Indian Creek Farm

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  Three-year-old kids are the world’s top Why Machines.  “Why, Mommy?”  “Why, Papa?”  “Why why why why?”  You give your best shot at an appropriate answer each time, only to secure another “Why?” in return.  Then one day you hear a longggg string of whys.  You’re feeling a tad frayed, not as composed as usual.  You surprise little Bobby – and yourself – with this dubious classic from the good parenting manuel:  “Because sh*t happens!!”  To which the wee Bobbino simply says, “But why?”

“Alabaster Platypus.”  That’s your answer.  Works every time.  No child in the history of why has replied with a why.  Sounds like nonsense, but try this mystical utterance on your own whippersnappers.  It breaks the chain.  Stems the tide.  Magic like the number 42.  Yes, Farm Fans, “Alabaster Platypus” is a disruptive technology of surprising power, and you can use it as needed.  But there are others.

“Esmeralda Jalapeño.”  You will find Esmeralda apples and jalapeño peppers at the farm stand, plus an evolving bounty of peaches, roma tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, golden tomatoes, Italian eggplants, fairytale eggplants, Japanese eggplants, bell peppers, hot peppers, blueberries, cucumbers, garlic, small potatoes, cauliflower, zucchini, Pristine apples, local honey, local syrup, local pottery and… and fresh sweet cider!  Herbs and flowers you can cut right in front.

“Apostrophe Apple!”  Now picking:  William’s Pride apples (pictured) and Pristine apples.  Find them both in Row 10 of the Dwarf Orchard.  On your walk to Row 10 you can debate whether it is properly Williams’, William’s, or Williams.  The internet has not decided.  When you get to Row 10, you can pick the deliciously lemon-yellow, sweet-tart Pristines.  But, further down the row, many of you will finally pick your first apples of the year, because William’s Pride are RED APPLES which seems to be what most Farmketeers have been holding out for.  The yellow and green apples which kicked off the season were treated with precisely the contempt we have come to expect.  Sigh.  For the next 10 weeks there will be new apples to pick every week.  Yes, to answer your many, many emails… there will be Honeycrisp.

“Fuzzy Fruit, Hidden Pit.”  Now picking:  Peaches, but very thin picking this week.  You all did a wonderful job of devouring the first wave.  Thank you.  And lotssss more peaches will ripen soon, perhaps next week.  Stay tuned to the Fresh Crop Alerts.  Thanks to farm fan @dolcedelightithaca for this pic from her peach picking session.

“Nightshade, My Child, Nightshade!”  Now picking:  Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant.  We get DOZENS of emails and social media messages about which varieties are ripe on any given day and how plentiful they are.  The short answer is:  “Alabaster Platypus.”  You sorta have to come out here and hunt around.  It changes each week – each day, even.  Depends on sunshine and warm nights and how many pickers beat you to the best picking.  There are many varieties of tomatoes, some ready, some ripening.  As of TODAY, it’s mostly romas that are ready in any abundance.  There are also many varieties of sweet and hot peppers, all ready or ripening.  Same with eggplant, ready and ripening.  Look under the leaves, try new varieties, pick yourself a nightshade hodgepodge.

“Gomphrena Bouquet Cornflower Bucket.”  If your kid says “why?” to that one, you have our permission to say, “Because.”  Meantime pick your own zinnias, snapdragons, verbena, gomphrena, celosia, cornflower, statice, strawflower, scabiosa, sweetpeas, salvia, aster, dianthus, and algeratum.  Also get beautiful bouquets in mason jars, handcut and arranged by ‘Creekniks.

“I, Donut Robot.”  Get your freshly fried toroids of fructotic splendor by the dozen or half-dozen.  No rugrat will ever ask “Why?” when presented with cider donuts and an encouraging parental smile.  Except the gluten-free prodigies.  Beware:  The Mark II Donut Robot runs Saturday and Sunday 10:30 to 6:00.  Nick the Donut Kid runs a tight robot.  Good luck getting a donut at 10:29 or 6:01.

