SUMMARY

Farm is open 7 days a week 8:00 to 7:00 rain or shine • Pick McIntosh, Cortland, Sweet 16, Holiday, and Early Fuji apples • Pick tomatoes and peppers • Find first pumpkins • Eat fresh cider donuts Fri-Sun 11:00 to 6:00 • Roma canning/saucing sale now, see details below • Goodies at the farm stand = apples, pears, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, honey, maple syrup, lemon and cider slushees • COVID rules include (1) Keep SAFE distance, (2) wear MASK in closer quarters, (3) monitor your KIDS • BYOBags for picking produce and set them on the scale for checkout • Drive slowwwly on the farm • Thank you for being the best Farmketeers in all of Farmdom forever and everywhere

FULL STORY

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  These three apples were blushing on Monday morning.  Musta been a wild weekend.

And it was.  Y’all picked every last Honeycrisp on the farm – left the trees cleaner than a candidate’s tax returns.  Then you annihilated the Empires.  Demolished the pears.  Devoured the flowers.  Pummeled the peppers and thumped the Donut Robot.  Truly, quite the splendid bumrush.

A citizen driving by mighta thought Tay-Tay and Justin and Billie were here.  Crooning their tunes and shaking their booties.  Bringing out ‘Creekniks in record (widely spaced) numbers.  Turns out, it was just for the fruit.  Turns out, you only need a global pandemic to get people going on local food.  So that’s a squint of silver in the lining.

Anyway who needs pop idols when you got Cortland apples?  Pick them now.  Not sure about Cortlands?  See this email we got recently and we’re not making it up:  “I live in [town redacted], WA, and was talking to [a person] from [a Washington orchard] today about how much I miss Cortland apples.  I grew up in upstate NY and as far as I’m concerned there is no apple like a Cortland.  They aren’t grown out here in WA.  I was wondering if you would be willing to ship Cortlands to me.  There is no cost too high for me to be able to enjoy Cortlands this fall.”  THERE IS NO COST TOO HIGH.  And that’s from the apple capital of America.  Can’t say THAT about a pop star.  There’s definitely a cost too high to ship a box of them to your house.  (You get to decide how much.)

Fact:  Cortland apples don’t oxidize (brown) when you cut them.  They stay blindingly white.  Perfect for fruit salads and lunch boxes and just looking at.  Come pick your own Cortlands in the Vintage Orchard.

Also pick your own McIntosh, Early Fuji, Holiday, and Sweet 16 (pictured).  Look at that dimple.  And they taste like cherry Twizzlers.  This is high apple season and time to pick a bunch of varieties in a single visit.  These will be gone soon, followed by the October apple lineup.

Pick your own TOMATOES & PEPPERS.  You can still pick your own tomatoes – several varieties ready and ripening.  Hard to tell you which types you will find in abundance when you arrive.  You can also pick peppers.  Sweet and hot.  Same deal as tomatoes, you have to come explore.  What you find depends on how many pickers got here first.  But certainly these crops will wrap up soon.

Roma canning/saucing sale!  Starting today, and going while supplies last, get Roma tomatoes in 25-pound boxes for $25 each, and peck boxes for $16 each.  This sale is for prepicked (not u-pick) tomatoes.  WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!  Time to “put up” for the winter.

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.”

Get cider jugs every day.  This is the 4th 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.  It gets better every week as the apple blend complexifies.  Last week you Orchard Ambrosians burned through 220 GALLONS by Saturday at 4:00 PM so Farmer Steve had to spend Saturday night in the barn pressing enough to get through Sunday.  Nothing will put an apple farmer in a proper panic like the threat of a No-Cider-Sunday.  Sacrilege.

Cut your own Brussels sprouts.  Yes it is that time of year.  Things ARE early this year but still it’s almost October and sprouts are ready to cut and stirfry with bacon or fakin’.  If you’ve never seen sprouts on a stalk, now’s your chance.

Local ginger continues.  Sharon and Dean of Tree Gate Farm, our friends around the corner next to Coy Glen, are trying to keep us supplied for a third year.  Last year, Farm Fans hoovered up the rhizomes as fast as the farmers could deliver.  It’s great for ginger tea and myriad culinary uses.  Sharon explains how they grow it:  “The seed comes from Hawaii, arrives in March, and using a greenhouse and a lot of compost, we spend 7 months working to convince it that the Finger Lakes region is almost as wonderful a place to grow as the tropics.  Unlike what you find at the grocery store, our uncured ginger is snappy and sweet, roughly the texture of an apple or a slice of water chestnut.  And no peeling required!  Just be sure to use or freeze within a week; it’s perishable.”  Ginger now, turmeric in October!

SEED GARLIC SALE – Next Saturday, October 3, 10 AM to 5 PM.  Our neighbor Paul will be selling his organically grown garlic bulbs at the farm stand.  You can find the likes of Georgia Fire, Italian Easy Peel, Tochliavri, Persian Star, Romanian Red, Chesnok Red, Georgia Crystal, and others.  Soft necks and hard necks.  Large bulbs and cold-hardy.  Paul has grown these lines of garlic for over 10 years in his home garden on Indian Creek Road.  Come support a local gardener and get your own garlic patch planted!  He will also have utility garlic for sale and specials at his table.  For questions or preorders, please call, text, or email Paul at 607-279-4866 or paulcooper360@gmail.com.

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.

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