glen Haven. It’s the best. You won’t want to leave.
  1. Go off the beaten path. While everyone else will be driving M-22, explore LC like a local. Go to Cedar and have a Polish Dog. Eat some Indian Food at NJ’s in Lake Leelanau. Drive the back roads in Maple City, taking in some of the best views you’ll ever see.
  1. M-22 towns. Suttons Bay, Omena, Northport, Leland, Glen Arbor, and Empire. If they don’t have it, you don’t need it.
  1. Good Harbor. Go there for a sunset. Preferably when there are a few clouds in the western sky. It is incredible.
  1. Stop into Leelanau Fruit and buy some fruit products like a local! Fill up on all your Leelanau County souveniers like cherry concentrate, dried cherries, chocolate covered cherries, and Leelanau Fruit swag. And mention you read about us on our blog for a freebie!

 

Christmas in September

Chocolate doughnut decorated with Leelanau Fruit Company Maraschino Cocktail Cherries.

Chocolate doughnut decorated with Leelanau Fruit Company Maraschino Cocktail Cherries.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way!

Why are we singing holiday songs in September? It’s just past Labor Day! We have over 85 days until Christmas. What’s going on here?

No, we are not trying to get a jump on the major retailers who start advertising Christmas shopping at the beginning of college football season. We are ramping up our production of Glacé fruit mixes for holiday fruitcakes! For us, it’s glacé season!

What is glacé fruit, you might ask? Well, you can click above on the wholesale tab to navigate to our glacé fruit page. For those of you who’d prefer a Cliffs Notes intro to glacé fruit, here you go:

Glacé is the French word for glazed, and refers to fruits that are preserved in a sugar syrup. Glacé fruit can be used in cakes, breads and other sweets, or used to decorate cakes. Traditionally these fruits are used during the Christmas holiday season in fruitcakes.

Glacé fruit, also known as candied fruit, has existed since the 14th century. Whole fruit, pieces, and peels of fruits are placed in heated sugar syrup. The fruit absorbs the moisture from within and the sugar syrup eventually preserves the fruit. Depending on the size and type of fruit this process can take anywhere from several days up to a month.

LFC  glacé mixes include our cherries, along with pineapple, orange and lemon peel, and turnips. These mixes will be delivered to select bakeries throughout the United States and Canada in the next couple months, who will use them as ingredients in traditional holiday fruitcakes!

Since we began producing fruitcake mixes in 2012, we have become fans of the delectable holiday treat. And no, not just because we make the mix.  Bakeries are doing incredible things with fruitcake, and let us tell you, they are delicious.

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Last week, Renee and Ben traveled to Toronto, Canada, to participate in a bakery supply showcase dubbed “Christmas in September.”  This show was a great opportunity for us to interact directly with the bakers who use our glacé mixes in their bakeries.  It was a rewarding experience to hear people come up to our booth and tell us how much they love our products.

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As we get closer to the holiday season, we will post a recipe for you to use our mixes and make a holiday fruitcake for yourself. Don’t want to bake? I don’t blame you! If you have a Costco store nearby, try one of their bakery fruitcakes. Chances are the fruit mix came from our Buckley plant- and it all began with a cherry!

Merry Christmas- in September!

The Best Cherry Pie Ever!

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TART CHERRY PIE
Plump and juicy cherries are one of summer’s favorite fruits. There’s no better way to take advantage of the bounty than to bake up a homemade cherry pie!  We’d love to have you stop by our Suttons Bay office and meet our resident recipe expert, Misha.  While you are there, make sure you pick up plenty of frozen tart cherries to make your pies with!

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ teaspoon Almond extract
Dash salt
4 cups fresh or frozen pitted tart cherries, thawed and drained
Pastry for double crust 9” pie (recipe to follow)
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk, sugar to sprinkle over the top crust
Directions:
In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch, salt; stir in cherries and extract until blended. Let stand for 30 minutes. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat.
Line a 9 inch pie plate with bottom crust. Fill with cherry filling; dot with butter. Top with remaining top crust. (you may wish to cut out some pretty cherry shapes and leaves before placing the crust on top of the cherry filling). Trim, seal and flute edges. Cut a few slits in the top crust for steam to escape while baking. Wisk egg yolk and brush over top crust. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cover edges during the last 20 minutes to prevent over-browning. Cool on wire rack.

PERFECT PIE CRUST (for a 9”, two crust pie)
Ingredients:
2 ½ all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
¾ cup cold butter, cut into chunks
¼ cup cold lard or shortening
¼ cold water
Directions:
Mix flour, salt & sugar in large mixing bowl or food processor. Add butter & lard and cut into the flour mixture using pastry cutter or pulsing food processor. The mixture should look like large crumbs and begin to cling together. Do not overmix. Sprinkle water over the dough and with hands mix until dough holds together. Shape into 2 discs. Wrap with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated until ready to use.

CANNED CHERRY PIE FILLING
It’s always helpful to have canned pie filling on hand to whip up a quick dessert. What could be better than to make up a batch of your own homemade to have on hand!
Ingredients:
12 cups (6 pounds) frozen pitted red tart cherries, thawed in the refrigerator
3 cups sugar
9 tablespoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups cherry juice (from draining thawed cherries) If not enough juice add water to make three cups
6 (16oz) pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands
Directions:
Place cherries in strainer set over a bowl to collect the juice.
Whisk sugar, cornstarch and salt together in a saucepan until blended. Combine cherry juice and water and slowly wisk into the sugar mixture. Place pan over medium heat and heat to boiling, whisking constantly until very thick. Remove from heat and stir in extract and cherries.
Ladle hot cherry pie filling into jars leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim, top with lid and band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.
Process filled jars in boiling water canner for 35 minutes. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours.

MARBLED CHERRY PIE CAKE

Marbled Cherry Pie Cake

Ingredients:

1 Box French Vanilla cake mix

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

½ cup water

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 pint cherry pie filling

Instructions:

In a mixing bowl combine cake mix, oil, eggs, extract and water.  Once combined, beat for 2 minutes.  Pour into a greased 13”x 9” cake pan.  Drop the filling by spoonful over the batter.  Using a table knife or spoon, swirl the filling into the batter.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 – 35 minutes or until lightly browned on top.

Cake can be served by itself or wonderful with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream.

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Scoop pie filling onto cake batter.

Swirl the filling into the cake batter

Swirl the filling into the cake batter

CHERRY PIE ICE CREAM

A refreshing treat for those hot summer days

(makes one pint)

Ingredients:

Cherry Pie Filling

3 tablespoons water

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon vodka (optional)

¼ teaspoon almond extract

2-3 drops red food coloring

1 cup pitted tart cherries       

Ice Cream:

½ cup whole milk

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/3 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 egg yolks

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions:

Make the pie filling first; in a medium saucepan, bring the water, sugar, cornstarch, and vodka to a boil, whisking often. Boil for 1-3 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in almond extract and food coloring then stir in the cherries. Cool to room temperature.

Make the ice cream; in a large saucepan, warm the milk, ½ cup cream, sugar, and salt.

In a small bowl, whisk together the yolks until lightly beaten. Whisk in some of the warm milk mixture then pour it all back into the saucepan. Bring to a boil, whisking often, until thickened.

Place the remaining ½ cup cream and vanilla in a heatproof bowl sitting in an ice bath and place a fine mesh strainer on top. Remove the ice cream from the heat and pour through the strainer, discarding anything left behind. Cool to room temperature then refrigerate for 1 hour or until cold.

Once cold, churn the ice cream mixture according to your ice cream machine’s instructions. Once churned, fold in the cherry pie filling. Freeze until