“Orchard Ambrosia.”  Nothing but 100% fresh-squeezed fruit, unpasteurized like the old days.  Get gallons and half-gallons each week, as the apple mix changes with the seasons.

“Plastic Pilates Whale.”  Goodbye forever to single-use plastic bags at the farm stand.  Whales eat 3 big meals of plastic each day — we don’t need to feed them more.  Please BYOBags or buy our reusable farm totes in 2 sizes for $1.50/2.00.  They work great for your groceries, picnics, and pilates gear.  Similarly, cardboard “peck” boxes for picking fruit and vegetables… New farm policy is they cost a buck unless you pick a full peck, then they’re free.  Just to get us all tuned in to the costs of waste.  THANK YOU so much to the best farm fans anywhere for helping us make these changes promptly and enthusiastically.

“Free Moonshine.”  You might be crossing a line saying that to your fledglings; just don’t cross any state lines.  But if you can find a sitter on a Saturday afternoon, reserve your free private hard cider tasting at Eve’s Cidery in Van Etten.  This pomological power trio – Ezra, Celia, and Autumn (and cider intern Cathryn behind the camera) – is hosting a few lucky people at a time on Saturdays at 2:00 PM.  Sign up for your slot now, because people will get the apple season buzz within a week or two and the prized tasting slots will book up.  These farmers are creative and hardworking people who make critically acclaimed ciders – and they’ve been trailblazers and trendsetters in the Finger Lakes cider scene since the beginning.  Their apples are 100% estate grown in Van Etten, south of Ithaca, many on trees from our nursery and rootstocks that Dad developed during his time at Cornell.  And yes, the private tastings are free, but umm HELLO, buy some bottles to take home.  Eve’s Cidery has an outsized, national reputation, but they’re a tiny family farm business.  You can also order online.  Thank you for supporting small farms.

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

BELOVED ‘CREEKNIKS:  What do you call it when you really want sweet peaches and tomatoes, but your farmer gives you early apples?  A CSA share!  Kidding.  CSAs can be lovely for buyers and vital for farmers.  But you’ve probably had that experience once or twice.  You dream of the season’s most prized noshings, then open your farm box to find… kohlrabi.  Hurrah!  Kohlrabi!  Sooooo much kohlrabiiii!  Well, we don’t have CSA shares at The ‘Creek, but we’re sorta pushing a deal like that on you, Dear Farmketeers, today.  Check it out.

Farmer Steve knows you want peaches and tomatoes.  Oh, he knows you want them big time – a bumper crop befitting our usual August bounty – but he really wants you to pick Pristine apples first.  Thus Pristines are the new kohlrabi.  Of course the metaphor breaks down at some point.  Pristines are nothing like kohlrabi.  Pristines are round and lemon-yellow with an alluring blush, while kohlrabi is… wait, what IS kohlrabi?  Dollars to donuts, at least 77% of our readers have no idea.  Good thing we’re pushing apples instead.

Come pick Pristine apples.  (Pleaseee.)  They are the first real apple-ish apples of the year.  Lovely lemon-yellow orbs of fruitological blushitude.  Descendants of the venerable McIntosh and Golden Delicious varieties.  Perfect for eating fresh, saucing, and cooking.  Easy to pick in Row 10 of the Dwarf Orchard.  Easy as pie.  Tart, crisp, juicy, and firm.  And isn’t that blush prettier than a store-bought doll?

Sweet apple cider is back!  More good apple news to distract you from peaches and tomatoes.  With the first apples of summer harvested, we hereby resume weekly cider pressing.  Get your “Orchard Ambrosia” in gallon and half-gallon jugs.  100% unpasteurized juice from fruit we squeeze with an R2-D2 looking contraption.  Beep beep burp burp.

