DEAR FARMKETEERS:  Please say hello to Tom Ato.  He is here to accept the honor of ‘Creeknik of the Week on behalf of a pair of pickers who shall be named really soon… At the end of this Fresh Crop Alert.  For suspense.  No peeking!  Did you just peek?!  Sheesh, show restraint!  What, are you 5 years old?

Tom is photographed here against an artful backdrop – a bouquet made by the hand of a child savant at Eve’s Cidery.  The youngster explained unbidden that the red fluffy plant is called “Love Lies Bleeding.”  What do you know about such matters, my cherub, you’re like 5 years old!

But let us not dismiss the next generation.  Rather, we address the young with sober wisdom.  Here goes.  Nobody wants to pick apples before September.  And people really don’t care about cider til then, either.  So don’t plant a bunch of early ripening varieties.  We leathery old apple slingers have learned the hard way that if we stood out on the highway flagging cars down shouting, “We will pay you to pick apples and keep them!” we would have few takers til the turn of the month.  Nonetheless, today we announce that THREE DELICIOUS VARIETIES are ready to pick:  Sansa, Akane, and Zestar.  They are red.  They are good.  And you’ll find the first heirloom varieties at the stand.  Will you perform your locavore duty?

Peach picking goes BOOM right now.  You’ve been hoovering up the orchards diligently, but the next wave has ripened apace.  Please start in the upper orchard and clean out Row 3 which is RIPE-RIPE.  Then Rows 4 and 5, in which every peach is either perfect or just days away from perfection – all ready to PICK NOW.  There are 200 trees with 35 peaches apiece meaning 7,000 peaches that need a home STAT!  These will go fast.  Weekend will be humming with pickers.  And the jaws of the season will snap shut soon with little warning.

Saturday Sweet Corn Cookout!  11 AM to 6 PM!  Come have convivial chat with Farmer Dusky as he serves up his freshly boiled corn topped with herb-infused butter made of herbs from the ‘Creek and butter from a local maker.  Get 5 ears for $5 or 2 ears for $3.  Dusky will also have a vegan option in place of butter.  Come meet your farmer and eat super-sweet buttered corn.  We were going to call this event an “Old-Fashioned Corn Boil” but that just sounded medical and baddd.

Sweet Corn Sale!  Get 2 dozen ears for only $10!  Dusky has been picking fresh corn into the wee hours because the crop is coming on strong.  Load up.  Share with friends and family.  Good enough to eat off the stalk.  Makes any meal taste like SUMMER.

The pepper patch is rated R.  We have an OBSCENE profusion of purple peppers which you will please pick pronto!  Also abundant sweet peppers in the green bell and sweet Italian categories.  Poblanos, too.  They are the ones you substitute into any recipe that calls for sweet peppers – if you want to add piquancy and (technically speaking) pungency to your life.

Look at the muscles!  On the pepper.  The roofer’s not bad either.  But this picture is from 2014 so do not be fooled:  The hot peppers are not red yet.  Plenty of jalapeño, habanero, serrano, cayenne, and Thai to pick, but on the whole the hots haven’t donned their red hot dresses yet.

Tomatoes are starting up and ready to pick.  Beefsteak, Roma, San Marzano, and heirloom are all pickable.  Handful of cherry tomatoes, too.  The big boom probably happens in a week, but please start picking now.

Lilies are ready to cut – and you can bouquet them with other flowers of the field.  This is a steal because at $5 per bouquet, you can sneak lilies into the mix instead of paying $3 per stem or more for these extravagant beauties.

Donuts Saturday and Sunday 11 AM to 8 PM.  It’s basically fried dough with apple cider dumped in it but people are nuts about it.  So we oblige and we fry.

Cider is flowing every week.  We are pressing the freshest apples of the season.  They get sweeter and more complex with each passing week.  Just like college students.  Welcome back, kids.  If you tire of the Ivory Tower, you’ll find us here in the Fruit Dungeon.

‘Creekniks of the Week = Lindsey Smith and AJ Smith.  These Farmketeers obviously have a nose for produce.  They found Tom Ato exactly 4 years after bringing us Eggder R. Murrow (pictured), who went on to an illustrious career as anchor of the Farm O’ Clock News.  Now that is some seriously quirky sh-t!  Thanks for being weird, you guys!  By the way, everyone, eggplant is pickable but got picked slim.  Field will recharge soon.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.