Indian Creek Farm

– SUMMARY –

Farm is open 7 days a week 9:00 to 6:00 rain or shine • Pick raspberries now • Pick flowers now • Pick strawberry stragglers now (if you can find any) • Fresh donuts Friday, Saturday & Sunday 11:00 to 5:00 • Goodies at the stand = scapes, cukes, blueberries, cherries, honey, syrup, pottery, flowers, slushees • COVID protocols include (1) Keep SAFE social distance, (2) wear your MASK in closer quarters, (3) monitor your CHILDREN, (4) Do not bring BAGS or containers for u-picking – we’ll provide til further notice • Drive slowwwly on the farm • Thank you for supporting small farms and being kind/rational beings

– FULL STORY –

FAITHFUL FARMKETEERS:  It is not your fault if the Farmers Almanac – venerable compendium of meteorological mumbo jumbo, astronomical hocus pocus, and home gardening gobbledyguck – no longer seems to advance your personal agricultural enterprise.  We feel it too.  So we are compiling a new guidebook, a nouveau farmopedia, a psychological toolkit for the analytical fruit grower in tumultuous times.

Chapter One – and this Fresh Crop Alert – will cover cognitive biases.  What are they?  Cognitive biases are ways in which human judgements often diverge from rational thinking.  Indeed, ways we are predictably irrational and act against our own interests!  First described by behavioral economists in the 1970s, cognitive biases have been explained in terms of heuristics, rules which are easy for the brain to process, but which introduce systematic errors of thinking.  There are dozens of such dubious mental shortcuts that impact our lives from shopping to dating to governing to… yes… even farming.  Here we offer a free sample of cognitive biases, paired with items from your normal weekly picking news.  Perhaps this modest public service will raise awareness of ways that we could understand each other better, and form a more rational, compassionate union.

The Semmelweis Reflex.  A classic.  The tendency to reject new evidence that contradicts an existing paradigm.  Are you guilty of this?  Yes!  If you’re not sure, consider its bedfellow, the Confirmation Bias – the tendency to seek out or interpret information in a way that confirms your preconceptions.  Guilty!  Pay your 1¢ fine at the farm stand.  Raspberry picking continues apace this week, with abundant berries as of Thursday morning.  There are several berry patches on the farm, ask at the stand for directions and containers.

The Last Illusion.  A deep and poetic cognitive bias, perhaps the queen of them all.  The Last Illusion is the belief that somebody must know what is going on.  Think about the stock market or the global response to climate change.  Sure, things seem kind of willy-nilly and topsy-turvy, but SOMEONE is steering the bus, right?  Some magical powerful puppeteer?  Meanwhile, the strawberries have left the building, though Farmer Steve said diligent pickers might “find a few to mop up.”  Treasure hunt!

The Outgroup Homogeneity Bias.  This is very subtle until you think about it.  It is the tendency for individuals to see members of their own group as being relatively more varied than members of another group.  Thus it is closely related to stereotyping, but with a shade of meaning worth pondering.  Meanwhile, you can now cut your own flower bouquets in the field by the farm stand or buy bouquets that we’ve created at the stand.  Current flowers include zinnia, snapdragon, celosia, ageratum, gomphrena, scabiosa/pincushion flower, cornflower/bachelor buttons, dianthus/carnations, strawflower, aster, marigold, verbena, and statice.

The Illusion of Asymmetric Insight.  That’s when people perceive their knowledge of their peers to surpass their peers’ knowledge of them.  Like, “I see right through that narcissist!  But I’m all buttoned up and nobody can see my secrets.”  You can try this one on for size.  You might find that it fits like a glove!  Anyway, donuts are rolling off the Mark 2 Donut Robot three days a week this year.  You can get them Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 11:00 to 5:00.  Nick the Donut Kid is churning out fresh fried rings of fructotic splendor – optionally sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.  “A sprinkle of SIN, SUGAR,” is all you need to say.  You can also get lemon slushees every day.

The Outcome Bias.  This is the tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome, instead of based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made.  This one is soooo fun to do!  You knew it all along, right?  It wasn’t luck!  You MEANT to do that.  How did you get so awesome!  Meanwhile, Greg’s fresh garlic scapes are back.  Get a baggie for sauteeing and drizzling with balsamic.  These are real early season delicacies.

The Self-Serving Bias.  A real beauty.  Perceiving oneself responsible for desirable outcomes but not responsible for undesirable outcomes.  Fun!  Let’s all do that at the same time!  Meanwhile, you have to see these beautiful berry bowls and other treats by local potter Shirley Brown.  Best way to store and serve strawbs, rapsbs, blubes, and cherrs.

The Planning Fallacy.  If you are not guilty of this one, you might not be human.  You might not even be a computer.  It is the tendency to underestimate how long something will take.  Turns out this is a really easy one to be good at, perfect for beginners, so we’ll leave you with that.  Now is kind of the quiet time on the farm.  You can pick berries and flowers, but it will be a few weeks til we send a peach report and a call to pick the first vegetables.  Stay tuned.

Amidst all the global struggle and strife, we got the loveliest email from a Farmketeer.  Misbah wrote, “Whatever you’re on when you write these emails is exactly what I want to be on for the rest of my life.”  Iced raspberry herbal tea is the stuff.  Thank you very kindly, Misbah.  You are ‘Creeknik of the Weeknik.

Another piece of good news in the world.  The farm is still protected by a conservation easement – indeed it is “conserved forever” to be open space by law.  You can see two glimpses of the veggie fields and orchards in this short movie by the Finger Lakes Land Trust, our hometown conservation nonprofit.  We support them and invite you to support them if you can.  They have saved over 25,000 acres of forests, gorges, wetlands, lakeshores, and farmlands across the FLX.  They make their 35 nature preserves free and open to everyone.

Love to y’all.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

DEAREST FARMKETEERS, this is the state of things:  Your elected officials have their heads in the sand; many fellow citizens have their heads in their hands; the meteorologists have their heads in the clouds; and, the astronomers have their heads in the stars.  Surprisingly, it is the last of these who have provided us with actionable info.  Yes, Beloved ‘Creekniks, the stargazers have found two – maybe even three! – planets orbiting a nearby star.  All aboard?

In times like these, does it not seem to be a shorter trip to a fresh start on the exoplanets of “GJ887” than the halting and dubious slog toward an equitable earthly society that cares for its most vulnerable?  The new worlds are only 64 trillion miles away – a jaunt of merely a thousand billion years in a ’79 Chevette with the pedal to the floor and an asthmatic rattle under the hood.  And only 220,000 years on NASA’s latest rig!  Just yesterday we saw the strawberries queueing up for their mysterious annual exodus.  Is that where they go?

Sweet cherries always give the strawberries a lift down to the boatdocks.  They bid “fair winds and following seas.”

When the Pepper Fitzgerald shoves off, you hear an exuberant rendition of “Anchors Aweigh.”  No dry eyes on land or sea.

The green peppers were never known for their boatbuilding; this vessel sits a little low in the water.  But the Pepper Fitz is stalwart and seaworthy.

No one knows where the strawberries go.  Some folks have guessed the verdant highlands of Strawbistan; others surmise snowy Strawbania.  But new speculation swirls about the red dwarf star – a color-coded beacon to the berries – and its purported super-Earths.

