Dear Friends:

Wishing Christmas blessings to you from Stade's Farm & Market! The following letter contains a brief summary of events at the farm this past year; a look ahead to the 2010 season; and, most importantly, a Christmas message to you, our wonderful family, friends, and customers.

A year in review: I'm sure most of you noticed the weather in 2009 was horrendous to say the least! Those of you who received my periodic e-mail updates could follow the late planting and slow development of the crops. We had a very late cold spring, then a cool cloudy summer followed by a killing frost (25 degrees) on October 9th. The corn and soybean harvest has also been running very late this fall with many farmers still harvesting as of this date! Global warming has yet to reach Illinois! Oh, I almost forgot to mention the three inches of rain in one hour we received on June 19th! This rain event wreaked havoc on our newly-planted pumpkins, resulting in a complete replant of the crop on July 1st. Now you know why there were so many green pumpkins in the field when you attended Shades of Autumn!

Speaking of Shades of Autumn (for those of you who have not yet attended it is our annual fall festival), it was also greatly impacted by the constant rain during October — rain for 20 days out of 31!

Our new adventure — Stade's Haunted Hayride, was only operating two weekends out of five that we planned due to muddy and dangerous trails.

I could go on and on but enough of the bad news. Here is the good news!

Even with the great challenges of the weather and the economy, God still provided! We always had enough high-quality produce to fill the needs of all of our customers! The best part of 2009 was our weekly Christian worship services. We hosted these church services each Sunday at 10:00 a.m. from June 7 through November 1. The attendance has doubled from last year! Many talented musicians and singers led the services and inspirational messages were presented by several different speakers throughout the summer. We invite everyone to experience outdoor worship at the farm next year!

So out with the old and in with the new!

2010 — the start of a great new decade.

We'll open the market around May 1st with bedding plants and fresh-cut asparagus, along with other early seeded crops such as spinach, lettuce, radish, etc. We also hope to open our bakery at this time and have some tasty surprises in store for you. Strawberry picking will begin approximately mid-June. We'll have six acres to choose from in 2010! A Strawberry Festival is also being planned. It will be a warm-season version of Shades of Autumn. I think I'm really going to enjoy this!

In mid-July our famous sweet corn will be ready for harvest. Soon after will come tomatoes, cantaloupe, green beans, and the many other veggies and fruits grown here at the Stade Farm. Raspberries will be a new crop for us this year. We will plant a fall-bearing variety which will be ready for you to pick in late July, August, and September.

A concert event is also in the planning stages for this summer. Then in September and October our focus, of course, will be Shades of Autumn. It will again grow with more unique attractions and entertainment.

As you can see, we are starting off the new decade with a bang. We hope you can be part of our family by enjoying our homegrown healthy products or visiting the farm for some quality family entertainment. Please check out our two websites for more information. If you already are a satisfied customer, we thank you! Please tell others about the things they are missing and get them on our e-mail list.





Vern's Visions

As you probably can sense from reading this letter and past letters I have written, I believe God has a hand in everything. There are no coincidences — all things happen for a reason. Many times God's plan is not our plan and it can be very discouraging and even destructive to our faith. But it is written that all things happen for the good of those who love God. I have experienced many circumstances in my life which I thought were bad and actually turned out to be good. The following is an excerpt from an article on contentment in the Lutheran Witness magazine; I think this says it all: "Our heavenly Father gives us our deepest desires, but He does so in a way that resources our faith, our relationships, and our vocations in just the right way and at just the right time."

May the Christmas Promise fill you with the kind of happiness that will brighten the days ahead and fill the new year with peace and contentment.

Have a blessed Christmas!!

Vern Stade

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