These our are new postcards for the coming seasons. We wanted something easy for customers to keep so that they know what we grow and sell. We also of course want them to know how to find us...especially on the internet.

~Christina

Grant

Umm, yeah loving this sunset shot!

Mulching with a mower saves us time and money.

It saves a ton of labor and by mulching instead of burning the trimmings we can cut down on that carbon footprint.

After rolling over the trimmings, most of them full branches, it leaves a trail of mulch like this.

It is not only useful in the orchards but also takes care of the thick blueberry trimmings.

This particular machine is a new addition to the farm and was purchased as part of a grant.

The grant was awarded by the Frontera Farmers Foundation

We are very grateful for their support of us and all the other farms they blessed with grant money. Check out this incredible list of awardees.

Again we are very grateful for this support!

~Christina, for all of us

My desktop wallpaper

I just pretty much love this picture and wanted to share.

Working on several new posts for later so stay tunned...btw, comments wouldn't hurt progress.

~Christina

Newlyweds on the farm

My wonderful husband took me on a picnic! Surrounded by blossoming trees we had a few minutes to enjoy each other's company between his work at the store and his work on the farm. This made me very happy...and I would like to think it helped him relax too.

I had been wanting to try this chicken recipe for several days so we did not have traditional picnic food. I basically just made supper at home and hauled it out to his parent's farm.

It was delicious.

Yes, there is a lot of farm work to do but we are newlyweds after all. I really do love the farm but I won't lie...it has been hard for me to adjust to the fact that Mathew works all day then we spend most evenings working on farm stuff. (I married such a hardworking man and I am very grateful for his care of me!)

Oh, and about the picture of us...it is definitely not the most flattering. My Mathew may not love pictures (especially of himself) but he does love me and I do love pictures (especially of him).

~The new bride who is hoping for many more picnics~

:)

In Full Bloom

Southwest Michigan is a pretty awesome place to live...especially in the spring. Driving around the farm and the county is overwhelming as the orchards pop into full bloom. As during every season on the farm the weather is such a big issue. Blossomtime can be especially stressful as we wait to see if this year's crop will make it through the fluctuating temperatures. It has been dangerously cold these last couple of days but we are hanging on and trusting that everything will be alright.

Now don't get the idea that all of the trees bloom at once but all of these images were taken in April...mostly in the last week.

~Apricot~

~Sweet Cherry~

~Plum~

~Tart Cherry~

~Pear~

~Blueberry buds~

~Peaches~

~Apple~

I love taking pictures of blossoms~ I mean really, flowers are my favorite photographic subject. That means that every year from here on out I will probably take at least a thousand blossom close ups...making it super hard to pick just a few to do something with. :)

Happy early Blossomtime!

Strawberries are coming!!!

We are SO EXCITED!!

Want to know why?

Quite simply we like strawberries...

...and blossoms mean that harvest is less than a month away!

We are working hard to protect these precious berries until they are ripe, red and ready to enjoy!

~Happy Springtime~

*Note: I am working on more pictures to post. I simply love spring pictures and I am so so super happy that my photography can help the family. :)

Jim at Green City Market

A quick cell phone picture from mom of Jim at the Green City Market on Saturday.

Green City is the only winter market we are a part of.

Bees equal fruit

Without pollination we would have no fruit come harvest time. It is very important to make sure everything is sufficiently pollinated during blossom time. In order to accomplish this we order bees to place in the orchard. There were a few issues with shipping this time making things a little more stressful than normal but I was there to take pictures while Rene' put one of the hives in the orchard.

Also managed to get a shot of a big honey bee in the apricots. There were thousands of native bees out there in those trees. They looked like little specks buzzing around the tops of the trees.

The row of apricots was in full bloom last week. The white blossoms are hard to see against the gray sky. Between the truck and the trees is a beehive.

I thought the black and white of the apricot blossoms looked artistic so I wanted to share it with you. Hopefully no one tires of blossom pictures...I love taking them! I am in fact planning to go out tomorrow to take more now that the plums, pears, cherries, peaches and apples are all in various states of bloom. You can look for a post on the different fruit blossoms next week.

In the latter part of last week a cold front took over where we had experienced warm and balmy temperatures. The heat had brought on the blooming of the trees and we had concerns that the cold snap would freeze out the crop. Although it did get cold for a couple of nights we did not lose all of the apricots. There was likely some loss but we are still looking forward to having some delicious fruit to sell in a few short months. More cold temps are likely on there way so we will continue to pray for the protection of our precious trees.

In other news I took several head shots of Suzanne for some different projects and wanted to share one with you all. She is looking forward to starting work at Green City on Saturdays and Museum of Contemporary Art when summer markets roll around in a month or so.

~Christina

A Happy Easter!

The family on Ellis Farms hopes that all of our readers, customers, and friends (some of you are all three :) had a wonderful passover and Easter season.

For us we enjoyed our Easter with friends and family here at the farm. Dad and Mom (Bruce and Rene') hosted a wonderful meal in which we all had a part. As we praise God for his faithfulness we were glad to spend a day with each other.

The two little ones in the family enjoyed an egg hunt, albeit a windy one!

Then they ventured out with Aunt Rene' to explore one of the tractors. Little boys love tractors most of the time...it must be in their blood. These two do not live on the farm but they enjoy visiting for sure.

I am quite sure my husband probably looked just as thrilled to be sitting on a tractor when he was four...I know he does now!

~Christina

P.S. Spring blossom pictures will be making an appearance soon. We are praying for moderate weather to keep the blooms from freezing....

*Edit*

For more Easter pictures click on the link below to see our Facebook album (you can do this even if you do not have a Facebook account)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=160682&id=315871773180&l=677776b934