In short, eat the fruit. Eat the vegetables. It’s so easy! When you buy our crops, that makes our small farm viable. Simple, right? We can make it simpler…
We’ll email you when crops come in.
Sign Up HereEnter your email address on the next screen and you will receive a confirmation email. Once you have confirmed, you are hooked up to receive “Crop Alerts & Farm Buzz.”
The most effective way to ensure the vitality of small farms is to eat the fruits of their labor. When you buy direct from a farm, those dollars go straight to work, close to home. Of course, you can also support local agriculture at selected area restaurants and markets. Some people go even further by writing to their politicians about small farm legislation. But you don’t need to go further, because you can go closer: simply visit your local farmstand. We’ll tell you when.
How “Crop Alerts & Farm Buzz” Works
A farm is a study in timing. The seasons run the show. We get a whole mess of peppers all at once. Thousands of tomatoes ripen in a few weeks. When crops come in, it is time to move them out. Snooze you lose.
It’s not like a supermarket where food waits in massive coolers after sitting in warehouses, trucks, and ships — often traveling thousands of miles. On the farm it is “harvest now, eat now.” We can handle the harvest part, but we really need your help with the eating! It’s easy-peasy, A-B-C.
| A |
A is for Apple.…and pumpkins and peaches and all the farm-fresh food that grows here at Indian Creek. We work all year round; the trees do their part; and 1,000 seedlings strive their butts off — just so food will come bursting forth during the harvest months. After that huge collective effort, we don’t want to waste a single apple. That’s where you come in. |
| B |
B is for Blog.When new produce is prime for the picking, you’ll see a crop alert on the blog. If you sign up by email you won’t miss a post, because every alert goes straight to our subscribers. The weekly alerts look something like this. For the truly obsessed, you can get daily updates on Facebook and Twitter. |
| C |
C is for Crop Mob!When crop alerts go out, people come running! That’s what we call a “crop mob.” Of course, the usual meaning is a bunch of volunteers who labor in the fields. When we say it, we mean come grab your dinner! No work required — you can simply stop at the farmstand. Or you can have a u-pick adventure. Either way, you are part of the harvest. It’s a good old-fashioned feeling. |
Not every subscriber will come out every time. We know that. And we understand the convenience of the big grocery store. But if our crop alerts inspire one more locavore to stop in each day, that really adds up. Margins are thin on a small farm, which means every $2 box of fresh fruit matters.
Especially during bumper seasons, when we have apples and veggies coming out of our ears, your visit can prevent waste. There is nothing more senseless than raising a baby tomato from a mere seedling, and then seeing it go bad while it waits for a loving home in somebody’s tummy.
What We Don’t Love
We don’t love giving the sales pitch. Buy our fruit, blah, blah, blah. Instead, here’s what we love to do:
- work on the farm
- make it productive and beautiful
- share it with people who love farms, local food, and time outdoors
- keep these 40 acres of green space, right next to Ithaca, free from commercial development
To do those things, we have to sell what we grow. Each piece of produce must be matched up with a human — and fast, right at harvest time. Of course, the birds and bugs will eat the leftovers, but they don’t pay a nickel and they aren’t reading this web page. Odds are that if you sign up to get crop alerts, you’ll help us gobble up the goods at least once this season.
So come visit the farm. We won’t hassle you. Wander around, have a picnic, take a nap. If you’re having fun, we’re having fun. Sales pitch over.
Many thanks for your interest and support of local farms.
~ The Gang at Indian Creek Farm
