Welcome to Magicland Farms!
We are a family-owned and operated roadside farm market. We are a bit different than many of the larger roadside farm markets since all the edible produce we sell we grow ourselves on our farm. This not only results in produce that is as fresh as possible, but it also allows us to keep an eye on the origin of the produce we sell (so it is up to our standards).
Click on the map for directions
We are a family-owned and run roadside farm stand.
A little about us…
Magicland Farms is our family-owned and family-run 65+-acre farm in the middle of Newaygo County, Michigan. Founded by our father (Thomas Fox) and currently (as of 2020) run by his two sons, Mark and Matthew Fox, after his passing in 2016. The farm has been a big part of our family and we hope to continue it for as long as we can.
Almost everything we produce we sell at our open-air roadside stand located on the farm. We grow an enormous range of different fruits and vegetables. One of the crops that we get many compliments for is our sweet corn. We try hard to live up to our customers’ praise by planting many plantings of corn throughout the season to help keep the quality of our corn the highest we can. The 15+ varieties we grow each year also help achieve this lofty goal by being carefully scheduled according to the times of the year they are best suited for growing. Of course, sweet corn isn’t the only thing we grow! You should see HERE for a more detailed list of what keeps us thin and questionably sane.
Another thing that makes us a bit unusual is that all the fruit and vegetables we sell as food are all grown by us. We have purchased some mums and a few jack-o-lanterns for resale in the past, but ONLY when our own crop of pumpkins failed or didn’t produce enough to meet demand. In other words, if you can eat it, then we definitely grew it.
The start of the season for us depends largely on the spring growing season (we will open earlier if it is a warmer than average spring) and what we decide to grow for spring sales. Normally, we would start the season off with strawberries, peas, beans, lettuce, or some other early crop, sometime in June. As for the end of the season, that depends on the weather and how much fall crops we have (apples, winter squash, potatoes, etc.) We normally stay open until November, although some years we will stay open into December.
Early History of Magicland Farms (written by our father, Thomas Fox)
After I bought the first (north) half of what is now Magicland Farms in October of 1970, the next spring I planted some peaches, apples, and apricots. In 1975 I started planting sweet corn for sale. That year I planted several acres of corn using a small hand planter and sold the sweet corn, to farm markets in the area. Then in 1976 the peaches started bearing so heavily that I couldn’t eat ’em all, not even when helped by family and friends’ hungry tummies, so I decided to try and sell them. I asked the boss at the large farm market, that I was selling most of my sweet corn to, if he was interested and he said: “Nope… I’ve got my own peach orchard.” So, I decided to try and sell the peaches direct, so I made a deal with Mildred, a kind neighbor lady across the road, for her to sell the peaches and she would get a percentage. Mildred agreed. Sales the first day were poor—perhaps because they were Xtra-early peaches that people didn’t think were actually local peaches– and she suggested sweet corn would get the people to stop. I went right out and picked her 6 bushels and went home and took a nap. Two hours later, the phone woke me up and Mildred said “Tom,” in her slow, sweet way, “I haven’t any corn left. Did you want to pick some more?” After that first day, I needed nearly a pickup load daily to keep Mildred happily busy. Since this was almost as much corn as I took to the guy at the farm market, every few days, and at a price higher than I got from him, you can imagine what I did—and you’d be right! So sweet corn was the real catalyst that got Magicland Farms’ going as well as moi becoming a resolute dirt farmer!
Slightly newer history of the farm… (written by Matthew Fox)
As time progressed (around 1984) we moved all sales across the street, to our current location on the farm. We also started to add to the variety of stuff we grow to make things more interesting for ourselves and our customers—to the point where we consider our current selves to be a bit crazy with the amount of crops we try to grow every year. Little has change around the stand since those early days. Small improvements and upgrades mainly, although we are working toward tackling larger projects in the future. Most of the changes have been out in the fields, with additions like a couple of high tunnels, a deer barrier fence, new orchards, better irrigation systems, and a few other things to make it easier for us to grow our crops.