We are sad to see them leave — but the raspberries aren’t.  Before the Pepper is out of earshot, they blast “Raspberry Beret” and launch their own party barge.

It is their time to shine after a long spring of hearing, “When are the strawberries ready?”  “The strawberries are so good, Mommy!”  And a lot more besides.

Yes, the passing of Independence Day means freedom from the incidental tyranny of the “in” crowd.  Once Aunt Fred hooks the first trophy bass, everyone can giggle at ease.

The youngsters know not to swim past the buoy, but the chance to steal a first kiss draws these two teens into risky business.

It is worth knowing that raspberries are marvelous swimmers.  We try to make each Fresh Crop Alert educational, and there’s your fact of the week.  In our best David Attenborough voice, we offer the following…

“They can freedive for 22 minutes at a time. The Sunny Goldens, in particular, have an otherwordly quality, an aquatic insouciance as they gambol undersea.”

“In their luminous, effortless pulsations, you can see their evolutionary cousins, the Jellyfish and Jamfish.”

Meanwhile the blueberries sit on the shore.  They are a more serious lot.  Too much revelry undermines their equipoise.  A quiet dip at dusk will do.

AND NOW THE ACTUAL NEWS…

Donuts are rolling off the Mark 2 Donut Robot 3 days a week this year.  You can get them Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 11:00 to 5:00.  Nick the Donut Kid is churning out fresh fried rings of fructotic splendor – sprinkled with cinnamon sugar if you must.  Simply say, “A sprinkle of sin, sugar.”  You can also get lemon slushees every day.  (Extra credit:  How many 1 inch thick donuts do you have to stack up to reach the GJ887 system 64 trillion miles away?  About 6 million trillion!  Or 6 trillion million!  Which is the same as 6 billion billion!  We can do this!  If we work together.)

Pick your own raspberries.  You will find multiple raspberry patches on the farm.  Well you might not FIND them, but they are here.  One in the “Central Plains” and one out past the Mutsu Orchard and one along the fenceline.  Try the map in our old 2019 brochure til we print a 2020 brochure.  It’s a great map that works like the 80-20 Rule, but tweaked to 20-60-20 and applied to small fruit farms.  Thus:  20% of customers need it bad but won’t use it, 20% know the farm inside out and don’t need it, and 59% swing with the prevailing winds.  That leaves 1%.  They own the Grand Cayman shell corp that owns the bank that owns the farm.  “Maps are for suckers,” you’d hear them chortle, snickering over stogies at the Risk board.  (“Kamchatka is mine!” barks one at the stroke of midnight.  Bing bonggg.)

Besides u-pick strawberries and raspberries, you can shop the farmstand.  As of Friday, seasonal goodies include Greg’s fresh garlic scapes, Alex’s noteworthy cucumbers, Gil’s honey, Sean’s honey, Sean’s syrup, our flowers, and local pottery by Shirley Brown including gorgeous berry bowls.  It is a pleasure to share these local products with you.  Shelves will be bursting with summer produce soon.

You can use your Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) coupons here.  We are set up to accept checks through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the similar program for seniors.  The federal program, administered through state agencies, was created to provide fresh, unprepared, locally grown fruits and vegetables to participants and to expand the awareness of farmers’ markets.

Love to y’all.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

BELOVED FARMKETEERS:  Aloha from the Fairy Kingdom of Strawberristan!  Where daiquiris flow like fake news in a baroque oligarchy.

Yes, the farm is open, this is the first Fresh Crop Alert of the year, and you can pick your own strawberries.  The usual spiel applies to strawberries and all crops that will follow in succession:  first come, first get.  The newsletter reaches some 10,000 local food lovers every week, and enterprising fruit fanatics have already started picking – even before this first edition of the 2020 season, which itself could incite a bumrush on the berry patch.  Therefore you simply have to come and hunt for berries yourself.  We can’t guarantee you a cornucopia.  But you might find one.  People have been leaving with beautiful hauls each day, and the berry patch seems to recharge with sun and warmth.  (A little more water from the sky would be welcome, if anyone in the Department of Homeland Precipitation happens to be reading.)  Pickers have been keeping up with ripening waves, so strawberries are u-pick only; we don’t have any stocked at the stand for now.

New this year:  Please don’t taste-and-toss.  If you happen to smuggle a few berries into your yum-tum-tummy while you are picking, please don’t toss the remnants in the field.  If you take a bite, please stick the stems in your pocket, or if that’s too ewww for you, put them in a baggie or something.  Pack in, pack out.  We are asking everyone to remember that there are pickers and farmers coming through after you, and we all need to think about germs.  So let’s talk about that now…

This week’s sermon dispenses with our usual nonsense in favor of talking some straight covid stuff.  Be smart.  Let’s not turn Indian Creek into a super-spreader.  (1) Always keep SAFE social distance, (2) Wear your MASK when in closer quarters such as checkout, (3) Monitor your CHILDREN to ensure that they follow these hygiene protocols.  Regarding (1), 6 feet does not equal 3 feet.  Six feet is a lot more like 6 feet.  Like a fishing pole.  Or a tall person on a luge.  Or 12 big iPhones glued end-to-end with old syrup.  Regarding (2), just do it.  Regarding (3), kids are like dogs and we mean that in the best possible way.  Everyone assumes that their dog is the cutest and friendliest and best behaved.  Same with their kids.  But remember that – while your working assumption is almost certainly true – a stranger might not want your shiny little cherub getting all up in their kitchen right now.  Kiss-of-death kind of stuff.  We know that herding kids can be like putting socks on a rooster, but that’s what you signed up for.  So, while we do not recommend leashes for the kids, we’re asking you for a good faith effort at monitoring and real-time constructive instruction about personal space.  A good principle in general, but this year in particular, remember that one tiny pathogen has caused TREMENDOUS suffering.  Even though Ithaca has been fortunate, covid is still with us, despite the prediction of one luminary that, “…it’s like a miracle, it will disappear,” and advice from the very same to, “Just stay calm.  It will go away.”  Oh, and one more:  (4) Finally, for now, do not bring your own BAGS or containers, to protect the health of our workers and other customers.  We will keep up with state recommendations for u-pick farms as the season unfolds.  Thank you for being the best customers anywhere.  It will be nice to see you here again.

Another point of business, a simple word about inclusivity – everyone is welcome.  That has always been the case at The ‘Creek.  We’re not normal and you don’t have to be either.  Come one, come all.  Just be kind.  Photo by long-time Farmketeer Hannah.

And now back to agriculture.  Top crop for many of you is donuts.  You can get them Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 11:00 to 5:00.  The Mark 2 Donut Robot will be churning out fresh fried rings of fructotic splendor – sprinkled with cinnamon sugar if you must.  Simply say, “A sprinkle of sin, sugar.”  Nick the Donut Kid is back.  Keep him in your thoughts if the line gets long.  If demand for strawberries outstrips supply, have no fear, donuts are here.

Scapes and slushees are here too.  Wash down your donuts with lemon slushees and then redeem yourself with fresh picked garlic scapes – these tender shoots will lift your spirits when sizzled in a pan and drizzled with balsamic.

