Web www.honeyflowfarm.com

Click here for more directions to the farm.

Farm opens Friday, September 3.
We have over 20 varieties of grapes to choose from when you come to our farm to pick.

Click here to see whats ripe this weekend.....

Our honeybees colonies look very good this year and we expect a good crop of honey.

The clovers and thistles have been growing rapidly and the rainy weather has caused the flowers to grow profusely.
Bring your pails and jars & we will fill them.

Honey prices have varied widely the last few years. Things have stabilized and our price have gone down.

Observation Hive Tells Secrets …
The magical world of the honeybee is now yours to see through our observation hive. Let your children find the queen, and see what’s happening in the honeybees unique home.

Picking Tips ...
Small pruning shears are ideal for picking grapes. You may bring your own or we will provide grape knives along with bags. Our grape knives are for adult use only. Heavy dew on the grass will make rubber boots useful for morning picking.

Subscribe to our e-mail Newsletter and receive our free 30 page Candle Catalog.

Our Monthly e-mail newsletter will keep you up to date about all farm activities. Did you ever wonder what really happens each month at a "Vineyard," a "Honey Farm," or a "Candle Shop." Our newsletter describes all of these activites. Each month’s newsletter is also on our farm website at www.honeyflowfarm.com where you can subscribe to the newsletter and instructions will be sent to you on how to download our free candle catalog.

In September we also send out our email “Weekly Grape Picking Up-Dates”, there are only four of them and our “Up-Dates” subscribers can also win a bushel of grapes from a weekly drawing. All newsletters are FREE!

Click here to subscribe ......

Visit us on line & see what we have available. Our website has expanded dramatically and we have been shipping candles to people all over the US.

We will not be able to have everything at our sales stand - so if you are coming out for grapes & honey, you may want to e-mail us a candle order & I will have it ready for you to pick up at our sales stand.

Extra Value - When you pick up candles at our sales stand we will pay the sales tax!

VISA - MASTERCARD
American Express - Discover
WELCOME

Remember! Our season is very short - only 6 weekends - mark your calendars & visit us!

Winemaking Notes

PREMIUM SEEDLESS TABLE GRAPES
Venus - A large black grape - Row 30
Canadice - A red seedless grape - Rows 16 to 19
Himrod Seedless - White table grape - Rows 20 & 21
Reliance - A Highly flavoured red seedless - Rows 13 & 14
Suffolk Red Seedless - Rows 22 to 26
Lakemont Seedless - A white table grape - Rows 11 & 12
Einset Seedless - A red table grape - Rows 27, 28 & 36

SEEDED TABLE AND JELLY GRAPES
Seneca - Delicious white grape - Rows 8 & 9
Price - Blue table grape - Rows 6 & 7
Buffalo - Large blue grape - Rows 3, 4 & 47
New York Muscat - Excellent blue grape - Rows 10 & 50
Concord - Blue jelly grape - Rows 1, 2, 48 & 49
Steuben - A late ripening blue grape - Row 5

WHITE WINE GRAPES
St. Pepin - White - Germanic style wine - Rows 62 & 63
Seyval Blanc - Popular white grape - Rows 31 & 32
Vignoles - White - In high demand - Rows 38 & 39
GW-5 - Aromatic German style wine - Row 15
Cayuga White - Fruity white wine - Rows 33 & 34
Horizon - A fruity, clean wine - Rows 35 & 41
Niagara - Fruity white wine - Rows 71 & 72
Delaware - A pink Champagne grape - Rows 68 to 70

RED WINE GRAPES
Foch - Burgundy red wine - Rows 42 to 46
Baco Noir - Excellent fruity red wine - Rows 55 & 56
Rows 51 to 54 & 64 to 67 have Baco in the back half
& Dechaunac (a solid, popular red wine) in the front half
Frontenac - A new red wine variety - 1st crop 2005

This year we are pressing DeChaunac and Foch for a blush wine or you may add a grape bag to make it a red wine.

Eastern white juice is a blend of concord, delaware or other native grapes (sometimes this juice could have a slight blush to it.)

Our white hybrid blend is a mix of white hybrid grapes.

Winemaking juice is sold in 5 gallon plastic pails with a plastic liner. (Pail exchange required) These pails are held in a freezer until you pick them up. This insures that you receive the highest quality juice that has not already started to ferment.

