SUMMARY

Farm is open 7 days a week 8:00 to 7:00 rain or shine • Pick Fuji, Liberty, Fortune, Spartan, Snowsweet, Jonagold, Macoun, and more apples • Cut your own Brussels sprouts • Find first pumpkins • Pick winter squashes • Cut last flowers • Eat fresh cider donuts Fri-Sun 11:00 to 6:00 • Final tomato canning/saucing sale, see details below • Goodies at the stand = Honeycrisp apples, heirloom apples, pears, tomatoes, peppers, Brussels, squashes, ginger, turmeric, garlic, honey, maple syrup, cider slushees, hot spiced cider cups • COVID rules include (1) Keep SAFE distance, (2) wear MASK in closer quarters, (3) monitor your KIDS, (4) BYOBags for picking produce and set them on the scale for checkout • Drive slowwwly on the farm • Thank you for being the best Farmketeers forever

FULL STORY

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  Do not fear.  There will be a peaceful transition of produce in November.

The orange ones have promised it.  The red ones too.  Yes, the pumpkins and apples will yield the limelight to the sprouts and squashes when the hour has come.  Nobody cares about the poor pumpkins after October 31, and apples will be a sweet memory.  But sprouts and squashes really shine in late autumn.  So, lord willing, we can all look forward to a more or less orderly chronology in the forward slog of farmocracy.

Anyway, for now, you can enjoy them all together.  Starting with U-PICK APPLES.  It is high harvest season and apples still own the day.  You can pick Fuji, Liberty, Fortune, Spartan, and Snowsweet.  You might find the last few Jonagold and Macoun.  Get an orchard map at the farmstand and ask what’s ready when you get here.

Cut your own Brussels sprouts.  Also known as Sprussels brouts.  Stirfry with bacon or fakin’ and feel the vitamins flow.  In one of our best signage successes ever, you will find the sprouts in the patch marked “SPROUTS.”  We have removed the leaves from the stalks that are ready.  Cut the whole stalk; don’t pick individual sprouts since that wrecks the plant.  Don’t be a plant wrecker.  Be a sprout lover.

Grab the first PUMPKINS.  The U-pick patch is not officially open yet, but we have piled hundreds of pumpkins around the farm for you to find your dream gourds.  They are priced individually with labels.

Last blast final Roma TOMATO canning/saucing sale!  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.  They come from Jackman Vineyards, our very next door neighbor.  A fantastic deal as it ends up being cheaper than u-pick!  Locavores, take action:  time to “put up” (or shut up?!) for the winter.

SEED GARLIC SALE – Saturday, October 3, 10:00 AM to 5:00 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.

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 every day.  This is the 5th 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.

Get local GINGER and TURMERIC.  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.”

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.

A ‘Creeknik creation from @rebeccakimnyc:  “First apple, er, ‘pie’ ever — didn’t have as many apples as the recipe called for and ended up folding the edges down like a galette since they were so tall. Topped with a brown sugar crumble.  Unconventional, but delicious!  Perfect on a cloudy fall day 🍂🍎  We picked the apples at @indiancreekfarmithaca which is a lovely you-pick farm with the most amazing fresh cider donuts you’ll find anywhere!!!”

And how about this DOUBLE ‘Creeknik creation from @happiestdaydesigns:  “So the craziness of the world got to me today.  Coping mechanism — baking hand pies.  I got a little creative & swapped maple syrup for sugar & added vanilla. Yum!  I used Elstar & honey crisp apples from @indiancreekfarmithaca.  We went apple picking last week.  Another safe & happy way to connect with the good in my life ❤️  Have a great weekend!  Oh, and the serve board is our textured lace.”  The hand pies are pictured atop a hand-made ceramic platter.  Double nice!

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