Holiday Weekend Cropcast: Pick Your Best Pumpkins & Apples & Sprouts & Veggies & Herbs & Flowers; Hot Cider, Fresh Donuts, Rain or Shine! Open Monday Oct 10, Too!

– FRESH CROP ALERT –

U-Picking

Pumpkins • Empire, Macoun, Spartan, Cortland, Early Fuji, Jonagold, Ashmead’s Kernel, and more apples • Brussels Sprouts • Tomatoes • Eggplant • Peppers • Flowers • Herbs

Shopping

Fresh donuts Thu-Sun 11:00 to 5:00 AND Monday October 10 Holiday • Hot Cider • Cold Cider • Pumpkins • Apples • Pears • Winter Squash • Peppers • Eggplant • Garlic • Slushies • Coffee • Mugs • Honey • Beeswax • Syrup • Pottery • Potted Fruit Trees

Business

See current hours on home page
See map & tips & safety in 2022 Farm Guide
Drive extra carefully on highway & farm
Thank you for being kind & nice

– FULL STORY –

LOYAL FARMKETEERS:Back in 1883, a mere generation before our Vintage Orchard was planted, the Right Honourable Thomas Henry Huxley, famed British biologist and comparative anatomist, declared that “all the great sea fisheries are inexhaustible.” Darwin’s Bulldog got many things right, but that was a blustery blunder of biblical proportions.

LET US LEARN FROM THE DEAD. While this year’s pumpkin crop is bigger than ever – inspiring comparisons among ‘Creekniks to the “great fisheries of old” and “a bottomless bowl of breadsticks” – it is not inexhaustible. It will disappear. The pumpkins will be picked. The hammer will drop. The crop will be kaput. And it might not be long. Therefore be advised: Please come pick your dream pumpkin forthwith, sans delay, avec haste!

U-PICK PUMPKINS! You can pick your own or find some at the farm stand. Last season, we sold out of pumpkins several weeks before Halloween. Come soon.

U-PICK APPLES! 7 KINDS OR MORE! Close followers of the autumnal apple succession know that Honeycrisp has come and gone for the season. But if you are just tuning in, do not despair! October brings apples upon apples to pick – and many of them are classic, dignified, even regal varieties compared to the gauche noveau riche thing that farmers see in Honeycrisp. Come pick your own Empire, Macoun, Spartan, Cortland, Early Fuji, Jonagold, Ashmead’s Kernel and more.

T.H. HUXLEY, with his slightly embarrassing wealth of society titles (PC, FRS, HonFRSE, FLS, etc.) and his evident love of species and specimens, was very likely a connoisseur of fine things, and probably adored Ashmead’s Kernel, the intensely flavored heirloom apple originating in 1700s England and prized by connoisseurs and cider makers. (“I daresay the flavor is inexhaustible! But doesn’t it look rather like a tater?”)

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 darn 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! Be a brout!

FRESH CIDER! 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. Bolster your locavore credentials by getting jugs each week – the flavor profile evolves as new varieties enter the apple harvest. Freezes great, just pour a little off the top before freezing to keep it from going boom.

FRESH DONUTS! Served Thursday through Sunday 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM and the Monday, October 10, holiday. With ever more vim and verve and vigor, the Mark 2 Donut Robot churns 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. No donuts served on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, when the Mark 2 Donut Robot observes its lavish Cyborg Sabbath. Amen and hallelujah.

U-PICK TOMATOES, EGGPLANT, PEPPERS: It’s the final stretch of harvest for summer veggies. Come see what you can score for your winter pantry.

FRESH COFFEE! Get a cup at the farmstand. We are brewing hometown roaster, Ithaca Coffee Company, and you can serve yourself. No latte! No spice! No venti! No ice! Just a simple cup for your agritourism adventure. Self-serve kiosk next to the Donut Hole. New tumblers are great – they keep stuff hot or cold for hours and hours!

BUS STOP = INDIAN CREEK! You can 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!

THIS YEAR’S CROP YIELD IS FABULOUS! BUT! GO SLOWLY ON YOUR U-PICK ADVENTURE! We have witnessed several terrible, high-speed collisions on Route 96 by the farm in recent years. Approach the farm carefully, exit the farm carefully, and drive SLOWwwwwly when you are on the farm! Here is a free driver’s education reminder.

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 farm 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 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

Do not pull out if you can even see a car coming. Assume the car is speeding and that you will get hit.

Be patient, an opening will come.