SUMMARY

Farm is open 7 days a week 8:00 to 7:00 rain or shine • Pick Honeycrisp, McIntosh, Autumn Crisp, and Jonamac apples • Pick Seckel pears • Pick Roma tomatoes and others • Pick 23 kinds of peppers • Pick a kaleidoscope of flowers • Enjoy fresh donuts Fri-Sun 11:00 to 6:00 • Goodies at the stand = apples, pears, tomatoes, peppers, corn, garlic, potatoes, honey, syrup, flowers, lemon and cider slushees • COVID rules include (1) Keep SAFE distance, (2) wear MASK in closer quarters, (3) monitor your KIDS • New – Please BYOBags for picking produce and set on the scale for checkout • Drive slowwwwwly on the farm • Thank you for being the kindliest ‘Creekniks in the land

FULL STORY

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  Legend tells us that when apple breeders first created Honeycrisp™, they wanted to call it MONEYCRISP.  They knew they’d created a champ that could challenge the Red Delicious™ racket – and they could just smell the grocery royalties that were going to puff up their R&D budgets on the hunt for an even more sensational next-generation juggernaut.

You can pick Honeycrisp apples now.   They will go fast, so now is your chance.  You can also pick McIntosh, Jonamac, Autumn Crisp and other “lesser” apples.  But come strip the Honeycrisp orchard as you do every year, and assure the breeders that they have won the Game of Pomes.  After all, what could be more popular than these sweet, crisp, freckle-faced, born-in-the-USA orbs of appletude?

Maybe kittens?  And donuts?  On apple trees?  What the Honeycrisp braintrust didn’t expect was that a rinky-dink farm in a podunk hippie town was conducting secret trials on this audacious idea:  Kittendonutapple trees.  Shhh.  It’s on the D.L. til after the election.  Got to let the market jitters settle before we make a daring move on the industry titans with disruptive technology of this magnitude.

You can also pick SECKEL pears now.  There might not be a more delightful and diminutive pear.  Seckel has rock-star status among ‘Creekniks; some have reputedly camped out waiting for the Seckels to ripen.  The pears are very small and very sweet; it’s easy to eat them by the bag.  The following is excerpted from Pears of New York by the venerable U.P. Hedrick:  “The flesh is melting, juicy, perfumed and most exquisitely and delicately flavored, with the curious character of having much of its spicy, aromatic flavor in the skin, which should never be discarded in eating.”  Commence Seckeling.

Pick your own TOMATOES & PEPPERS.  You can pick your own tomatoes now – many varieties ready and ripening.  Hard to tell you which types you will find in abundance when you arrive.  But Farmer Steve is bullish on the Romas today.  You can also pick some 23 kinds of peppers.  Sweet and hot.  Same deal as tomatoes, you have to come explore.  All depends on how many pickers got here first.  Note:  no eggplants for picking right now.  Might rebound eventually.

Get DONUTS every weekend.  Donuts are rolling off the Mark 2 Donut Robot Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 11:00 to 6:00.  Nick the Donut Kid is churning out these freshly fried toroids of fructotic splendor – optionally sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.  Just whisper, “A sprinkle of SIN, SUGAR.”   Pictured here with Honeycrisp.

Get CIDER jugs every day.  This is the second week of “Orchard Ambrosia” – our 100% unpasteurized, old-fashioned, nothing-added cider.  You can get gallon and half-gallon jugs.  Freezes great.  It’s just apples and maybe a few pears, cold-pressed into juice.  Squeezed by a water balloon gadget.

Commercial break for kittens.  Cue the music and read the script out loud in your best commercial voice:  “Everything has a purpose.  Even kittens – those mysterious creatures of the astral plane who plop out of the sky like donuts from an apple tree.  Yes, kittens, bewitching kittens, bonny and captivating kittens, teaching us to live wabi sabi, embracing our collective impurrfection… Merrrowwww.”

You can cut your own FLOWERS in the field by the stand and other spots around the farm.  It’s our best flower crop ever.  The flower list has included zinnia, snapdragon, celosia, ageratum, gomphrena, scabiosa / pincushion, cornflower / bachelor buttons, dianthus / carnations, strawflower, aster, marigold, verbena, and statice.  You can also get them at the stand in bouquets – nice jars included – assembled by fruit farmers.

Please BRING YOUR OWN BAGS for picking fruits and vegetables.  In the B.C. era (Before Corona), we had gotten rid of single-use plastic bags and everyone was happily bringing their own bags or getting our reusable farm totes.  We had to make some adjustments for the early corona period, but let’s get back to that good practice:  Bring your bags for picking, set them on the scale at checkout, and we will ring you out without touching your bags.  You can also buy our totes which you might have seen around town.  Recently saw a few in the hands of a nice Farmketeer, shopping for Honeycrisp at Wegman’s.

This just in from Northstar Public House in Ithaca:  “How do you #chooselocal?  This morning’s breakfast is brought to you by flowers, donuts, and raspberries from @indiancreekfarmithaca and coffee (cold brewed by us!) by @fortyweightcoffeeroasters.  I spy an @ithacasheepskin in the background…”  Thank you @northstarpublichouse for sourcing in the FLX region and providing open-air dining these days.

And this from Mama Said Hand Pies:  “Apple Cherry Streusel Pie.  Local apples, NYS cherries, mucho deliciousness!!”  You can find their pies at Press Bay Alley and mamasaidhandpies.com.  Thank you, @mamasaidhandpies.

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