Greetings from the Northern Fruitlands...

     What an unpredictable summer it was! The growing season began with our usual high expectations for a year of boundless abundance in the orchards of the Fruitlands. But instead, we had a turbulent season filled with the kind of Northern Michigan weather drama that kept us on the edge of our seats throughout. On the Leelanau Peninsula, the apricots blossomed during a brief warm spell between frosts that lasted just long enough for the sweet cherries to complete their flowering as well. But the tarts came on when cold, gray days had resumed, and some were nipped by surprisingly late frosts on two frigid May nights.

     News came from the Bardenhagen farm that their strawberry patch had narrowly survived due to our very late, cold spring. As the first picking began, the shape of the berries was evidence of frost injury, but following a perfectly sunny week, the second picking was so spectacular that all our concerns about having enough of our delicious Early Glows disappeared.

     This year it seemed every sunny afternoon was followed by a cool night of rain and then another cloudy morning. But, luckily, by the time sour cherry picking started in mid-July, most of the orchards had recovered remarkably considering the cold and the hail storms in June. Fruit quality was excellent, but the harvest was modest and growers received the highest price ever paid for their sought-after fruit.

     Thanks to the innovative spirit of grower, Gene Garthe, a small quince orchard was planted for American Spoon this spring on his farm, perched on a bluff above Lake Michigan. Although he doesn’t expect to yield a harvest for many years, we can’t help but be excited by his investment as we look forward to the day when we will offer you deliciously preserved quinces of several aromatic heirloom varieties from Gene’s young orchard.

     This was also the first summer that American Spoon committed to preserving the wonderful Rubel variety of blueberry, exclusively. The Rubel, known for its uniformly small fruit, dark color and intense flavor, was one of the first selected from the wild for cultivation back in 1912, and has distinguished itself ever since as the most delicious cultivated blueberry anywhere for culinary use…perfect for preserving and pie!

     The later stone fruits: apricots, peaches and plums, developed slowly and weeks behind schedule under the ever-shifting skies while we wondered if they would all sweeten before the fall frost. Our patience was finally requited, and by early September, we had pitted our beloved Harlayne apricots, peeled truckloads of melting-flesh Red Haven peaches and quartered soft-ripened Bartlett pears. We’d eluded hornets and dodged thorns in the sun-drunk blackberry patch. Heavy umbels of elderberries that pickers delivered to our kitchen were steamed and pressed for their purple black liquor. The bounty of the Northern summer has been simmered in our copper kettles to capture its rare essences in jars. As demanding as this hand labor is, these rituals impart a welcome sense of continuity following the vicissitudes of this particularly uncertain year. And we know it would all be for naught, if not for all of you who share our special fruits with family and friends all year long. We hope their authentic flavors are a reminder of the things that last, and a comfort to you as well.

     The glorious September sunsets over the Petoskey break-wall, and those last warm afternoons among the dunes on Sturgeon Bay are annual reminders that there are never enough blue sky days for all we want to do. We will always tire of running with the sun during our feverish Northern summer. And soon the apple orchards and the wooded hills above the hazy lakes will blush with alluring color, and that annual caravan of purple clouds will appear above the green waves, shattering the late summer light as it blows in across the bay. Every season here has its magic, its poignancy and its consolations. But now, with the harvest mostly complete, there is time for listening to cooling breezes and for a moment of rest, before the busy holidays arrive.

     On behalf of all of us at American Spoon, and from our beautiful corner of America to yours, wherever that might be, here is the work of our hands, the fruit of our land, may it bring you pleasure!