APPLE & PUMPKIN U-PICK BONANZA: You Can Come Now to Pick 10 Kinds of Apples, European Pears, and Very Last Peaches of the Year! Pick Pumpkins & Brussels Sprouts & Last Summer Vegetables; Fresh Donuts & Cider; Open 7 Days a Week Rain, Sleet, or Snozzle.

– SUMMARY –

U-pick Cortland, Mac, Empire, Macoun, Early Fuji, Jonamac, Jonagold, Spartan, Sweet 16 apples • U-pick European pears • U-pick peaches (last chance) • U-pick Brussels sprouts • U-pick tomatoes (last chance) • U-pick peppers • U-pick flowers (winding down) • U-pick herbs • Open 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM every day rain or shine • Fresh donuts every day 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM except Mondays • Shop for apples, peaches, pears, pumpkins, peppers, corn, garlic, ginger, cider, honey, syrup, pottery, slushees, fresh 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 slowly on the farm • Drive VERY CAREFULLY when approaching and leaving the farm on Route 96 • Thank you

– FULL STORY –

DEAR FARMKETEERS: How about a Free Farmer Thought to start off your weekend? When you first build a barbwire fence – perhaps to corral the heifers and ponies in your tidy home pasture – sturdy posts are needed to hold up the wire. That is clear enough, a nothingburger, not newsworthy, but it is only the first half of this Free Farmer Thought. Wait til you hear the other half. Years down the road, when the posts are ragged with wear and weather, if you snip a length of wire, down goes a post! Yes, Farm Fans! In a fence’s later years, it is the wire that holds up the posts! Think about that! Oh how things change with time! Could this wisdom serve you in some way? Can it be an illuminating metaphor for something in your life? And now to the Fresh Crop Alert: This week, you can pick your own apples, pears, peaches, pumpkins, sprouts, vegetables, herbs, and flowers – all in a single visit to The ‘Creek. Come on!

U-PICK APPLES = Cortland, Mac, Empire, Macoun, Early Fuji, Jonamac, Jonagold, Spartan, Sweet 16. Honeycrisp are picked clean, and your neighbors might beat you to some of the varieties in that list. But by the time you get here, other varieties might be ready. Anyway that is the basic list for this week – lots of apples to pick in the Vintage Orchard and Dwarf Orchard. It is a marvelous harvest and we hope you will share in the abundance. Pick for yourself, pick a few for your neighbors. Pick for eating fresh, baking, saucing. Get a map at the farm stand and we will direct you to the hot picking action. If you haven’t read our How to Pick an Apple tutorial, now is the time. Thank you for picking mindfully. By the way, want to plant some of these apple varieties in your own backyard? See over 450 apple tree offerings on our fruit tree nursery site. You can order now for Spring 2022 shipping or local pickup. Cummins Nursery is us same folks as The ‘Creek.

U-PICK APPLES = MCINTOSH! Ask at the stand for directions to the Vintage Orchard. You will find the McIntosh apples on trees scattered round the grounds – look for ORANGE ribbons. Perhaps the most iconic apple of the modern era, McIntosh is a round, slightly flattened, mid-sized fruit. The skin shows a splash of cherry red over bright green and the flesh is bright, bright white. This apple is known mainly for its distinctive flavor: perfumed, “subacid,” spicy, and vinous (like wine). It has many progeny – Macoun, Spartan, Empire, and Cortland to name a few – and they all share the amazing Mac flavor. The McIntosh apples at Indian Creek grow on trees that have been been on the farm for about 100 years, and we believe that these come close to the remarkable flavor of the original from the 1800s. As of today, our fruit tree nursery has ONE MCINTOSH TREE left for planting in Spring 2022 – will you be the locavore to get it?!

U-PICK APPLES = CORTLAND! Cortland is the lunchbox apple to the world. Slice it and it will stay bright white for a WHILE. Cortland doesn’t oxidize (brown) as fast as most apples. Perfect for fruit salads, and fruit in salads. It is also a favorite baking and sauce apple. Cortland is a cross of McIntosh and Ben Davis, first produced in Geneva, New York, and released in 1915. It was bred by S. A. Beach, who is also author of the venerable compendium Apples of New York. Find Cortlands in the Vintage Orchard on trees with YELLOW ribbons. You can plant your own Cortland apple trees! Our fruit tree nursery is sold out for Spring 2022 planting, but you can reserve your Cortland apple trees for Spring 2023.

U-PICK PEARS = EUROPEAN VARIETIES. Asian pears are down to slim pickings, but ask at the stand where to find the European pears – we’ll circle the areas on the farm map.Trust the markings on the map, rather than squeezing a bunch of specimens on the tree. Pears ripen from the inside out, you can’t easily tell by looking or even feeling. We’ll send you toward the varieties that are ready to pick – they’ll be ready to EAT a day or two later. You can plant your own pear trees next spring by ordering now from our fruit tree nursery.

U-PICK PEACHES = THE FINAL ROWS. We’ve had a once-in-a-lifetime peach crop this year. The trees just kept on peaching. This is the last week to pick, because if any are left on the tree after the weekend, we will probably have to strip them before they drop. Want to grow your own peaches? You can order now for Spring 2022 planting while they’re in stock at our fruit tree nursery.

U-PICK PUMPKINS = OPEN! Cozy up to your dream pumpkin! Summer officially wrapped this week, so you can proudly display your pumpkins now without committing a seaonal overeagerness violation. The pumpkin field moves around each year; ask at the stand for the map. We do not sell pumpkin trees in our nursery.

U-PICK BRUSSELS SPROUTS = OPEN! But clarification! These are actually U-LOP or U-CUT sprouts – do not pick individual sprouts, for it wrecks the plant. Use the loppers to cut the whole stalk! Thank you!

U-PICK TOMATOES & PEPPERS = WINDING DOWN. Time to pick the summer vegetable fields clean. You can hunt for beefsteak, Marzano, Roma, heirlooms, etc., in the tomato patch. They are mostly green, but they will ripen after you pick them. You can hunt for bell peppers, jalapeños, serranos, and more varieties. You just have to come explore the patch. Eggplants are picked clean.

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

FRESH CIDER = READY NOW! At the farmstand you can get jugs of “Orchard Ambrosia” – that’s 100% unsweetened, unpasteurized juice of apples and sometimes a few pears. Nothing added. It’s like the old days, and it gets better each week as apple season rolls on. Freezes great, just pour a little off the top before freezing to keep it from going boom. Many of you have asked whether we will be filling carboys for homebrew this year. Yes, it is an annual tradition and a good savings over buying individual gallons. It will start in October and we will announce it in the newsletter.

NEW BUS STOP = IN FRONT OF FARM! TCAT has moved the bus stop to directly in front of the farm, so anyone can take the #21 into town from our doorstep. You want to avoid using the #14, which ends at the hospital requiring a walk on the highway. Be safe!

DRIVE SAFELY! We have witnessed several terrible, high-speed collisions on Route 96 by the farm this summer. Please approach the farm carefully, exit the farm carefully, and drive slowly when you are on the farm!

A Drivers Education
REMINDER

Entering from Ithaca

Indian Creek Farm is 1/2 mile north of the Cayuga Medical Center traffic light. We are on the left, just after the Dubois Road intersection, as you come over the rise. The entrance comes up quickly.
There is no need to increase speed to 55 MPH. Stay slow to keep the cars behind you slow.
Use your left TURN SIGNAL well before the turn. We have watched people stop to turn into the farm without using their signal.

While on Farm

Please drive slowly. There is no hurry. You are on vacation while on the farm. There are kids and folks of all ages walking around the farm. Take it easy.

Exiting