The era of a fascinating combination of cider, donuts and backyard dinosaurs is crashing to a halt. The Jollay Market has abruptly closed, “to take a pause, and see what life brings us.”
A nine year run alongside the exit ramp for I-94 at Friday Road in Coloma has concluded with a simple 70 word statement posted to their Facebook fan page announcing the closing and little else.
Jay Jollay, owner and operator of the site with his family, issued the following statement shortly after daybreak today:
“Thank you all very much for a great 9 years.
At this time we would like to say thank you to all of our wonderful customers and dedicated staff.
A special thank you to Juliza for creating the wonderful food she prepared.
At this time we must take pause and see what life brings us.
We look forward to seeing everyone at the farm this U-Pick season.
Thank you
Jay Jollay”
The closure apparently does not impact beverage operations at the site of the former Grandpa’s Cider Mill further up Friday Road or the Jollay Orchards agri-tourism site further still up Friday Road.
The closure is somewhat reminiscent of the closure last year of the Chocolate Garden, sandwiched between the cider mill operations and Jollay U-Pick Orchards. Owner and operator Tina Buck also suggested that she needed to take a pause to find a better solution to too many orders and not enough personnel to generate the product necessary to fulfill those orders. She, too, left the door open for a potential return in the future, much as Jollay has done in his statement today. Stay tuned.
The photo accompanying this story on Moody on the Market is courtesy of Jollay Market.