But if PEACHES are what you really want, you can come pick.  Just be aware that y’all engaged in some heavy picking action on opening weekend, so you might have to hunt for ripe peaches this weekend.  Please ask at the stand which trees are ready.  Don’t go rummaging around, squeezing every peach with your big mitts and bruising the babies that aren’t ready yet.  That would be stealing from your future self – picking unripe fruit and mashing a bunch along the way.  Let us direct you to the ripe rows, and if they are are getting thin, don’t worry, be patient.  The crop is abundant and delicious this year.  The orchard might simply need a few days to recharge.  We’ll announce the big wave of ripening as soon as we see it.

Same deal with eggplant.  There are eggplant to be found; try not to pick the babies.  That would rob Future You of a nice big eggplant.  Last week’s sermon emphasized that it is best to let the babies grow so other Farmketeers can get full-size specimens.  This week, David Hasselhoff has come to remind you, “Don’t hassle the Hoff.  And don’t rob YOURSELF.”

Ditto for tomatoes.  Don’t rob Peter-You to pay Paul-You.  Come hunt for all kinds of tomatoes:  heirlooms, romas, cherries and beefsteaks.  They are all starting to ripen.  Just try to pick the ripe ones and leave the half-baked ones.  We’ll holler if a big wave comes on strong.  We’ll call for a crop mob.

Likewise for peppers.   Sweets are ready.  Hots are coming along.  Jalapeños are ready.  Serranos are ready.  Everything else can be picked but it is still green:  poblanos, Thai hots, habaneros, Hungarians, dragons toes, capperinos, Korean drying peppers, Mexican drying peppers.

Flowers.  You can go bananas on those.  There are lots.  It is easy to tell when they are ripe.  Even from like 500 feet away.  Just look.  If it’s pretty, pick it.  If not, don’t.  You can also get really cute bouquets in mason jars at the stand.  Ready to deploy as living tchotchkes on your kitchen table.  Tell your guests you picked em yourself.  Mum’s the word.

Donuts.  A limitless supply, lord willing, between 10:30 and 6:00 every Saturday and Sunday.  Lord willing because the Mark II Donut Robot can break down time to time.  After all, it’s only human.

Farm Fan spotlight.  See what @dolcedelightithaca did with her fresh-picked peaches.  Boom!

Thank you for reading this “Fresh Crop Alert” on the rarified topic of behavioral hygiene in the u-pick arena.  We leave you with two more best practices:  (1) Please bring your own bags and (2) Drive slowwww wwww wwwwwly on the farm.  Please!   Bring your own bags for picking and shopping, or buy our reusable farm totes.  There are 2 sizes, $1.50 and $2.00.  Goodbye to single-use plastic bags forever!  And be car-ful as you drive around the farm.  It is a working farm and there are machines and people and dogs and potholes and lots of other things to not crash into.

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

NEW FARM RULE!  Anyone who uses the F-word or A-word before September 21 shall be punished.  That’s right, no peach-picking privileges for any person who says “fall” or “autumn” while summer is still here.  Don’t be a Donny Downer.  Don’t get im-PEACHED.

The peaches are primping.  They know the big show is coming – possibly next week.  But you can come pick peaches now.  This week is a warmup.  There are no “donut” peaches yet, and you should ask at the stand which rows are ready.  In some cases, we will be sending you to specific TREES that we know are ready to be picked.  First come, first pick.

The eggplants are singing.  Please come pick them – but ADULTS ONLY!  Don’t pick the baby eggplants.  Let them size up so everyone has a crack at picking big eggplants this season.  If earlybirds raid the patch to pick tiny eggplants, we can’t make the numbers work.  The field won’t produce as much poundage, and the farm won’t make its cabbage, as they say.  There has to be some profit built into each crop – or we should plant the field with another crop.  We love having a diverse rotation each year.  Make sense?

The tomatoes are deliberating. It’s their annual conclave to decide the big ripening date. We will report on their plans as the story unfolds. For now, you can pick cherry tomatoes.

The sweet peppers are greening and purpling.  Come pick yours now.  We will announce hot peppers later.  For now, come get sweet greens, sweet purples, and those great long skinny Italian fryers.  Not Italian Friars.  They don’t grow well in the humid climate of Upstate New York.

