Your Mid-October Cropcast: Pick Your Own Pumpkins & Golden Apples; Popular Reds & Greens Too! Still Have U-Pick Sprouts & Veggies; Hot Cider, Fresh Donuts, Rain or Shine!

– FRESH CROP ALERT –

U-Picking

Pumpkins • Cortland, Ashmeads, Red Spy, Northern Spy, Prairie Spy, Spigold, Mutsu, and more apples • Brussels Sprouts • Tomatoes • Eggplant • Peppers • Last Chance Flowers & Herbs

Shopping

Fresh donuts Thu-Sun 11:00 to 5:00 • 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 –

DEAR FARMKETEERS: There’s gold in them thar’ hills, and not just the moribund foliage that brings piles of rubbernecking leafpeepers to the Finger Lakes. We’re talking about apples, GOLDEN apples.

ANGLOPHILES & ADVENTURERS, come pick your own Ashmead’s Kernel apples, the intensely flavored English heirlooms prized by connoisseurs and cider makers. These are the golden apples of which we speak. At first blush, a ‘Creeknik might retort, “Golden?! Humbug! Looks like a bumpy old tater!” Well you are right about it being old: Ashmead’s Kernel is reputed to have been first cultivated in Gloucester, England, in the early 1700s by the lawyer William Ashmead. And you are right about the tatery skin: a honey-green sheen that ripens to an orange blush under the russet. Biting into an Ashmead’s reveals a dense, nutty flesh bursting with honeyed zing. The flavor is intense and complex, high in both sugar and acid. Ashmead’s mellows with age, and an October harvest is well stored for eating around Christmas, when notes of pear, spice, and orange blossom will emerge! This extraordinary and versatile apple has recently enjoyed renewed popularity among apple aficionados and is one of our best sellers.

U-PICK APPLES! 7 KINDS OR MORE! Come pick your own Ashmead’s, Cortland, Red Spy, Northern Spy, Prairie Spy, Spigold, Mutsu, and more! Ask at the farm stand and we will direct you to the day’s bounty. Thanks to @mearamcquain for the fun photo!

U-PICK CORTLAND APPLES. These are the famous “lunchbox apples” that stay white after they’ve been sliced. Perfect for eating fresh and fruit salads as they present beautifully without oxidizing. Look for yellow ribbons in the Vintage Orchard.

U-PICK “SPY” APPLES. It is high season for some of the very best – and very sneakiest – apples on the farm: Prairie Spy, Northern Spy, Spigold. Come pick your favorite members of the Spy family in the Dwarf Orchard. These October apples are prized by pie makers and lovers of old-fashioned American apples. Great for fresh eating, baking, and putting up. They are beloved “winter” apples. Also find their cousin Red Spy on the big trees in the Vintage Orchard. Guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the family tree.

U-PICK MUTSU APPLES! The Million Dollar Apple from Japan. Also known as Crispin. They get as big as pumpkins. Dad planted the Mutsu orchard back in ’84. We could rhapsodize about the Mutsus for several minutes. The British call them “oven busters” since a couple of old orchard ladies could pick one giant Mutsu and bake it in the oven and split it as dessert for their afternoon stitch-n-bitch. But – as we have opined before – boys can do that, too. Ovens and stitching and b*tching aren’t just for girls. Same with dessert. And feelings. And sharing. All welcome at The ‘Creek. Come as you are.

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 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!

HEFTY SQUASH HAUL! You can shop at the farm stand for Butternut, Blue Hubbard, Carnival, and Delicata! A great crop this year and we picked them for you!

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. With ever more vim and verve and vigor as October rolls on, 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.

FALL FEELS & FINAL FLOWERS! @mearamcquain says: All the fall feels at @indiancreekfarmithaca. Raspberry and apple picking, flower bouquet making, and apple cider donut eating 🥰 (U-pick flowers are still here but winding down.)

GROUP U-PICK! Farm fans @icnatureclub write: Our field trip to Indian Creek Farm was so much fun! We enjoyed picking apples, pumpkins, and other crops, not to mention seeing many cool critters and beautiful flowers! Peak fall farm aesthetic @indiancreekfarmithaca 🍂 🍁 🌾🌼

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.