What else is ready to pick?  For now just strawberries.  But henceforth we will be open 7 days a week til Novemberish.  That means a parade of crops – lord willing the creek don’t rise and she don’t bust out the Dust Bowl.  Starts with strawberries then garlic then raspberries and peaches and plums and tomatoes and peppers and pears and apples and eggplant and pumpkins and sprouts and all that.  Now starts the harvest.

A warm welcome to our newest ‘Creekniks!  Over 1,200 new people have subscribed to get Fresh Crop Alerts in the past few weeks.  Veteran Farmketeers, please show them how things work if you see a newbie lost in the orchards.  We’re all in this together.  But you can pick your fill before you show them the BEST picking spots.  You’ve earned it.

Another insider notion.  The Fresh Crop Alert system works pretty good:  If you get these weekly emails, you’ll stay abreast of the crops, more or less.  But there will be many moments throughout the season when we need to push out a message fast — like, “Whoa, peaches need picking TODAAYYYY!” – but we don’t want to bother you with 3 or 4 emails a week.  Social media is the channel for that kind of reportage, so it would be a good idea to follow our Facebook and Instagram feeds to surf the continual ebbing and flowing of croppage.  We’ll start posting now that the season is going.

Love to y’all.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  Look at the night sky.  You might see 10 or 100 or 1,000 stars – but there are one billion trillion stars in the universe.  Some simply shine brighter.  And you, Farm Fans, well… you are the stars in the farm country sky.  You are the ones who brighten our night.

Aye!  You are the peaches in our pie!  You picked the farm clean this year.  Cleaner than ever before.  Farmer Steve says some 5,628 trees were in production, and not a single one had fruit left to harvest.  You people WENT TO TOWN on this farm.  Apples gone.  Peaches wiped.  Apricots kaput.  Pears demolished.  Plums poof.   Hazelnuts, paw-paws, cherries, berries, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, pumpkins, squashes, flowers, herbs, donuts, cider… all ADIOS.  Pictured above:  Peach pie featuring the last peaches that our friends at Stone Bend Farm put up from the harvest.

Truth be told, you missed one apple.  A beautiful Mutsu.  Last apple hanging.  But there’s nothing else to share this year.  No Ciderday Matinee like last December when we gave out free jugs of cider to whoever came to the farm.  No holiday apple gift boxes to send to friends.  We don’t have the apples!  So we are suggesting that you check out the free shipping special from our friends at Eve’s Cidery, the trendsetting, award-winning cider makers from the little hamlet of Van Etten, NY.  It will make great gifts from Finger Lakes apple country – and you’ll support a tiny farm with a national reputation.

Get FREE shipping now from Eve’s Cidery.  Enter code CIDERTIME on their web store checkout screen.  You can use the coupon as many times as you like until midnight December 31, 2019.  They sell out every year and Farmketeers always order a bunch of cases.  You can order any bottles you want, but Eve’s is offering 3 Holiday Packs to help you and your guests explore the world of heritage cider.  You can share different bottles for all palates.  Each sampler gets the 10% half-case discount AND free shipping.  Add another 6 bottles to your cart to get the 20% case discount AND free shipping!  They will ship directly from their farm in Van Etten to 40 states.  Do you keep hearing about new cideries popping up nationwide?  Eve’s has been at it for 20 years, since before cider was a thing.  Look at the press coverage Eve’s Cidery gets, from the New York Times to Wine Enthusiast to the Washington Post to Wine Spectator.  Use code CIDERTIME.

You know the old saw, “Great booze doesn’t grow on trees.”  Well this stuff does.  Eve’s Cidery produces their delicious vintages from organic estate-grown fruit – apples they grow themselves, many on trees from our fruit tree nursery at Indian Creek.  (You can order your own apple, peach, pear, plum, apricot, and cherry trees for spring 2020 planting.)

Well, that’s the spiel.  The farm is closed til strawberry season in May 2020.  Please accept our warmest gratitude for our best season ever.  It started last spring with the New York Agriculture Society Award, and ended with you picking and eating everything we grew.  This is the holy grail of small farming:  sharing what you grow with a vibrant community.

This is the final Fresh Crop Alert of the season.  You probably won’t hear much from us over the winter.

What do farmers do in winter?  Everybody wants to know, and the question is perenially renewed.  This year we lift the veil at last:  A farmer’s winter is spent in radically productive COGITATION.  “But wait!” you retort. “You can’t plow a field by turning it over in your mind.”  That’s true, Loyal ‘Creeknik!  But you can’t plow a field when it’s frozen hard either.  Therefore we tackle other problems in winter, more rarified and esoteric puzzlers like “Why is Red Delicious soooo delicious,” and “Why do they call it global warming when today is colder than yesterday?”  Once in while, this kind of armchair ‘basic science’ – not to diminish it, for that’s what professional smartypantses call it – yields transformative applications for daily life in apple country.  We have already been blessed with one such invention this winter.  A real Eureka moment that one of us had in the shower.  Just today, just in time!  And it’s a gobsmacking efficiency measure that we offer to you royalty-free – a very small gesture of gratitude for our best year ever.  Here it is:  Cram a toothpaste cap into the soap.  You will be 24.7 times less likely to drop the soap.  So simple, so astonishing.  It’s yours if you like it.  You earned it.  Great job this year.

Love to y’all.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

DEAREST FARMKETEERS:  To call our twofer sale on Brussel Sprouts a “spree” is surely hyperbole of Fox Newsian or Washington Postian proportions (your choice).  Truth is, we will likely see around 12 customers this weekend.  The sky has gone dim and blarggy and that will freeze the fire in the belly of even the most faithful locavores.  But it would be a most heartwarming surprise if you Farm Fans could times that traffic by 9.  Yes, 108 customers would be perfect.  Especially if you each cut your own “Sprussels” in the field – two stalks apiece making 216 stalks harvested at prime Sprussel time.

Sprussels Spree!  2-for-1 stalks, u-pick or prepicked!  That’s the same as buy-one-get-one-free.  It’s also the same as half-price, but half the price of two instead of half the price of one.  You could also say 200% of half the price of one.  Anyway, you can get two stalks of sprouts for only $5.  You could also get 1 stalk for $5 (your choice).  You can cut your own sprouts in the field OR simply grab them at the stand.  These are as nutritious as ever, but as Farmer Steve reported last week, “they are not the best sprouts we ever grew.”  It was a wet and buggy year so you will find that each stalk bears some good sprouts and some sprouts that you might offer humbly to your hamster.  It’s not that you’ll find bugs in the sprouts, just that the leaves have holes from earlier in the growing season.  Anyway, as you all know by now, every week we must come up with a new nickname for Brussels sprouts or we die.  Like a shark that has to keep swimming lest it sink to the seafloor – or Sisyphus rolling that eternal (infernal!) rock uphill.  Last week was Bruxellesproux and before that was “Br’zzouts” and before that was “Brazzle-Sprozzles” and before that was “Brouts” and before that was “Sprussel Brouts.”  They all worked pretty well; we stayed alive.  This week, we landed on Sprussels.  Come load up on Sprussels at bargain basement prices – two stalks for only two-and-a-half two-dollar bills – and fry them up on a chilly November night.

