HIGH. PEACH. HARVEST! Come Now for Our Most Copious U-Pick Peach Crop Ever, Including Slobberworthy “Donut” Peaches; Big Time Tomato Picking Time; Fresh Donuts; And Yes You Can Pick Rain or Shine!

– SUMMARY –

U-pick peaches • U-pick tomatoes • U-pick peppers • U-Pick eggplant • U-pick herbs • Open 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM every day rain or shine • Fresh donuts every day 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM (except Monday) • Shop for peaches, sweet corn, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, scapes, flowers, honey, syrup, pottery, slushees, and more • COVID: Farm stand staff are vaccinated, and current protocols include: (1) We are not requiring masks as the farm is an outdoor experience, (2) We recommend that unvaccinated people wear masks, (3) Practice social distancing under the covered porch area, (4) These protocols could change • Drive slowwwwly on the farm • Thank you

– FULL STORY –

DEAR FARMKETEERS: If ever there was a time to listen to your local farmer, this is probably not it. We don’t know any more than you about how to fix this banged up old world full of undersoothed souls and overconfident blowhards. But just in case you are feeling lucky, and you want to roll the dice on a free piece of seasonal folk wisdom from your hometown aggies, two words of advice: Peaches. Tomatoes. Apply liberally to fraught situations and nagging existential wounds.

U-PICK PEACHES = THE TOP STORY. Please come pick peaches as soon as you can. There are other goodies in our August u-pick collection, but we need everybody picking peaches now! Here’s how the numbers shake out. A New York peach farm gets a half-decent peach crop 7 out of 10 years. An attentively tended peach farm gets a good peach crop in 3 of those 7 years. And, once in a decade, a really lucky peach farm gets a peach crop like we have this year. You might call it: plentiful, copious, ample, profuse, rich, lavish, generous, bountiful, large, huge, great, grand, superabundant, prolific, teeming, bounteous, plenteous. Or BUMPER. For those of you who came last week, you saw flaming beckoning juice balls on a hundred trees. It’s like that again, with a new wave of peaches ready for you now. Try weekdays to beat the bumrush!

U-PICK “DONUT” PEACHES = NEW! This is the first year of vigorous production in our new donut orchard, and pickers can’t get enough. Pick a peck of these and divvy with your neighbors. They are just the right thing for most encounters.

U-PICK PEACH SEASON = SHORT. It is a big and beautiful crop. But mind you, peaches will go POOF soon and the prime picking is now. Peaches are our most popular summer crop, so it’s best not to wait til you feel in the mood to mosey over here at your Bohemian leisure on a dappled sunny day. It would be best to come now, rain or shine. And remember! If you pick a peach that isn’t quite ripe, do not panic. Simply put the peach on your kitchen counter for a day or two. It will be great.

PEACH PICK-ME-UP. “Lovely time peach and apple picking at @indiancreekfarmithaca – thanks for a lovely summer season. #🍏 #🍑 #🦁” Thank you @ashirak!

FRESH DONUTS = Every day 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM except Monday. We’ve said it before, and it might be true: making fresh donuts six days a week is a revolution in small farm fryer logistics. Six days a week, the Mark 2 Donut Robot is churning out fresh fried rings of fructotic splendor – sprinkled, if you like, with cinnamon sugar. “A sprinkle of sin, sugar,” is all you have to say. Again, no donuts on Mondays, when the Mark 2 Donut Robot observes its Cyborg Sabbath.Amen.

U-PICK TOMATOES = GO TIME! Tomato season is here! Tons of beefsteaks, Romas, San Marzanos, cherries, and heirlooms to pick. What you find on any given day depends on who came picking before you. Look under the leaves.

U-PICK SAN MARZANOS = PASTERS! The San Marzano tomato is a plum tomato of great repute – a prized specimen for sauce (or “paste” or even “gravy” if you hale from Italian America) which, compared to Roma, has thicker flesh and fewer seeds, with flavor that is stronger, sweeter, and less acidic. Pick yours nowfor year-round gravy.

U-PICK TOMATOES = PUTTING UP! Please consider picking more tomatoes than you need fresh for the week. They are so easy to “put up” for the off-season. You can simply cook them down and freeze them in bags, for instance. Then uncork a bite of the farm well after the harvest has passed.

U-PICK SWEET PEPPERS & HOT PEPPERS = OPEN! Bell peppers, frying peppers, jalapeños, serranos, and more varieties ripening each week. You just have to come explore.

U-PICK PEPPERS = EASY! But make sure not to touch your eyes or other membranes after picking! Note that the hot peppers are not red yet, that comes later in the season.

U-PICK EGGPLANT = OPEN! Several varieties on the vine, you just have to come hunt around. Look under the leaves.

U-PICK HERBS = OPEN! Basil, parsley (flat and curly), dill, cilantro, thyme, sage, oregano. The garden is at the farm stand. This is a modest patch suitable for the Type B home chef who would pick a bag of mixed herbs for seasoning and dressing – not big enough for hordes of Type A pesto pickers.