The sad end of one of the most beloved patches of land in all of Michigan’s Great Southwest is now also victim to the pandemic, as organizers of the upcoming weekend auction at Tree-Mendus Fruit Farm in Eau Claire have announced the inevitable postponement due to the coronavirus.
Liz Teichman, widow of the late Herb Teichman, and mother to current owner Bill Teichman and his wife Monica, has asked us to help get the word out so that people who may have been traveling from great distances would know that the huge auction event will not take place as planned this Friday and Saturday.
Glassman Auctions, which will eventually handle the sales event, posted this message on their Facebook fan page:
Due to the COVID-19 Virus and isolating period -The Tree-Mendus Fruit Farm Auction has been postponed until further notice. You are important to us!
New dates will be posted as soon as we know. Stay safe out there.
The auction story in itself is a sad chapter in the storied lifetime of the third-generation farm which became a destination attraction, annually hosting the International Cherry Pit Spitting Championships, and a huge draw to families who delighted in “renting” trees from which they could pick their own apples, cherries, and many other popular fruits.
Just days before Christmas, the Teichman family announced, in a Christmas message on Facebook, that operations would cease at Tree-Mendus Fruit Farm on Eureka Road at the end of 2019.
That news followed the devastation the family has endured since early fall last year when third-generation family farmer, Bill Teichman, the very heartbeat of Tree-Mendus Fruit, was stricken with the rare Eastern Equine Encephalitis disease.
Now being cared for extensively at home, Teichman can no longer operate the long-running family farm that has been a staple on the agricultural scene in Southwest Michigan for decades, and Glassman had been tasked with the sale of all land, equipment, supplies and everything else at auction. That was supposed to take place this Friday and Saturday, but Liz Teichman says this morning it has been indefinitely postponed with a potential target of getting back on track towards the end of May.
The popular farm consists of 80 acres of fruit land, woods, a pond, and the farm market along Eureka Road in Eau Claire.
Stay tuned for the re-set, which we will share with you when the time comes.