All apples are only 99¢ a pound, u-pick or prepicked!  There’s no price difference whether you pick your own apples in the orchard – have fun hunting, you won’t find much – or grab them at the stand.  Farmer Cal here at the stand says we have Newtown Pippin, Ashmead’s Kernel, Northern Spy, Golden Delicious, Mutsu (a.k.a. Crispin, your choice), and perhaps a few others.  These are great apples, some you will never find in a grocery store.  The sale price of 99¢ is the WHOLESALE price that we offer to big buyers like grocery stores, but this year – in recognition of your best picking season ever – we’re going to run out the year with 99¢ a pound to anyone who wants to load up for the off-season.  Thank you!  This could be the last weekend of having the stand decently stocked with apples.  Sauces, pies, snacks – stock up.

Cal’s radishes (and Cal) are still here… for now.  On weekdays the stand is operating self-serve, so you might not see us around.  But Cal is keeping things stocked through the week and will probably be here on the weekend.  Not sure about staffing the following weekend of November 16 & 17.  We’ll play it by ear and announce next week.  But this could be your last chance to load up on apples, sprouts, radishes, and squashes.  Cal still has several kinds of radishes (your choice).  We’re closing every day now at 6:00 instead of 7:00.

And probably last chance for donuts.  Nick the Donut Kid is shrinking his hours down – 11:00 to 5:00 this Saturday and Sunday.  Next weekend is unknown; only the Donut Kid knows and he’s not talking without a subpoena.  This weekend you can get your freshly fried toroids of fructotic doughnosity by the dozen or half-dozen, and if you want cinnamon sugar (your choice), simply whisper, “A sprinkle of SIN, SUGAR.”  You can wash down your donuts with freshly squeezed sweet cider, known around here as “Orchard Ambrosia” – 100% unpasteurized old-time juice of apples and pears.  It freezes great for Thanksgiving or off-season storage.  Just drain a little off to allow for expansion.  Now is the time to put up cider for the winter; these weeks are the best blends of the year and it’s not clear how much longer we will be pressing.  We’re brewing hot mulled cider, too, which you can get in cups at the stand.

Everyone has been asking, “What are you farmers doing now that the season is ending?”  Would you like to know?  (Your choice.)  Two things are afoot.  First is the small matter of digging up fruit trees – 40,000 of them – for safe winter storage in the barn.

You can order fruit trees for spring planting in your backyard orchard:  apple, peach, plum, cherry, apricot, and pear trees.  In fact now is the time to order before professional orchardists and cideries swoop in and buy up the inventory.  They will buy hundreds of trees at a pop.  You can buy 1 tree or 3 trees or 5 trees… or any even number (your choice).

You can see the current stocks and order online through our nursery web site:  Spring 2020 Fruit Trees.  Our nursery is called Cummins Nursery.  Same people as us.  Same farm, too.  Just a different name to confuse as many people as possible.  Trees ship in March and April, or you can pick up here in spring (your choice).  If you pick up, you will be greeted by a friendly fruit tree person who will look totally sane and normal after spending a whole winter in a dark wet barn full of trees and mud and classic rock on the radio nonstop.

The other November job is also a digging project.  It must be dug before the ground freezes.  Has to be dug to exact specifications – a perfect rectangle in the orchard, about the size of a backyard hockey rink in the ‘burbs of Boston, 8 inches deep and laser level.  Dozer Dan is on it.  If you tune in next week (your choice), we’ll share any progress on Operation Orchard Rectangle.

Love to y’all.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  The super-secret farm plan was to send you a special Fresh Crop Alert this past Monday morning, wherein we would trumpet our First Annual Big Ol’ Pumpkin Clearance Sale, such that no pumpkin would be left behind come Halloween.  But, a Sunday night text message from Farmer Steve caused an 11th-hour stir in the newsroom:  “PUMPKINS KAPUT.”

It’s true, we sold out of pumpkins a full 4 days before Halloween – leaving no pumpkins behind, but leaving some pickers without a pumpkin!  This occurred despite our planting more pumpkins than ever.  There appear to be three principal reasons for this agroeconomic blunder:

(1) You are the best customers ever
(2) You are the best customers everrrrr
(3) You are the best customers everrrr-rrr-rrrrr

So, to Frederique, Maria, Bob, and everyone else who cleaned out the Pumpkin Patch last weekend, thank you, and so glad you found the dream pumpkin with your name on it.

Time for a pumpkin-sized thanks to all Farmketeers and ‘Creekniks:  Announcing FREE Personal Quirk Dropoff and Winter Storage.  Yes!  You CAN believe what you are reading!  In appreciation of your prodigious farminess this season, we are offering something we have never done before.  Today through Sunday, November 3, you can bring your most unwanted personal quirks to the farm.  We will store them over the winter for FREE!  If you would like them back in the spring, you may pick them up in May when strawberry season opens.  If you don’t want them anymore, we will plow them into next year’s pumpkin field where they might do more good for the pumpkins than they have done for you.  Here’s an example.  Suppose you have a “weird shoe thing” – you are obsessed with collecting and wearing unusual shoes, to the point where it is interfering with your life as you would like to live it.  Just tell the cashier at the farm stand, “I hereby relinquish my weird shoe thing for the winter and possibly forever.”  The cashier will smile and charge you nothing.  That is the end of the transaction and you are free to go.  Note:  Please do not bring the actual shoes, just the personal quirk.  We cannot store any items that take up space in 4-dimensional spacetime.  Also please limit your dropoff to three (3) quirks per adult to leave room for others.  You must be 18 years or older to participate.  Thank you, Quirketeers!

But that’s not all!  Come pick apples for 99¢ a pound!  Down from $2.25 per pound normally!  Any apples that you find in the orchard are fair game.  That includes the Dwarf Orchard, the Vintage Orchard, the Mutsu Orchard, all trees hither-and-thither.  You will really have to hunt-and-pick.  It is the end of u-pick season and you have done such a laudable job of scouring the orchard so far.  There is NOT much left on the trees.  Farmer Steve often says, “I could pick 200 bushels out there before sunset…” but he is singing a different tune today.  Apples that you might find include Winecrisp primarily, plus Mutsu, Rome Beauty, Red Delicious, Cortland, Red Spy, and assorted exotics and heirlooms in the lower rows of the Dwarf Orchard.  Please help us finish this beautiful harvest by cleaning out the orchard good and proper.  Thanks to farm fan Joe Wilensky for the photo of Yordi Wilensky, age 11, showing extraordinary airborne apple picking form!

Another sale!  You can get apples at the farm stand for only 99¢ a pound!  So there’s no price difference whether you pick your own apples or grab them at the stand.  The sale price of 99¢ is the WHOLESALE price that we offer to big buyers like grocery stores, but this year – in recognition of your dogged picking and exuberant patronage – we’re going straight to the people with the 99¢ deal.  We did the picking, you do the eating.  You will find fancy, high quality apples that we’ve been harvesting as each variety hit peak ripeness.  You will find Spy, Mutsu, Roxbury Russet, Golden Russet, Ashmead’s Kernel, Winecrisp, Goldrush, Calville Blanc, Sir Prize, Margil Russet, Cox Orange Pippin, Suntan… all kinds of treats as supplies last.  This is your chance to level-up your locavore credentials by buying a mix of local apples to put up for the winter.  “Mix up and put up to level up.”  That’s what Ma always says.

Apple identification tip:  Mutsu on left, Sir Prize on right.  Kelsey at the farm stand points out that, though these two apples can look very similar – especially when Mutsu takes on its famous blush – you have only to look at the underside to tell them apart definitively.  Mutsu smooth, Sir Prize bumpy.