The raspberries are sunning.  There have been tons of pickers but also copious sunny days.  That means there are still raspberries to pick in the 3 patches – the 2 trellised fields and the fenceline along the Mutsu Orchard.  All open for picking.

The flowers are popping.  Pick your own zinnias, snapdragons, verbena, gomphrena, celosia, cornflower, statice, strawflower, scabiosa, sweetpeas, salvia, aster, dianthus, and algeratum.  Also get beautiful bouquets in mason jars.

The donuts are blooming.  When you give someone a bouquet of flowers, your love is doubled.  When you give them a bouquet of donuts, your love is trebled.  You can triple your love every Saturday and Sunday 10:30 to 6:00.

The apples are blushing.  Pristine is a real apple.  Real tart.  One of us here at the farm stand says, “They get better the more you eat them… just keep chewing.”  Got to love a gal who can put a positive spin on anything.  But Pristines are good keepers and, for some of you, the first apples of the year.  And that blush!  Come pick now.

The garlic and strawberries are goners!  You picked BOTH CROPS clean.  Thank you!  And you even had time to make art.  To wit, “American Garthlic” by @hannahkaydoyle and @amorn1chet at the 3rd Annual U-Pick Garlic Party.

And you found a new medicinal use for garlic.  Fresh stalks kissing the rhythm machine!  That’s the drummer of “Megaflora” playing during the party.  Farm Fans, your positively unim-PEACH-able performance on strawberries and garlic got the season off to our best start EVER.  Both Farmers Steve (the boss) and Greg (strawberries and garlic) were left feeling great about the season ahead, and thankful that we are able to derive a livelihood from farming here in the Finger Lakes region.  Thank you, Farmketeers.

So let’s put $1000 toward saving local farmland and open space forever.  The past few years, you have picked sprouts to raise $500 for the Finger Lakes Land Trust – the local nonprofit conservation organization that saves forests, gorges, wetlands, lakeshores, and open spaces including productive farmlands across our beautiful region.  This year is their big 30th Anniversary and we are sending them $1000 now!  You can join them on guided hikes and support this classy organization which has 22,000 acres under permanent protection.  Did you know Indian Creek Farm is protected by a permanent conservation easement?  The farm will be open space forever, and we love the work of the Finger Lakes Land Trust.  Be sure to explore their outdoor recreation web site, Go Finger Lakes, for an interactive map of the best hikes, bikes, paddles, and adventures around these parts.

Whales eat tons of plastic.  It’s a problem.  We know what you are thinking:  We should make plastic taste better.  After all, whales are foodies and they deserve a better burger, right?  But how about if we dump less plastic into the ocean and let whales eat their local krill instead?  Okay, deal.  As of this summer we have expunged single-use plastic shopping bags on the farm.  We also want to reduce consumption of cardboard picking boxes and paper cartons – which people tend to use once and not bring back on their next visit.

Please bring your own bags for picking and shopping, or buy our reusable farm totes.  There are 2 sizes, $1.50 and $2.00, and they are great for using at the farm, the grocery store, even the Pilates studio.  Who knows, maybe we’ll hold a contest for who brings the coolest containers during apple season.  Anyway, it’s time, folks.  It’s time we all knock it off with the single-use plastics.

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

DEAR FARMKETEERS, let’s hope you find this 1-page newsletter more useful than the 443-page Mueller Report, at least in the short-term.  Long-term, who can say?  But for the here and now, this little Fresh Crop Alert contains actionable intel, totally unredacted, that you may use to plan your weekend.  No mealy-mouthed dithering, no backroom horse-trading, no obstruction.  Just garlic.  And fruit.  And eggplant.  (But tons of collusion!  Just look at the peppers.  So sneaky.)