Large amounts of grapes are quite easy to pick and you get the best price. Most pickers (depending on variety) can pick from 1 to 2 or more bushels per hour. Bring your friends and get quantity discounts.

Grape Pails (or grape bags)   Make Red Wine the Easy Way!
Grape pails are a plastic pail, with a nylon stainer bag in it, tied with a loose knot, filled with crushed and de-stemmend grapes and quickly frozen. These grape bags may be added to grape juice to add color and body resulting in a red wine, or just used by themselves. They are very handy when you do not have a press - just squeeze them by hand or let them drain - And the strainer bags are re-useable!

Blush wines are becoming very popular. A blush wine is made by using light red grape juice such as Foch or DeChaunac or adding red grapes to a white juice. Think White Zinfandel!

White Wine Notes ... I have had good luck the last few years with making a soft (or slightly sweetened) white wine with Cote Des Blancs yeast (available at the vineyard.) This yeast doesn’t like to ferment very much past 12%. Adjust your juice sugar level for 12% alcohol & ferment with Cote Des Blancs yeast. 1 month later add 8 oz. sugar per gallon of wine, then crush and add 2 cambden tablets per gallon, let stabilize 6 months. Many people also add potassium sorbate at this time (1 gram per gallon). (Not foolproof, but often works)

COMMODITY PRICES
U-Pick Grapes
1-19 lbs. .80/lb.
½ bu (20 lbs.) or more .60/lb.
5 bu (200 lbs.) or more .54/lb.
10 bu. (400 lbs.) or more .46/lb.

(An average person can pick from
1 to 3 bu/hr - bring lots of friends)

1 1/2 bushel (60lb) makes 5 gal wine

Red & White Wine Grape Juice
Foch & DeChaunac blush juice
Eastern white & Hybrid white juice
5 gallon pails @ $54.00 ea.

Grape Pails (strainer bag included)
2 gallon grape pail @ $22
(16lb of crushed/destemed grapes)
5 gallon grape pail @ $42
(40lb of crushed/destemed grapes)

Please order your juice as soon as possible.
Although we try to complete every order,
we sometimes have a shortage of harvest help,
bad weather or U-Pick customers pick them first.
Substitutions may sometimes be necessary.

Call (810) 796-3253 in the evenings to order juice
or click here to order on line.

Honey Farm Notes

Bulk Raw Honey Price Reduction

Good News ... When you experience the fragrance of a field of wildflowers or an orchard in full bloom, envision this captured in a jar of our pure Michigan honey. The aroma emanates from the nectar in each flower. The bees collect this sweet nectar, return it to the hive and remove the excess moisture. This distilled nectar is honey! Because of the variety of clovers, trees, wildflowers and vegetables that grow in Michigan, our bees produce a honey of exceptional quality. We then extract, lightly strain, and package the honey into the many fine products marketed by Honeyflow Farm.

Observation Hive ... Did you ever wonder where the honeybees put all that nectar in those wooden boxes (hives) that beekeepers use? Our observation hive has plastic sides, safely keeping the honeybees in, while you watch them storing pollen and nectar. Sometimes you may even see the queen bee laying eggs. Come see nature at work.
Bring your own containers and we will fill them from our 50 gallon barrel. $1.50 lb. for any amount. New two gallon pails are now available for sale at the vineyard for bulk raw honey. (Holds 24 lbs)

Wildflower Honey ... Our wildflower honey has been warmed only to 135 degrees. Many large packers filter and heat at much higher temperatures to retain a longer shelf life. We prefer a more natural product that may only stay liquid for three to six months.

Comb Honey ... “Natures Candy” is still in the comb the honeybees stored it in.. It is usually eaten with a spoon or chewed for its flavor or spread on toast, just like a stick of butter.

Creamed Honey ... Creamed honey is made by a special blending process developed many years ago. Pure natural honey is seeded with finely ground granulated honey under controlled conditions. The honey quickly solidifies into a smooth consistency, a delicious topping for biscuits or toast. We offer cinnamon and apricot creamed honey in addition to our standard creamed honey.

Beeswax Candles ... We make Hand-dipped 100% Pure beeswax candles every winter. Each candle has been dipped 20 to 30 times into melted beeswax. Beeswax candles emit a distinctive scent and are longer burning. We produce more than 50 types of candles. Visit our on-line Candle Shop at www.honeyflowfarm.com to view our candle selection.