IT’S TRUE, DEAR FARMKETEERS:  Even a broken clock is right twice a day.  Yes, as the world turns, even we dimwits and dullards can look like prodigies and professors for a brief flash… before we fumble back to normal.  The present moment feels prodigious, friends, as you will see in these 11 exhibits.

First, our digital still life, “Lovebirds in a Heatwave,” got over 2000 likes on Instagram.  That made us feel ever so slightly more clever than a typical day spent breaking farm equipment and ruining perfectly good crops, and grateful to have THE best customers in this vast stretch of fruit country between Ithaca and Trumansburg.

Second, the u-pick raspberry crop is the best ever.  You will find plentiful fruit in 3 spots around the farm, easy picking on cool mornings, and you can take your haul to the swimhole in the sweltering afternoon.  Recent text message from Autumn at Eve’s Cidery:  “It’s gonna be 100 degrees Saturday.”  So you might pick up bottles of cold, local, award-winning, 100% estate grown hooch from their tiny family farm.  You can also schedule a free private tasting at their place.  They turned a milking barn into a cute cider tastery.

Third, this is that rare moment when you can pick both raspberries AND strawberries.  Last chance for the strawbs; it has been our longest season ever.  Pick your own strawberry peck for 40% off.  By now you know that a peck is 8 quarts and a quart is $7.  Eleven out of twelve Ivy League mathematicians would agree that means a peck costs $56.  But for all Farmketeers and ‘Creekniks, and anyone who loves big pink circles, your peck will only be $34.  Thus you will save $22 simply by being less mathy.  Works out to about $4.25 a quart.  The discount kicks in at a peck, so come ready to pick.

Fifthly, big pink circles.  And a prediction:  These stickers will be our most popular crop ever.  Second only to peaches which are not ready yet so you can STOP SENDING EMAILS ASKING ABOUT PEACHES!  Kidding.  We will announce peach picking as soon as the first row is ready.  Meanwhile these generously proportioned 5″ stickers tickle the eyeballs and evoke the zeitgeist.  If Indian Creek were a cult, and Farmer Steve was the local Jim Jones, and these fetching pink disks were the Kool-Aid, well folks, it’d be time to follow The Reverend’s lead and stick a few on your bumpers.  Thus we enjoin you to express your solidarity with pink things around the world.  But we are not commie pinkos!  Sheesh, don’t be like that.  But big pink circles for everyone!  (Also available in 4″ blue circles and orange rectangles, the kind that were purple last year and you see them around town.  But it’s pink’s year.)

Sixthly, Garlic Party III.  “Garlic Greg” has set the date of Saturday, July 27, 10:00 to 4:00, for the 3rd Annual U-Pick Garlic Harvest Party.  This is high news of a low key event.  It’s not like a Pigs-n-Apples deal with 1,500 people and an epic tug of war between orchardhands and pigherders and the sheriff dang near chasing us outta town for all the cars on the highway.  This is just a day to help harvest a great garlic crop and catch some free casual activities, games, and garlicky snacks.  Free admission.  The farm will be open for normal picking and shopping as well.  You can come pick a few heads of garlic with the kids or harvest enough to last the whole winter.  U-pick garlic prices are on the Facebook event; Greg will be updating that page with more event schedule details.

Seven, pick your own flowers.  But first you have to pick a side.  Farmer Steve says pick flowers with abandon right now.  Farmer Alice says save a bunch for Farmer Tino’s wedding.  “We don’t want the field stripped before next weekend,” she explains.  Farmer Steve retorts, “A flower today is not a flower in 10 days, so pick now.”  Farmer Alice was not available for further comment at newsletter time.  This would get great ratings as a televised debate.  We would learn more about Alice and Steve than we’ll ever know about primary candidates until it’s too late.  Anyway Alice had sent a dandy list of what’s ready to pick:  zinnias, snapdragons, verbena, gomphrena, celosia, cornflower, statice, strawflower, scabiosa, sweetpeas, salvia.  Not ready yet: aster, dianthus.

Eighthly, expanded donut regime.  Now every Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 to 6:00.  That’s another 180 minutes of active donut time per weekend.  Will this increase the greater good?  Hard to say, it was just a gut-level decision.  (Donut peaches not ready yet.)

Ninthly, first apples of the year.  Please read even if you are not emotionally ready for apples.  There are about 3 of you who care about these apples each year, but Siberian people love them.  The Yellow Transparent apple is a cold-hardy variety imported in the 1800s from Putinlandia before it was officially named that.  Ripens in July for the short northern season.  To cut the acidity, people in the olden days added salt and called them salt apples.  We call them Old Yellers.  They make a CREAMY apple sauce, first chance of the year.  Good stuff to be thankful for.  We are tired of people not loving these July apples.  You Farmketeers are really starting to bore us with your Honeycrisp addiction.  Okay, fine, we’ll plant another 1,000 Honeycrisp trees in the hopes you will still like that fad of an apple in 10 years.  Meanwhile, please come pick these apples.  Pleaseeee.  Sorry.  Please.

Tenth, no more single-use plastic bags.  Done.  Kaput.  Farmer Alice of the Flowers is on a dual mission:  To save blossoms for Tino’s wedding AND rid the farm of bad plastic.  As of now we have no more single-use shopping bags.  You can bring your own bags (BYOB) or you can buy our reusable farm totes.  You’ve seen them here at the stand before, they are $1.50 each (we paid $1.36 for that batch) and they hold more apples than you could probably carry.  We also have 2 new totes coming in shortly, $1.50 and $2.00 in 2 different sizes.  Let’s all hop on this rickety train of collective personal responsibility.  Please don’t give stand workers a hard time when they tell you we don’t have free plastic bags.  “Soon it will be law,” explains Alice, “and we are horrified by the amount of plastic in the world.”  Everybody on board?

Eleventhly, Zorro got shaved for the summer.  He went from 130 pounds to 128 without the fluff.

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