BOGO Brussels!  2-for-1 stalks!  BOGO means buy-one-get-one-free in the biz.  That piece of sweet lingo came straight down from Madison Avenue.  You can get 2 stalks of sprouts for only $5, or 1 stalk for $5.  (So, duh, maybe get 2 stalks.)  Cut your own sprouts in the field OR simply grab them at the stand.  These are as nutritious as ever, but they are not the best sprouts we ever grew.  It was a wet and buggy year so you will find that each stalk has some good sprouts and some that you might leave for your pet bunny.  It’s not that you’ll find bugs IN the sprouts, just that the leaves have holes from earlier in the growing season.  Anyway, as you all know by now, every week we have to come up with a new nickname for Brussels sprouts or we die.  Like a shark that has to keep swimming lest it sink to the seafloor – or Sisyphus rolling that eternal (infernal!) rock uphill.  Last week was “Br’zzouts” and before that was “Brazzle-Sprozzles” and before that was “Brouts” and before that was “Sprussel Brouts.”  They all worked pretty decent; kept us alive anyway.  This week, we landed on Bruxellesproux from the French for “Brussels sproux” – whatever sproux is.  Come load up on sproux at bargain prices and fry up these nutrition pods.

Veggie bone.  Rover might looooveeeeee the actual stalk of a Bruxellesproux, which is rather like a veggie bone that “gives a little” when the canines press into it – and gives hours of fun to the right animal, spinning round the yard with tail flying high.  After you pluck the sproux, try this adaptive reuse of the stalk.

Cider donuts and fresh cider.  You can get your freshly fried toroids of fructotic yummtion by the dozen or half-dozen on Saturday and Sunday 10:30 to 6:00.  If you want cinnamon sugar, simply whisper, “A sprinkle of SIN, SUGAR.”  Nick the Donut Kid will twig your meaning.  You can wash down your donuts with freshly squeezed sweet cider, known around here as “Orchard Ambrosia” – 100% unpasteurized old-time juice of apples and pears.  It freezes great for off-season storage.  Just drain a little off to allow for expansion.  Now is the time to put up cider for the winter; these weeks are the best blends of the year and it’s not clear how deep into November or December we will keep pressing.  We’re brewing hot mulled cider, too, which you can get in cups at the stand.

Cal’s radical radishes are still coming.  Get these little spice pods in several varieties while the harvest is active.  A fresh radish has a culinary snap you won’t find in a grocery store.  Might be only another week or two depending on temps.

Well folks, that’s the news for this week and you’ve heard our NEW IDEA, Number 628-B:  Free personal quirk dropoff.  Come any time between 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM, open every day for now, and after the weekend we will assess how long to stay open into November.

If your quirk is a “weird crawling through tire tunnels thing,” no problem.  We will take it off your hands.

If you have a “salmon-tinted arrows thing,” no sweat.  Drop it off.  We won’t judge.

If you are terrified of chickens, don’t panic – you are not aloneeee!  (Chickens ARE the stuff of nightmares.  Monkeys, too!  And of course bunnies.  So scary!)

If you obsess about measuring things that don’t really need to be measured, it’s okayyy.  Ditch it at the farm.

This is your chance to hit the RESET button.

Love to y’all.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  Want to hear a truly great brand name?  Fruit of the Loom.  Just think:  Fruit… of the… LOOM.  It’s marvelous.  And that darling sketch of apples nestled in a bed of grapes sewn into the waistband of your tighty-whities!  It is really world-class branding.  BUT, a terminal product flaw:  You can’t eat the fruit of the loom.  You can only look at it and wear it.  Booooooooring.

Contrast that with the Fruit of the FARM.  The Food of the Farmketeers.  The ‘Crop of the ‘Creek.  The Cream of the Crop.  The Créme de la Crême!  The Pomme de les Pömmes!  Les Pômpes des Pumpkines!  You can eat these.

And – unlike underwear that comes sealed in a multicolor 6-pack with one color you like, one you can live with, and four that feel embarrassing – you can pick your own Mutsu apples, one at a time.  Yes, you can pick each apple separate from the others!  Apples as big as pumpkins.  Some people call them Crispin, the name introduced by American marketers, but Mutsu is the original Japanese name and it’s a better fit because they are Muuuuuuuugoood.  They are the most versatile apples on the farm.  Mutsu is a dessert apple.  A pie apple.  A bake-it-in-the-oven apple.  It is the little black cocktail dress of apples.  Appropriate for any occasion and irresistible with that fetching hint of Mutsu blush.  Dad planted the Mutsu orchard back in ’84, so they are now 35 years old – legal age for a presidential run in a cocktail dress.  The British call them “oven busters” since, according to the lore, 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 teatime, a.k.a., stitch-n-bitch.  But – as we have offered before – boys can do that, too.  Ovens and stitching and b*tching aren’t just for girls.  Same with dessert.  And feelings.  And sharing.  And little black cocktail dresses.  All welcome at The ‘Creek.

Come pick your own pumpkins.  None will be left behind.  Last year you picked the patch clean well before Halloween, so this weekend is probably last chance for the best picks.

Come pick Winecrisp, Rome Beauty, Cortland, and assorted heirlooms.  On our most recent run through the Dwarf Orchard, the remaining heirlooms included Golden Russet, Roxbury Russet, Calville Blanc, Newtown Pippin, Golden Delicious, and other heritage treats.  These are apples you will not find in a grocery store.  They are delicious and spicy and often mysterious – prized among apple lovers and cider aficionados.  Look for the heirloom rows on the orchard map, labeled as Mixed Russets, Mixed Heirlooms, Colonial Apples, and English Pippins.  For some varieties, there is only one tree!  As you wander, please observe best practices for picking as exemplified by Farmketeer @jessicaeisenman, who (1) stands safely balanced on a tripod ladder, (2) uses one hand to steady the branch and the other to twist off the target apple, and (3) wears an autumnal ensemble of flannel and denim that is positively on fleek.  Of course, as you wander, thank you for not stealing 22,000 apples.

Eat fresh apple cider donuts.  You can get your freshly fried toroids of fructotic doughnosity by the dozen or half-dozen on Saturday and Sunday 10:30 to 6:00.  If you want cinnamon sugar, simply whisper, “A sprinkle of SIN, SUGAR.”  Nick the Donut Kid will twig your meaning.

Drink fresh sweet apple cider.  You can wash down your donuts with freshly squeezed sweet cider, known around here as “Orchard Ambrosia” – 100% unpasteurized old-time juice of apples and pears.  It freezes great for off-season storage.  Just drain a little off to allow for expansion.  Now is the time to put up cider for the winter; these weeks are the best blends of the year and it’s not clear how deep into November or December we will keep pressing.  We’re brewing hot mulled cider, too, which you can get in cups at the stand.

Cut your own br’zzouts.  Every week we have to come up with a new nickname for Brussels sprouts or we die – poof!  Like a shark that has to keep swimming lest it sink to the seafloor, or Sisyphus rolling that eternal (infernal!) rock uphill.  Last week was “Brazzle-Sprozzles” and before that was “Brouts” and before that was “Sprussel Brouts.”  They all worked pretty decent; kept us alive anyway.  This week, we landed on the hip-hop contraction “Br’zzouts,” a Snoop Doggish take on Brouts (fo’ shizzle).  Please come cut your own br’zzouts – just be sure to use the loppers and LOP the whole stalk rather than picking individual sprouts off the stalk, which “wrecks the plant,” as our field signage says rather indelicately.

