NEW THIS WEEK! Huge U-Pick Tomato Sale Through Labor Day! Pick First Pears and Last Peaches of the Year; Pick 5+ Great Kinds of Apples; Fresh Donuts; Open Every Day Rain or Shine Including Labor Day Monday.

– SUMMARY –

U-pick tomato sale only $30/bushel through Labor Day • U-pick pears • U-pick peaches • U-pick apples • U-pick peppers • 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 including Labor Day Monday • Shop for peaches, pears, apples, tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn, garlic, scapes, flowers, honey, syrup, pottery, slushees, donuts, and more • COVID: Farm stand staff are vaccinated, and current protocols include: (1) We are not requiring masks since 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 slowwwly on the farm • Thank you for tomatoeing vigorously

– FULL STORY –

DEAR FARMKETEERS: Life can be tougher than a 2-dollar steak. It’s not easy keeping bright eyes in this dim world, in these times. Did you know that, while most Americans own stock, 54% of stocks are owned by the 1%, and much of the rest by the next 9%? And did you know that, if you buy $30 worth of stock, it will probably be worth a lot more in 10 years, whereas if you buy $30 worth of tomatoes, they will be worthless shortly after you eat them? Nonetheless, you got to eat, and tomatoes are easy to store, and a tomato sale can’t hurt. So, tomato sale starting now – everyone invited.

U-PICK TOMATO SALE THROUGH LABOR DAY = $30/BUSHEL! Come pick tomatoes into one of our bushel boxes and pay only $30! A bushel box of tomatoes should weigh about 42 pounds (or more!), meaning you will pay only about 70¢ a pound (or less!). You can pick beefsteaks, San Marzanos, Romas, cherries, heirlooms, and whatever other tomato you might find in the patch! Please fill the box level to make the deal work for all parties – not heaping or absurdly pyramidal.

BUT WHAT WOULD I DO WITH 42 POUNDS OF TOMATOES?! Cook ’em down and put ’em up, as they say in home economics. You can cook them into sauce for freezing in Ziplocs. Or simply chop them and freeze for your off-season delight. Heck we even know someone down in rustic Van Etten who threw whole tomatoes in a freezer bag. Whaaaat?! The ways of country folk! Unexpected but possibly genius! “But,” you object, “putting whole tomatoes in your freezer will waste so much SPACE!” True! But it will save you TIME! How’s that for a welcome wrinkle in the space-time continuum? Any way you slice it, Farm Fans, the moral of the story is surely: YOUR domain, YOUR tomatoes, your own special brand of Nightshade Shenanigans. Come pick ASAP.

U-PICK PEARS = NEW THIS WEEK! Now open for U-pick are several varieties of Asian pears (crowd favorites!) and European pears, including Bartlett (pictured) (famous!), Seckel (sweetie!), Anjou (Frenchy!), Shenandoah (folky!), and Blake’s Pride (Generation Z, introduced in 1999). Ask at the stand and we’ll direct you to the various orchards.

ATTENTION: HOW TO PICK AND RIPEN A PEAR! Most of you think of pears as merely big-bottomed apples. But pears are different through and through. They ripen from the inside out! Only a pro can tell whether a pear is ripe by looking, and truthfully, pros can’t tell either. We take our pears to the Cornell pomology lab to get them pressure tested. It is time – the pros say, “Go!” So please, when coming to pick pears, trust the rows that we send you toward. Pick those pears. Don’t take a bite, find they’re too firm, and throw them on the ground. Not nice!! Instead, pick those pears, take them home, put them on the counter (in a paper bag to expedite) and they will ripen beautifully. Note that this is not a lesser experience than eating pears fresh off the tree – pears are not eaten fresh off the tree. If you find a pear on the tree that is soft and “ready to eat,” it is probably a mush bomb inside. So please have a good time picking pears, using two hands and all the core techniques in our How to Pick an Apple tutorial, with the additional knowledge that you will be picking pears that feel firm, perfect for eating a day or two later. Thank you!

U-PICK PEACHES = THE LAST WAVE. Come pick the rest of the peaches. You all went positively bonkers on this bumper crop. Your dedication to the harvest was noted in the heavens. It wrung the very heart. It twinkled the farmers’ toes. Bravo and thank you. Now is our chance to finish strong. Soon peaches will be scarcer than… you guessed it… deviled eggs after a church picnic. Last chance.

U-PICK PEACHES = TRES JAMMABLE “Picked a peck of peaches from @indiancreekfarmithaca and had some leftovers after preparing most for peach jam. Peach tres leches anyone? #🍑” Thank you, @parkersgoldenfarms!

U-PICK APPLES = FIRST FALL VARIETIES! Ask at the stand for directions to the rows in the Dwarf Orchard. Currently open for u-pick: Dayton, Sansa, Ginger Gold, Zestar, Akane. All stellar September apples! At the stand, you can shop for St. Edmunds Russet, Ginger Gold, Akane, Jefferies, Zestar, and more. New varieties will ripen each week from now through October. Now would be an especially good time to read our How to Pick an Apple tutorial. Tune up for autumn.

U-PICK PEPPERS = LOADS! Bell peppers, frying peppers, jalapeños, serranos, and more varieties ripening each week. You just have to come explore the U-pick patch.

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.

FRESH DONUTS = Every day 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM including Labor Day Monday. We’ve said it before, and it was possibly true: making fresh donuts six days a week is a revolution in small farm fryer logistics. But what about SEVEN DAYS?! This week, the Mark 2 Donut Robot will skip its usual Cyborg Sabbath and churn out fresh fried rings of fructotic splendor on Monday – sprinkled, if you like, with cinnamon sugar. “A sprinkle of sin, sugar,” is all you have to say.