Garlic Party III.  Please join us Saturday, July 27, 10:00 to 4:00, for the 3rd Annual U-Pick Garlic Harvest Party.  This will be a casual, dress-down affair.  Wear your get-slightly-dirty clothes and bring your can-do attitude.  We need your help harvesting our best garlic crop ever.  It all needs to get pulled out of the ground Saturday.  You can catch free music and a garlic class.  Free admission.  The farm will be open for normal picking and shopping as well.  You can come pick a few heads of garlic with the kids or harvest enough to last the whole winter.  U-pick garlic prices are on the Facebook event; you can ask Garlic Greg questions about the day there on the event page.  But it’s pretty much come out and pick garlic.

You might see Garlic Greg himself in his native habitat.  He has been working the phones through the anarchist grapevine to line up live music for Saturday.  At 12:00 PM, also known as noon, Cayuga Klezmer Kapelye, featuring musicians Rima Grunes and Max Buckholtz, will wander the garlic field playing traditional and contemporary Yiddish greeting tunes.  You pick while they play!  Then at 1:30 PM, “Megaflora,” will begin.  They describe themselves as a “folk exploration of the Mesozoic era.”  So, Peter, Paul, and Mary meet Triceratops?  Folkasaurus rex?  (Back in those days, flora and fauna were still one.  Spinosaurus was as much plant as animal.  Garlic trees had teeth and wore bearskin pelts like the cave people they would evolve into.)

Medicinal Garlic Class at 11:00 AM.  Cali Janae, “Cal,” is a local herbalist and botanist with a real enthusiasm for plants and a unique spark when it comes to garlic.  (Note awesome allium tatt!)  Please join Cal at the big table by Stumphenge for a free class on garlic covering history and folklore, cultivation, and culinary and medicinal uses of this familiar plant.

Glean the last u-pick strawberries FREE on Saturday.  Garlic Greg is opening up the strawberry field to Garlic Party People.  Let’s get both fields cleaned out so we can turn our attention to the August collection – great new crops coming soon.  Look what Steuben Brewing Company did with their haul of strawberries:  “Surprise beer release today.  Strawberry Farmhouse Ale, refermented with local apple blossom honey and then aged on our lacto-fermented strawberries from @indiancreekfarmithaca…”  Cheers to fruity beers.

Raspberry picking has been fantastic – keep picking our best crop ever.  Farmketeer @zoewanders was “feeling a particular kind of summer joy that you only get from a belly full of fresh raspberries.  Thanks @indiancreekfarmithaca for the gorgeous berries!!”  Thanks for picking and nom-nomming.

Pick your own flowers.  Zinnias, snapdragons, verbena, gomphrena, celosia, cornflower, statice, strawflower, scabiosa, sweetpeas, salvia, aster, dianthus, and algeratum.  Look at these beautiful vases made by ‘Creeknik @pumapots, filled with u-pick flowers from The ‘Creek.

Pick your own eggplant.  The ripening of these first Nightshades ALMOST pushed us to jump the gun and sound the Horn of Plenty, a.k.a., the cornucopia.  But it wouldn’t be right til peaches and maybe tomatoes are on the scene.

Pick your own sweet green peppers.  If you find one in the field wearing a squash flower on its head, RUN!  Definitely not cool.  That would mean entropy is decreasing, a most unnatural state of affairs – far worse than a runaway climate.

Meanwhile, down at the farmstand, peaches.  These are Pennsylvania peaches to hold you over while our peaches cook a little longer.  But soon New York will have the climate of South Carolina and peaches will be ready in May.  So, hooray.

Also at the farmstand, apricots.  If you don’t love fresh apricots, we can’t be friends.  Okay, we can try.  But thing is, they’re objectively good.  You just have to know how to eat them.  Okay, you really just eat them.  There’s no tricks.  Try them on a picnic with your love(s).  The person(s) who make you feel safe and lucky and bold but humble.  The friend(s) who would split their last apricot with you.  Toss the pit to a squirrel.  A tithe to Gaia.  Love of all sentient beings.

Expanded donut hours.  Now every Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 to 6:00.  Nick the Donut Kid is feeling entrepreneurial.  Consider him a capitalist in training.  You are the teachers.  Thus donut eating becomes a high calling.

