DEAR FARMKETEERS:  The changing light of autumn focuses the brain.  Simplifies the message.  Distills the plan.  Time to pick apples.  Time to pick pumpkins.  Both are abundant and ready for you.  Distractions can wait.  The harvest won’t.  Please come pick and play.

Pumpkin Sale Continues – The new red bags are a hit and so is the All-You-Can-Pack Pumpkin Sale.  For $12, you can fill a red farm bag with pumpkins and keep the bag.  You can mix and match pumpkin sizes.  Squeeze ’em in.  It’s like 3-D Tetris.  We had somebody get 28 pounds of pumpkins in there.

Triple Pumpkin Patch – The big mama pumpkin patch had babies.  Now you can find your pumpkins in 3 places on the farm.  Every pumpkin left behind will be meaningless on October 32nd, so please come pick.  Watch a few moments of last week’s frenzy.

New This Week — Mutsu Apples Open!  These are big beautiful apples that look like a pumpkin crossed with Golden Delicious.  Our English double agents say, “One of its parents is Golden Delicious so it has that lovely sweet honeyed flavour.  It cooks superbly too and the women picking them in our local orchard used to call them ‘oven busters’ — take a big one home and bake it and you have a feast for two — and you don’t need many for a deep apple pie.”  We all love Mutsu season.

New This Week – Other Apples!  The stand is stocked with dozens of varieties.  A rare chance to explore apples you won’t find at the supermarket.  Now open for u-pick:  Red Spy, Spigold, Cortland, and Winecrisp.  Plus Mutsu, of course.

Fresh Donuts & Crisp Cider – Did you know?  Our fresh Orchard Ambrosia contains apples and pears (nothing else!), so our apple cider donuts are really PEAR-APPLE DONUTS.  Mmmmm hmmm.  Get yours on Saturday and Sunday 10 AM to 6 PM.  Hot and cold cider available every day.

A Muffin of Pears – Yesterday turned brighter when Amanda Farmstanda delivered a single gluten-free ginger-pear muffin (burnt slightly upon the bottom, truth be told) baked with hand-picked pears from The ‘Creek.  Right at snack time.  Just saying.  You can’t buy these here.  But you can bake ’em.

Last Veggies of the Year? – A frenetic picking session at dusk saved these San Marzanos from a possible frost.  Turns out the rest of the crop survived the night.  But Allie says, “There are still bell and hot peppers, eggplant, and a few tomatoes.  Threat of a frost Friday night, so they might be frost-damaged by the weekend.”  Come pick now!

Veggie Frenzy – See crowds of ‘Creekniks scoring tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants last weekend.  You’ve been warned, Farmketeers!  Come git.  Don’t wait.  It’s the ninth inning for vegetables.  Except Brussels Sprouts.  They’re looking great!

How to Make an Apple Shiny Without Grocery Store Shellacs or Waxes — Amanda Farmstanda (not the one who burnt the muffin) demonstrates this advanced technique.  You can practice on apples that you pick!

Farm Shirts – Yes, we are still hawking these dandy merches.  And, yes, Amanda Farmstanda (the same one who made the nummy, if burnt, muffin) still thinks the fuschia shirt is hideous.  But technically the color is called SANGRIA and isn’t it dashing on this handsome lad?  Note how it hides dirt better than the sunny yellow one.  So it’s practical, too.

Honor System Reminder – If you pick an apple, please take it home.  If you bite an apple, and you don’t like it, take it home anyway.  You can slice it up, slather it with peanut butter, mash it into sauce, or chop off the bite marks and gift it to your frenemy.  Anything is better than the heartbreaking waste of 1,000 apples thrown on the ground.  How would you like to be bitten once and thrown away?!  Be the change you want to see in the world.  Bite it, buy it.  Pretty please.

Go Big – The Mutsu Orchard is right next to the main pumpkin patch.  Both are EASY PICKING.  You can pick a peck of apples and a bag of pumpkins in 15 minutes.  And you can score BIG.  Big pumpkins.  Big fun apples.  Just look at Farmkeeter Eva.  She was like, Whoa.  High-level ‘Creekniks will ask whether that is indeed a Mutsu in the photo or rather a Spokane Beauty.  But if you’re working on that plane of apple knowledge you probably have your own orchard, so you should probably get back to work.  It’s harvest time!  To the rest of you, hope to see you at The ‘Creek.