Pick last tomatoes and peppers.  Farmer Steve’s vegetable report was as nuanced as usual:  “Eggplant – none.  Tomatoes – some.  Peppers – yes.”  There are still green tomatoes in the field.  These are not to be viewed as “failed tomatoes” on account of not turning red; rather they are to be treated as delicacies which will soon be all but impossible to find.  What’s their purpose, you ask?  (Well what’s YOUR purpose, Mister Somebody Something Special?!)  Green tomatoes are the only absolutely indispensable ingredient in fried green tomatoes.  That is, you can make fried green tomatoes IFF (that means “if and only if” in mathematics), you have green tomatoes.  You can also make fried green tomatoes gluten-free with a simple switch of flours.

Here is a scary pumpkin.

Here is The ‘Henge.  The ancients called it Stumphenge when it was made of apple tree stumps.  Then the stumps rotted and we replaced them with stones, but for some reason that we couldn’t quite grok, it felt wrong to call the thing Stonehenge.  So it’s just The ‘Henge now.  You can have a picnic here – or anywhere on the farm – and kick around the playground.

Love to y’all.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  Which one of these words does not belong?  Shilly-shally, dilly-dally, helter-skelter, hoity-toity, higgledy-piggledy, pell-mell, pall-mall, zig-zag, wing-ding, ding-dong, mish-mash, argle-bargle, itsy-bitsy, easy-peasy, hanky-panky, okey-dokey, namby-pamby, bric-a-brac, flim-flam, handy-dandy, heebie-jeebies, hokey-pokey, hurdy-gurdy, loosey-goosey, twiddle-twaddle, willy-nilly, yadda-yadda.  Do you know which is the oddball?

Hint:  Bric-a-brac.  If you guessed bric-a-brac, you’re right as usual.  Bric-a-brac does not belong.  It has three word-pieces instead of two.  Obviously therefore bric-a-brac cannot be part of this Fresh Crop Alert.  Adios, Bric-a-brac!  Now let us consider the others in turn…

Heebie-jeebies.  Let’s try it in a sentence.  How about:  “My little sister gets the heebie-jeebies when she daydreams about rabid cider donuts attacking a gentle zombie fruit farmer by the woodstove.”  Fair enough, that is creepy!  But it’s just a dream.  There’s no such thing as zombie fruit.  Anyway, you can get your freshly fried toroids of fructotic doughnutude by the dozen or half-dozen on Saturday and Sunday 10:30 to 6:00.  If you want cinnamon sugar, simply whisper, “A sprinkle of SIN, SUGAR.”  Nick the Donut Kid will grok your meaning.  You can wash down your donuts with freshly pressed sweet cider, known around here as “Orchard Ambrosia” – 100% unpasteurized old-time juice of apples and pears.  Freezes great.  We’re brewing hot mulled cider, too, what with all the autumnals nipping around the ears.

Handy-dandy.  You can pick your own Mutsu apples, also known as Crispin, and golly are they handy-dandy.  The most versatile apple on the farm.  Mutsu is a dessert apple.  A pie apple.  A bake-it-right-in-the-oven apple.  It is the versatile little black cocktail dress of apples.  Appropriate for any occasion – and irresistible with that fetching hint of Mutsu blush.  Plus they get as big as pumpkins.  Dad planted the Mutsu orchard back in ’84.  We could rhapsodize about the Mutsus for weeks.  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.  And little black cocktail dresses.  All welcome at The ‘Creek.

Hoity-toity.  Yes, please DO explore our exotic, antique, and heritage apples; but, no, don’t get hoity-toity about your apple savvy.  The world almost certainly does not need another self-satisfied foodie.  Rather, you can adopt beginner mind in the Dwarf Orchard, where you can still pick your own Golden Russet (pictured), Roxbury Russet, Calville Blanc, Newtown Pippin, Golden Delicious and many other heritage treats.  These are apples you will not find in a grocery store.  They are delicious and spicy and often mysterious – prized among apple lovers and cider aficionados.  Look for the heirloom rows on the orchard map, labeled as Mixed Russets, Mixed Heirlooms, Colonial Apples, and English Pippins.  For some varieties, there is only one tree!  Please help us harvest these gems and expand your palate in a single visit.

Higgledy-piggledy, pell-mell, helter-skelter.  These words are birds of a feather.  They mean jumbled or scattered or disordered.  Evincing entropy.  A willy-nilly mish-mash.  Much like our Vintage Orchard, with Red Spy (ready now) and Rome Beauty and other classics planted all hither and thither.  Please zig-zag therein unhurriedly, have a picnic, hike around.  Keep your eyes peeled for red ribbons on trees with red apples.  Those are the Red Spy apples – possibly the best pie apples in the Lower 48.  And, yes, you can still get HONEYCRISP apples and other varieties of apples and pears at the farm stand.  *Note:  Some of the red ribbons have faded to pink.  But they are still Red Spy.

Shilly-shally.  Dilly-dally.  It is October 18 – come pick your dream pumpkins now!  Last year the Pumpkin Patch got picked clean well before Halloween.  So the prudent picker dare not shilly-shally.  Nor dilly-dally!

Boopy.  Overheard in the Pumpkin Patch:  “Ew mama these pumpkins are so boopy.”  Thus we have an unofficial addition to the word list, courtesy of a 4-year-old Farmketeer, though we might recast it as “boopy-doopy” to fit the formula.  (Lest we have to let bric-a-brac back into the fold; after all, exceptions ARE invidious.)  These boopy pumpkins might make Thoreau want to rethink his famous assertion:  “I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”  Suit yourself, pal!

Pall-mall.  Every week we have to come up with a new nickname for Brussels sprouts or we die.  Like a shark that has to keep swimming lest it sink to the seafloor, or Sisyphus rolling that eternal, infernal rock uphill.  Last week was “Brouts” and the week before that was “Sprussel Brouts.”  This week, in the spirit of compound words, we elected Brazzle-Sprozzles.  Please come cut your own sprozzles – just be sure to use the loppers and CUT the whole stalk rather than picking individual sprouts off the stalk, which wrecks the plant.  But what is pall-mall you ask?  Well first, not to be confused with pell-mell which we discussed in lesson 4 above.  Pall-mall was a popular lawn game in 16th-century England, a precursor to croquet.  In a pinch you could use large brazzle-sprozzles as your pell-mell balls.

Wing-ding.  Take a pan full of fresh-plucked sprouts, fry them with bacon and chopped nuts, invite your best friends, and BAM, you’ve got a wing-ding.  Season the sprouts – and the guests! – with a good hard cider, just like wine or sherry.  The wing-ding pros at Eve’s Cidery taught us that.

