DEAREST FARMKETEERS:  To call it a picking “spree” is hyperbole of Trumpanian proportions.  We will probably have like 5 customers this weekend.  It is supposed to be cold and blarggy and that will freeze the fire in the belly of even you very faithful locavores.  But it would be heartwarming if you could times that traffic by 10.  Yes, 50 customers would be perfect.  Especially if you each pick a peck of apples.  That would mean victory.  We would reach our goal of 100 pecks – $500 – for the Finger Lakes Land Trust.  Just by picking apples you keep.

The apple orchard is beautiful this time of year.  Some of the foliage is down and the booty is easy to spot.  Not that kind of booty!  Apples!  Low-hanging fruit.  Pomological plunder.  You can pick gorgeous Spigolds (above) and Mutsus (below).  Some people wait all year for these late-season beauties.  Perfect for eating fresh and baking and saucing. 

Mutsus are called “oven busters” in the UK.  They are big and nice.  They are really big and really nice.  The specimen in the picture weighs 1.37 pounds – more than 4 Quarter Pounders with cheese, no onions, at Mickey D’s.

Poster #1 pretty much makes the case for apple picking on this cold weekend.  Lands and waters don’t save themselves.  People have to do it.  (Because people are the messer-uppers.)  If you pick a peck bag for $15, we will send $5 to Finger Lakes Land Trust.  They protect gorges, forests, wetlands, and farmlands – including productive farms like Indian Creek that are lost forever if they get paved over.  The legal instruments that the Land Trust uses to protect land ensure permanent protection.  They are an accredited conservation nonprofit, indicating ethical conduct, sound finances, responsible governance, and lasting stewardship.

Poster #2 reports the progress.  We are HALF WAY to $500 raised!  Oh wait!  Another picker just picked a peck.  So we are at 51.  Please help us finish picking this year’s lovely apple harvest – and benefit a great conservation organization based right here in town and working right here in the FLX.

Donuts will be sizzling in the Mark II Donut Robot on Saturday and Sunday, 10 to 4.  This could be the last weekend.  Kind of up to Nick the Donut Kid.  Good kid.  Loves to make the donuts.  Keep him busy to keep him here.

We will sell out of sprouts soon.  Dr. Robert has been lopping some for Greenstar.  You can come lop your own in the Brussels plot.  Thanksgiving favorites.

We are still pressing cider.  Orchard Ambrosia.  Nectar of the Dogs Gods.  100% fruit.  Just apples and pears.  Picked off the trees, none off the ground.  Sweet.  Unpasteurized like the old days.  Freezes GREAT for winter storage.  Get gallons and 1/2 gallons and bring your carboys for homebrew.

A bunch of exotics at the stand.  Not exotic dancers, silly.  Exotic apples.  Heirlooms or heritage or old-school, however you want to say it.  Please explore before we close for the year.

Please welcome Shadow to the farm!  With ears of the bat goddess and old soul eyes, Shadow perceives allll!  She is desert lean and southwest obsidian.  Comes to us from New Mexico through a friend of a dog of a friend.  She loves a tennis ball so much, or any apple that looks like a tennis ball.  Such as Mutsu which you can pick now.  Best apple of the year, along with Spigold which, as luck would have it, you can also pick now.  But only for a few more days before they drop in the frost.  If you see Shadow, she is a little shy but getting comfortable.  First day at the dog park, she had the tail between the legs and not sure what to do.  Now she is super popular with the pups, what with those extraordinary ears and lickety-split dashes and handsome snout.  And black bandana.  #newfarmdog

We are open every day 8 to 6.  If you come to the stand and don’t see anybody, don’t panic.  We are doing November type stuff.  Maybe lopping sprouts or grading apples in the back or pretending to fix busted stuff or most likely out in the nursery preparing for the annual work-a-thon of digging 40,000 fruit trees for winter storage.  You can order trees for your yard to be planted in spring.  Our nursery is called Cummins Nursery.  Same people as us, really.  Same place, too.  Just a different name to confuse as many people as possible.

Love to y’all.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.