HAPPLE HALLOWEEN! Pick a Beautiful Mutsu Apple Crop & Cut Your Own Brussels Sprouts; Special Saturday Food Truck & Free Hot Cider for Anyone in Costume; Fresh Donuts Friday-Sunday.

– SUMMARY –

Farm is open 7 days a week 8:00 to 7:00 rain or shine, but hours and staffing could be reduced after November 1 • Pick your own Mutsu APPLES • Cut your own SPROUTS • Eat fresh DONUTS on Fri, Sat, and Sun 11:00 to 6:00 (maybe final weekend) • Halloween Saturday 2:00 to 7:00 fried chicken FOOD TRUCK and get a FREE CUP of hot cider from the bubbling cauldron if you come in costume • GOODIES at the stand = apples, sprouts, cider jugs, honey, syrup, slushees, hot spiced cider, donuts • COVID rules include (1) Keep SAFE distance, (2) wear MASK in closer quarters, (3) monitor your KIDS, (4) BYOBags for picking produce • Drive slowwwwly on the farm • Thank you for being such loyal and faithful Farmketeers

– FULL STORY –

DEAR FARMKETEERS: Good news! The official source of life predictions for aggies like us – The Farmers Almanac – did NOT forecast an apocalypse for this year. That means things are bound to turn around soon! Maybe we are even “rounding the corner” – hooray! But since we farmers never count our chickens before… well… before an election in a recession in a pandemic in a climate crisis, please help us humbly and collectively share gratitude for the abundant harvest we have enjoyed so far this year. Here’s five ways how.

(1) Pick your own Mutsu APPLES. You have wiped the orchards clean of 100 other varieties, and the Mutsu is a fitting finale – a delicious, versatile, and delightful apple. It’s an excellent dessert apple, and makes first-class juice, pie, and sauce. Mutsus will not shrivel when stored, and they hold flavor through winter. Please come pick the last apples of the year. You can also find Mutsu, Newtown Pippin, Empire, Ashmeads Kernel, Golden Russet, and Roxbury Russet apples at the farm stand while supplies last.

(2) Cut your own SPROUTS. These massively nutritious spheroids of cruciferous craving are best in late fall. Cut a fresh stalk yourself, pop off the sprouts, chop in half, stir fry with bacon or fakin’. Please cut the whole stalk, not individual sprouts since that will wreck the plant. And you are not a plant wrecker. You are a sprout lover.

(3) Get CIDER every day – but only while we still have apples to press – could end soon! This is the 9th week of “Orchard Ambrosia,” our 100% unpasteurized, old-fashioned, nothing-added cider. You can still 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, so now is the apex, the pinnacle, the zenith – even the acme! – of sweet cider season.

(4) Get fresh cider DONUTS on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 11:00 to 6:00 – could be the final weekend! Donuts are still rolling off the Mark 2 Donut Robot under the watchful eye of Nick the Donut Kid. Yes, the Donuttic Duo is churning out these freshly fried toroids of fructotic splendor – optionally sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Just whisper, “A sprinkle of SIN, SUGAR.” Depending on weather and apples, maybe we’ll do donuts another week, but unless you’re a gambler, come get your donuts now.

(5) Stop by the play area on Halloween Saturday, 2:00 to 7:00 PM, to get a FREE CUP of hot cider (if you are in costume!) and visit the FRIED CHICKEN food truck. Here’s the idea. This was the busiest year ever at The ‘Creek, so we wanted to thank our staff who did a marvelous job in challenging conditions, and thank you Farmketeers for being the best locavores in the land. So this is going to be a safe and quiet little thank-you picnic. Our friend Eric will have his food truck with amazing southern-fried chicken sandwiches and tenders, extra-cheesy mac and cheese with cheddar-parmesan bechamel, and crunchy savory hush puppies! He will also make caramel-chocolate pecan pie, fresh brewed dark coffee, and organic chocolate peanut butter banana smoothies! (He will accept cash and credit card.) Nearby you will find a bonfire and cauldron of hot cider. Come to the copper kettle to get a free cup of cider IF YOU ARE IN COSTUME! No, your covid mask doesn’t count! We’re talking good old-fashioned Halloween gitups.

NOTE: This will be a safe, socially distanced picnic setting, where everyone is asked to respect the well-being of others, no matter who you want to see in the Oval Office. Wear your mask – creepy or not – whether you are in costume or not. Keep safe distance from everyone who’s not in your pod. Be smart and help us finish the season safely.

Please BRING YOUR OWN BAGS for picking fruits and vegetables. You can fill your bags as you wander the orchards and sprout patch, then 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.

And now a word from our sprout sponsors. Edible Finger Lakes says: “While they may not make most lists of everyone’s favorite vegetable, when correctly cooked and seasoned, Brussels sprouts can offer a sweetness that is nutty and natural. You can find them locally at farms such as @indiancreekfarmithaca. #flxfood #eatlocal #flxfarms #flxfarmtotable #flxrecipes #brusselsprouts #localfoodmovement 🌱“. Thank you @edibleflx.