Ding-dong!  That’s the ALARM BELL telling you it’s time to plan your spring garden – and get deluxe seed garlic this weekend.  Special seed garlic sale!  Our neighbor Paul will be selling his organically grown garlic bulbs at the farm stand Saturday, October 19, 10:00 to 5:00.  You can find the likes of Georgia Fire, Italian Easy Peel, Tochliavri, Persian Star, Romanian Red, Chesnok Red, Georgia Crystal, and others.  Soft necks and hard necks.  Large bulbs and cold-hardy.  Paul has grown these lines of garlic for over 10 years in his home garden on Indian Creek Road.  Come support a local gardener and get your own garlic patch planted!  He will also have utility garlic for sale and specials at his table.  You can contact him at (607) 279-4866 and pac30@cornell.edu.

Itsy-bitsy.  You only need to taste an itsy-bitsy slice of fresh ginger root to be a convert for life.  Good enough to eat fresh, not to mention bringing life to your cooking creations.  Same with the fresh turmeric root.  Sharon and Dean from TreeGate Farm around the corner have been delighting farm fans with these tropical roots grown here in the Finger Lakes.  Same deal with Cal’s radishes grown here at The ‘Creek – 5 kinds now available at the farm stand and they add proper zing to your noshings.  Also last chance to pick peppers (sweet and hot) and possibly score the last tomatoes on the farm.

Hurdy-gurdy, hokey-pokey.  When Bowie is not doing flower tricks, he plays the hurdy-gurdy and does the hokey-pokey.  You can still cut your own flowers by the bouquet or 5-gallon bucket (bring your own bucket).  Could be the final week for flowers.  Also, bring your own bags for apple picking and shopping – or get our reusable farm totes.  No more single-use plastic bags on the farm!

Easy-peasy!  Kids at Belle Sherman Elementary School painted pumpkins during their International Harvest Festival.  See, kids, it’s not so hard once you get started.  Easy-peasy.  We sent a trunkload of gourds to support the party.  Thank you.

Love to y’all.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  Little Bobby will become Bummed Out Bobby if you wait til the final week before Halloween to come pick your dream pumpkins.

Just a heads-up.  You don’t want to have to tell Little Bobby that her jack-o-lantern is a JOKE-o-Lantern.  A big, gray, lumpy Blue Hubbard.  And no, she won’t be fooled by orange paint.  (But good try, Sneaky Parent of the Year!)  Last season the pumpkin patch got picked clean well before All Hallows’ Eve.  So come pick now.  Pumpkin envy never did anybody any good.  And it can stick around a good 2 weeks.  Freud would say years.

Luckily, the preventative is at hand.  Surely you’ve heard the old rhyme?  Oh how it’s been said a thousand times before… an ounce of pumpkin is worth a pound of cure!   You can pick your pumpkins in the patch or find them right at the farm stand.  (Plenty of Hubbards and other squashes, too, for the revolutionaries out there – you who might like to disrupt the perennial October tyranny of the Orange Ones.)

Come pick apples as big as pumpkins.  That’s right, it’s MUTSU season.  We know you Mutsu fanatics come out of hiding in mid-October every year.  Mutsu is a dessert apple.  A pie apple.  A versatile apple.  The versatile little black cocktail dress of apples.  And they get as big as pumpkins.  Dad planted the Mutsu orchard back in ’84.  We could rhapsodize about the Mutsus for days.  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 dudes can do that, too.  Just saying.  Ovens and stitching and b*tching aren’t just for girls.  And dessert.  And feelings.  And sharing.  And little black cocktail dresses.  All welcome at The ‘Creek.

ALL!  APPLE!  VARIETIES!  Now open for picking!  This is the last big wave of u-pick apples.  In addition to Mutsu, you can pick Northern Spy, Prairie Spy, Spigold, Jonagold, Winecrisp (pictured), and more.  Ask at the stand and we’ll circle them on the map.  For many of us apple lovers, these October specimens are the cream of the crop, the creme-de-la-creme, the pommes-de-les-pommes.  The Big Show.

Cut your own “Brouts.”  Every week we have to come up with a new nickname for Brussels sprouts or we die.  Like a shark that has to keep swimming lest it sink to the seafloor, or Sisyphus rolling that eternal, infernal rock uphill.  Last week was “Sprussel Brouts” which worked pretty well.  Most everybody figured it out.  This week is the obvious contraction (why didn’t we think of this before?!) – BROUTS.  But careful!  Not to be confused with brots.  Brots is short for brotwursts.  Brots are made of food.  Brouts are made of plants.  But plants can be food too.  And not just ‘rabbit food’ like Old Grandad “It’s-Not-a-Meal-Unless-It’s-Meat” used to call it.  There’s even that new Impossible Burger.  Okay, ready… everyone run to Burger King or McDonald’s or wherever has those Impossible Burgers and order some!  Or let’s not and say we did!  Instead come pick your own Brouts.  They are delicious and nutritious.  Animal Exhibit A is a rabbit named Donut noshing on brouts.

Exhibit B is a horse named Truffle eating Honeycrisp.  The Honeycrisp trees have been stripped clean, but you can still get Honeycrisp apples at the farm stand.  We only get 37 emails a week asking if we still have Honeycrisp.  Yes, we still have them.  By the way, to all you so-called Honeycrisp champions, nobody can eat a Honeycrisp like a pony can.  Prodigious munchings and crunchings.  Juice flying everywhere.  Teeth on the move, nostrils flaring, tail wagging – and that special shimmy they do with their ribs, and that ripple in the withers.  You’d have to really practice to match that.  Prepare for a tummy ache.

Exhibit C is a cat named Chickadee eating sunflowers.  The Sunflower Maze, just FYI, will probably be the Dead Brown Sunflower maze by the time you get here this weekend.  It will still be standing, and you can wander through, and even cut your own sunflowers like before.  Dead brown ones are free.  If you find a nice bright yellow one, it survived the frost and you are a lucky person.  Please return the scissors to the bucket.

Eat donuts and sweet cider.  Get your freshly fried toroids of fructotic scrumption by the dozen or half-dozen on Saturday and Sunday 10:30 to 6:00.  If you want cinnamon sugar, simply whisper, “A sprinkle of SIN, SUGAR.”  Nick the Donut Kid will catch your drift.  Wash down the donuts with freshly pressed sweet cider, known around here as “Orchard Ambrosia” – 100% unpasteurized old-timey juice of apples and pears.  Freezes great.  We’re brewing hot mulled cider, too.

Get fresh ginger root and turmeric root, notably recherché rhizomes here in the Finger Lakes.  Few people know that fresh ging and turm have been growing in Ithaca.  Sharon and Dean of Tree Gate Farm, our friends around the corner on Coy Glen, are delighting Farmketeers for a second year.  Last year Farmies snarfed up the roots as fast as Tree Gate could deliver.  Great for ginger tea and golden milk.  Sharon explains how they grow them:  “The seed comes from Hawaii, arrives in March, and using a greenhouse and a lot of compost, we spend 7 months working to convince it that the Finger Lakes region is almost as wonderful a place to grow as the tropics.  Unlike what you find at the grocery store, our uncured ginger is snappy and sweet, roughly the texture of an apple or a slice of water chestnut.  And no peeling required!  Just be sure to use or freeze within a week; it’s perishable.”

New this week:  Cal’s Five-Color Radish Mix.  The eagerly awaited October blend of yellow, white, burgundy, pink, and red.  You can also get French breakfast radishes, which are tender, white and red, crunchy, with mild spice.  Also Sora radishes, the classic, reliable, round red radish for all purposes.  Also watermelon radishes.  All these spicy little treats are versatile.  Roast them.  Make quick “fridge pickles” for a piquant addition to tacos, burritos, salads.  Eat them raw to power up your personal spice.

