PUMPKINS DON’T GROW ON TREES, YOU KNOW! Pick Your Pumpkins Now – Will Be Gone Well Before Halloween; Also Pick Your Own Apples & Brussels & Sunflowers & Hot Peppers; Donuts & Cider; Open Every Day Including the Monday October 11 Holiday.

– SUMMARY –

U-pick pumpkins • U-pick apples including Mutsu, Splendour, Sir Prize, Northern Spy, Spigold, Prairie Spy, and others • U-pick sunflowers • U-pick Brussels sprouts • U-pick tomatoes • U-pick peppers • U-pick flowers • U-pick herbs • Open every day 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM rain or shine • Fresh donuts every day 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM including this Monday holiday • Shop for apples, pears, pumpkins, sprouts, squash, corn, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cider, honey, syrup, pottery, slushees, donuts, 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 slowly on the farm • Drive CAREFULLY when approaching and leaving the farm on Route 96 • Thank you for being kind when appropriate

– FULL STORY –

DEAR FARMKETEERS, the long-brewing global supply chain shortage – chief cause of handwringing among economic advisers in the Potomac swamp, and prime pivot of sneaky dealmaking at recent Wall Street happy hours – might finally get attention here in the bougie-boho bubble when we tell you this emergent agribusiness FACT: the Pumpkin Patch will be picked clean well before Halloween this year, and the farm stand will sell out of pumpkins fast too. Come pick your pumpkins now! It’s not like they grow on trees!

U-PICK PUMPKINS = OPEN BUT HURRY! Last week’s #3 story has rocketed up to #1. There won’t be any October 30 panic-picking this year at The ‘Creek. Pumpkins are moving swiftly and will be gone long before the full ranks of ghouls and goblins have come to town. Regional farm scuttlebutt tells us that the soaking wet weather has rotted some pumpkin crops. So this could be your chance to gourd up.

U-PICK APPLES = Mutsu, Splendour, Sir Prize, Northern Spy, Spigold, Prairie Spy (pictured), and possibly others by the time you arrive. The assortment of apples in this week’s lineup will cover the bases for eating fresh, baking, and saucing. There might be a few late varieties to ripen after these, but NOW IS THE TIME to pick apples. Get a map at the stand and we will direct you to the best picking. If you haven’t read our How to Pick an Apple tutorial, please do so! Thank you for picking enthusiastically but mindfully!

U-PICK BRUSSELS SPROUTS = OPEN! These massively nutritious spheroids of cruciferous craving are your ticket to a happy moment of plant appreciation. We call them BROUTS for short because they are just so broutish. Cut a fresh stalk in the field, pop off the sprouts in the kitchen, chop in half, stir fry with bacon or fakin’. ALERT: Cut the whole stalk; don’t pick individual sprouts since that wrecks the plant. Do not be a plant wrecker. Be a sprout lover!

U-PICK SUNFLOWERS = STILL GOING! You can pick sunflowers around the farm. People wait all year for them – to cut them and, of course, instapost the photo opps.

U-PICK FLOWERS = Still Going. Word from farm stand staff is, “Half the herbs are kaput but the flowers are enjoying a last hurrah.” Come cut flowers for your home and friends.

U-PICK PEPPERS = EXTENDED SEASON! The pepper patch has kept producing, especially for hot peppers. You just have to come explore the patch for last-chance goodies. Tomatoes are actually still going, too, mostly green but you can pick!

Get local GINGER and TURMERIC. You only need to taste an itsy-bitsy slice of fresh ginger root to be a convert for life. Good enough to eat out of hand, not to mention bringing life to your cooking creations. Same with the fresh turmeric root. Have you tried golden milk? Sharon and Dean from TreeGate Farm around the corner have been delighting farm fans with these Hawaiian roots grown, improbably, right here in the FLX.

FRESH DONUTS = Every day 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM including the Monday holiday. 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. Normally there are no donuts on Monday, when the Donut Robot observes its Cyborg Sabbath. This week, the holiday trumps the sabbath, and there will be donuts, probably the last such special Monday of 2021.

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.

NEW BUS STOP = INDIAN CREEK! Take your public transportation right to your u-pick destination! TCAT has moved the bus stop to directly in front of the farm, so anyone can take the #21 from town to 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