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

IT’S TRUE, DEAR FARMKETEERS:  Even a broken clock is right twice a day.  Yes, as the world turns, even we dimwits and dullards can look like prodigies and professors for a brief flash… before we fumble back to normal.  The present moment feels prodigious, friends, as you will see in these 11 exhibits.

First, our digital still life, “Lovebirds in a Heatwave,” got over 2000 likes on Instagram.  That made us feel ever so slightly more clever than a typical day spent breaking farm equipment and ruining perfectly good crops, and grateful to have THE best customers in this vast stretch of fruit country between Ithaca and Trumansburg.

Second, the u-pick raspberry crop is the best ever.  You will find plentiful fruit in 3 spots around the farm, easy picking on cool mornings, and you can take your haul to the swimhole in the sweltering afternoon.  Recent text message from Autumn at Eve’s Cidery:  “It’s gonna be 100 degrees Saturday.”  So you might pick up bottles of cold, local, award-winning, 100% estate grown hooch from their tiny family farm.  You can also schedule a free private tasting at their place.  They turned a milking barn into a cute cider tastery.

Third, this is that rare moment when you can pick both raspberries AND strawberries.  Last chance for the strawbs; it has been our longest season ever.  Pick your own strawberry peck for 40% off.  By now you know that a peck is 8 quarts and a quart is $7.  Eleven out of twelve Ivy League mathematicians would agree that means a peck costs $56.  But for all Farmketeers and ‘Creekniks, and anyone who loves big pink circles, your peck will only be $34.  Thus you will save $22 simply by being less mathy.  Works out to about $4.25 a quart.  The discount kicks in at a peck, so come ready to pick.

Fifthly, big pink circles.  And a prediction:  These stickers will be our most popular crop ever.  Second only to peaches which are not ready yet so you can STOP SENDING EMAILS ASKING ABOUT PEACHES!  Kidding.  We will announce peach picking as soon as the first row is ready.  Meanwhile these generously proportioned 5″ stickers tickle the eyeballs and evoke the zeitgeist.  If Indian Creek were a cult, and Farmer Steve was the local Jim Jones, and these fetching pink disks were the Kool-Aid, well folks, it’d be time to follow The Reverend’s lead and stick a few on your bumpers.  Thus we enjoin you to express your solidarity with pink things around the world.  But we are not commie pinkos!  Sheesh, don’t be like that.  But big pink circles for everyone!  (Also available in 4″ blue circles and orange rectangles, the kind that were purple last year and you see them around town.  But it’s pink’s year.)

Sixthly, Garlic Party III.  “Garlic Greg” has set the date of Saturday, July 27, 10:00 to 4:00, for the 3rd Annual U-Pick Garlic Harvest Party.  This is high news of a low key event.  It’s not like a Pigs-n-Apples deal with 1,500 people and an epic tug of war between orchardhands and pigherders and the sheriff dang near chasing us outta town for all the cars on the highway.  This is just a day to help harvest a great garlic crop and catch some free casual activities, games, and garlicky snacks.  Free admission.  The farm will be open for normal picking and shopping as well.  You can come pick a few heads of garlic with the kids or harvest enough to last the whole winter.  U-pick garlic prices are on the Facebook event; Greg will be updating that page with more event schedule details.

Seven, pick your own flowers.  But first you have to pick a side.  Farmer Steve says pick flowers with abandon right now.  Farmer Alice says save a bunch for Farmer Tino’s wedding.  “We don’t want the field stripped before next weekend,” she explains.  Farmer Steve retorts, “A flower today is not a flower in 10 days, so pick now.”  Farmer Alice was not available for further comment at newsletter time.  This would get great ratings as a televised debate.  We would learn more about Alice and Steve than we’ll ever know about primary candidates until it’s too late.  Anyway Alice had sent a dandy list of what’s ready to pick:  zinnias, snapdragons, verbena, gomphrena, celosia, cornflower, statice, strawflower, scabiosa, sweetpeas, salvia.  Not ready yet: aster, dianthus.