Get bulk cider on sale through Sunday October 13!  Hello, homebrew cider fans!  Bring your 5-gallon carboys to Indian Creek by OCTOBER 13 and we will fill them with 100% unpasteurized cider for $30 each (only $6/gallon) OR $5/gallon when you buy 10-45 gallons (2-9 carboys) OR $4/gallon when you get 50 gallons (10 carboys).  That’s backcountry moonshine prices!  It’s the best cider we’ve had in years.  Blend includes Mutsu, Gala, Empire, Mac, Autumn Crisp, Honeycrisp, Virginia Crab, and Elstar.  Just leave your carboys inside the double doors at the farm stand with your name and number attached.  We will call you when filled.

Pick the last peppers.  Maybe tomatoes.  Maybe eggplant.  Farmer Steve’s official report from the nightshade field was:  “Peppers, yes!  Tomatoes, piddling along.  Eggplant, piddling along.”  You won’t find that kind of advanced crop reporting in the Farmers’ Almanac.  No sirree, Bobby.

Love to y’all.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  Breaking news – The president’s personal lawyer has just hired a former Watergate prosecutor to be his personal lawyer.  Isn’t THAT a love triangle for the ages?  Who knew democracy could be so cozy?  So tidy and sweet?

Dang near sweet as apple pie.  Yes, Farmies, while your leaders have been preparing for a bipartisan slobberknocker of historic proportions, your fellow ‘Creekniks have been keeping it real down here in farm country – picking apples and baking drooly pies.  Thank you for the ins-pie-ration, @4lettersfood!  (Also for the adorbs cover photo in the kitchen!)

Come pick 11 kinds of apples.  Or was it 13 kinds of apples and 11 reasons to get out here?  But who’s counting?  All you need to know is there’s a veritable “crap ton” of apples still hanging here on the trees.  That’s what old cousin Owen would say.  Crap ton.  We called him Onion Ring since he didn’t like onions.  Just kind of joking around, you know, calling somebody a food they don’t like.  All in good jest.  And he secretly did kind of like onion RINGS since they were breaded and deep fried.  We called him Onion for short.  Anyway, Farmketeers, your work here is not done.  Please come pick Jonagold, Fuji, Macoun, McIntosh, Cortland, Liberty, Spartan, Pixie Crunch, Fortune, Snow Sweet, and probably more that have ripened in the 2 days since Farmer Steve surveyed the orchard.  Thank you to everyone who has come apple picking in the rain this week.  Surprisingly active round the farm, and we’re always humbled by your dedication.  By the way, you can still get Honeycrisp apples at the stand.

Bake apple, pecan, cranberry, brown butter bread!  You’re on a roll, @4lettersfood.  Epic farm-to-table action.

Make your own apple butterrrrrrrrrrrrr!  Thank you, @emmyinthekitchen, for reminding us that it is time to be “putting up” stuff for after harvest.

Cut your own Sprussel Brouts.  Most people have never seen a stalk of sprouts, let alone cut their own.  Even fewer have traveled from New York City just to wear a sprout leaf on their head.  Try it if you like – it is strangely calming.  Famously paired with bacon, Brussels sprouts also pair magically with fresh ginger root.  How about cooking gingered sprouts?

Eat fresh donuts and sweet cider.  Get your freshly fried toroids of fructotic splendor by the dozen or half-dozen on Saturday and Sunday 10:30 to 6:00.  If you want cinnamon sugar, simply whisper, “A sprinkle of SIN, SUGAR.”  Nick the Donut Kid will know what you mean.  Wash down the donuts with freshly pressed sweet cider, known around here as “Orchard Ambrosia” – 100% unpasteurized old-timey juice of apples and pears.  Freezes great.  We’re brewing hot mulled cider, too, now that a nip is in the air.

Get bulk cider on biggly sale!  Hello, homebrew cider fans!  Bring your 5-gallon carboys to Indian Creek by OCTOBER 13 and we will fill them with 100% unpasteurized cider for $30 each (only $6/gallon) OR get it down to $5/gallon when you buy 10-45 gallons (2-9 carboys) OR only $4/gallon when you get 50 gallons (10 carboys).  That’s backcountry moonshine prices!  And it’s the best cider we’ve had in years.  Blend includes Mutsu, Gala, Empire, Mac, Autumn Crisp, Honeycrisp, Virginia Crab, and Elstar.  Just leave your carboys inside the double doors at the farm stand with your name and number attached.  We will call you when filled.

Cut your own sunflowers in the sunflower maze.  Don’t wait long, these suns won’t shine forever.  Thank you again, @4lettersfood.  Seems like an exemplary visit.

Pick the last tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.  The Indian Creek Tomato Council – pictured at their October conclave – will soon shutter the season.  The nightshade field is plugging along.  Diligent pickers, who plod along patiently and look below the leaves, can still find fresh tomatoes, peppers (sweet and hot), and eggplants.  These summer vegetables will be gone soon.  Pick up and put up.

Explore new realms with Cal’s radishes.  New this week – Watermelon radishes (pictured).  Cal just started harvesting these earthy, spicy gems with green rind and bright pink center.  They are great for roasting, pickling, shredding into salads.  You can also get French breakfast radishes, which are tender, white and red, crunchy, with mild spice, the best fresh-eating radishes.  Also Sora radishes, the classic, reliable, round red radish for all purposes.  Coming soon will be the “five color mix” of yellow, white, burgundy, pink, and red.  All these spicy little treats are versatile.  Roast them.  Make quick “fridge pickles” for a piquant addition to tacos, burritos, salads.  Eat them raw to power up your personal spice.

Get fresh ginger root, surely a recherché rhizome here in the Finger Lakes.  Few people know that fresh ginger has been growing in Ithaca.  Sharon and Dean of Tree Gate Farm, our friends around the corner on Coy Glen, are delighting Farmketeers for a second year.  Last year Farmies snarfed up the roots as fast as Tree Gate could deliver.  It’s great for ginger tea and myriad culinary uses.  Sharon explains how they grow it:  “The seed comes from Hawaii, arrives in March, and using a greenhouse and a lot of compost, we spend 7 months working to convince it that the Finger Lakes region is almost as wonderful a place to grow as the tropics.  Unlike what you find at the grocery store, our uncured ginger is snappy and sweet, roughly the texture of an apple or a slice of water chestnut.  And no peeling required!  Just be sure to use or freeze within a week; it’s perishable.”  Ginger now, turmeric soon!

Ready or not, it’s pumpkin season.  Nobody cares about pumpkins before October 4th and nobody cares about them October 32nd.  That gives pumpkins some 28 days to matter.  Please come get yours.  Last year there were no leftovers.

Please, Dear ‘Creekniks, no jokes about impeaching the Great Pumpkin or the Pumpkin of the United States (POTUS).  These are grave matters and not to be trifled with for cheap comedic effect.  No mudslinging and tittle-tattle about the highest office in the land when the elected executive hasn’t had a chance to meet his accuser.  Not fair!

Love to y’all.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

(Thank you to Farmketeer @adri.m.darcy for that last photo!)