LET IT BE KNOWN to future historians that in the year 2017 of the Common Era, you the people, Farmketeers of Indian Creek, did not shirk your solemn duty.  You did not ignore the clarion call for locavores.  You responded with verve and vim – zest and zeal even! – to our crop alert about peaches.  You needed two short days to strip the orchards bare naked.

You did leave the leaves.  But little else.  Last Thursday morning we announced, “7,000 peaches need picking.”  We hadn’t told you about the other 4,000 peaches that were too green to pick.  BUT YOU PICKED ALL ELEVEN THOUSAND PEACHES, ripe and unripe alike, with a collective gusto rarely seen since the mall mobs for Cabbage Patch Dolls.  If only the aisles of Congress were rows of an orchard – and y’all could go clean out the bums.  Ripe and unripe alike.

You have made liars out of our signage department.  You are welcome to scour the upper orchard for the last u-pick peaches, but most of you will have better luck picking up a peck at the stand, where we will have stock while supplies last.  Which brings us to pear season…

Can you do for the pears what you did for the peaches?  Every year we cross Bartlett Bridge from peach season into apple season.  Shall we go together now?  Let’s all pick Bartletts.  Can you put this beautiful crop to good use?

Pick Gingergold, Dayton, Akane and other apples.  There will be a goldrush for gingergold – the first sweet specimens of September and widely regarded as among the best early apples.  Please strip these trees to prepare the orchard for peak apple season, when the Dwarf Orchard and Vintage Orchard will be dripping with 70 varieties.

New!  Apple cider slushees!  Nothing but our fresh-pressed Orchard Ambrosia, cold-spun into a chilled fusion plasma.  No added sugar.  No junk.  Just apples and pears.  And you can get yours FREEEEE when you put an Indian Creek bumpersticker on your car.  Ask at the donut stand.

Donuts gain confidence and a sense of meaning as cooler weather floats in.  You can get them every Saturday and Sunday 11 AM to 8 PM.  They’re made with Orchard Ambrosia, which you can get in gallon and 1/2 gallon jugs every day of the week.  Gets better with each passing week, as new apple varieties enter the mix.

Farmeketeer of the Week = @sumwhereinoz.  This picker showed high levels of emotional intelligence in scoring a great haul of tomatoes despite a pokey ripening schedule owing to so many cool nights.  Took perseverance.  Plus 5 points for farm brochure in photo background.

Pick beefsteak, heirloom, and cherry tomatoes.  Roma and Marzano are trailing a tad.  Might find some, but not buckets.  Anyway, please pick what we have on the vine.  Can’t take these juicy summer fruits for granted.

Peppers, too.  All kinds ready to pick.  Green bell, purple bell, sweet Italian, poblano, jalapeño, cayenne, serrano, Thai, and more.  As the weeks go by, they’ll go from green to yeller to orange to red.  Load up and put up.

Dusky’s supersweet corn has been a hit.  Take home 2 dozen ears for only $10.  Pictured here boiled with local butter and parmmmm nom nom.

Our neighbor Shawn, of Five Pads Farm up the street, has 250 pounds of his local garlic to move.  He sent us a text saying, “Hey, buddy, how can we move 250 pounds of garlic?”  Best thought we could come up with:  Sound the horn in this crop alert.  Help a guy out, Farmketeers?  Get it at the farm stand every day til it’s gone.

Shawn makes honey, too.  Well actually the bees make it.  It’s bee-utiful.  Crazy old coot doesn’t wear the suit when he’s communing with the bees.  Likes to keep it real.  Hive after hive buzzing around in the backyard and Shawn’s out there like it ain’t no thing.  Only wears the suit for the garlic harvest.  Get his awesome local honey at the stand any day.

New bags just in time for apple season!  Classic red and new purple.  These bags excel at holding 30 pounds of apples, pears, pumpkins, and squashes with tomatoes and peppers stacked gently on top and flowers on toppa that.  Slung over the shoulder leaving hands free for texting and slushee.

Purple is the collector’s edition for 2017.  Get it this year.  New color next year.  Take the rainbow grocery shopping.

Remember, free slushees at the donut stand when you put a farm sticker on your car!  There’s a small blue circle and a big purple bumper.  These will let the rushbutt in traffic behind you know that you support local farms and will THEREFORE BE DRIVING AS SLOWLY AS YOU PLEASE.  Meanwhile, we hope your loved ones are safe and clear of Hurricane Harvey.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.