Eighthly, expanded donut regime.  Now every Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 to 6:00.  That’s another 180 minutes of active donut time per weekend.  Will this increase the greater good?  Hard to say, it was just a gut-level decision.  (Donut peaches not ready yet.)

Ninthly, first apples of the year.  Please read even if you are not emotionally ready for apples.  There are about 3 of you who care about these apples each year, but Siberian people love them.  The Yellow Transparent apple is a cold-hardy variety imported in the 1800s from Putinlandia before it was officially named that.  Ripens in July for the short northern season.  To cut the acidity, people in the olden days added salt and called them salt apples.  We call them Old Yellers.  They make a CREAMY apple sauce, first chance of the year.  Good stuff to be thankful for.  We are tired of people not loving these July apples.  You Farmketeers are really starting to bore us with your Honeycrisp addiction.  Okay, fine, we’ll plant another 1,000 Honeycrisp trees in the hopes you will still like that fad of an apple in 10 years.  Meanwhile, please come pick these apples.  Pleaseeee.  Sorry.  Please.

Tenth, no more single-use plastic bags.  Done.  Kaput.  Farmer Alice of the Flowers is on a dual mission:  To save blossoms for Tino’s wedding AND rid the farm of bad plastic.  As of now we have no more single-use shopping bags.  You can bring your own bags (BYOB) or you can buy our reusable farm totes.  You’ve seen them here at the stand before, they are $1.50 each (we paid $1.36 for that batch) and they hold more apples than you could probably carry.  We also have 2 new totes coming in shortly, $1.50 and $2.00 in 2 different sizes.  Let’s all hop on this rickety train of collective personal responsibility.  Please don’t give stand workers a hard time when they tell you we don’t have free plastic bags.  “Soon it will be law,” explains Alice, “and we are horrified by the amount of plastic in the world.”  Everybody on board?

Eleventhly, Zorro got shaved for the summer.  He went from 130 pounds to 128 without the fluff.

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

DEAREST FARMKETEERS:  The burden of the firstborn is not inconsiderable.  Everybody knows it’s hard to be the trailblazer… groundbreaker… trendsetter.  But do we always remember that the first in line is also the first mistake maker and first failer?  Do we afford them the space they need to blunder and grow?  Do we let them out from under the microscope?  Allow them their mysteries?

Where do the strawberries go?  First crop of the year.  They appear suddenly and then they are gone.  In July they pull up stakes and head for the ferry, trumpeting the end of spring’s labor and the dawn of lazy days.

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

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.

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 Dad hooks his 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.

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 still rolling.  There is just enough apple cider left to keep the cider donuts in action every Saturday and Sunday 11:00 to 5:00.  There is NOT enough cider left to sell jugs – til the first apples of 2019 are ready in a few weeks.  We’ll holler when the juice is flowing into gallon and half-gallon jugs.

Pick the final 2 rows of strawberries – still 40% off!  Strawberry season is usually over by now, but Farmer Greg planted 2 rows of late varieties and there has been enough rain – not always guaranteed – to keep the patch producing.  Pick your own peck for 40% off.  By now you know that a peck is 8 quarts and a quart is $7.  That would make a peck $56 for average people.  But for anybody named Megan Rapinoe, plus all Farmketeers and ‘Creekniks (and nobody else in the worllllllddd), your peck will only be $34.  Strawboom!  Thus you will save $22 simply by being yourself.  Have you EVER done that before?  Works out to about $4.25 a quart.  The discount kicks in at a peck, so you’ve got to come ready to pick.  Thanks to farm fan @small_graces_bnb for this photo, the next one, and the last one.  Good picking!

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 new 2019 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.)

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.  We are also working on getting approved to accept SNAP electronic benefits.  Stay tuned.

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

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  Nobody called it cross-dressing when the Founding Fathers wore powdered wigs whilst declaring our independence from the powder-wigged oppressors across the pond.  And what did the Founding MOTHERS think of those getups?  Just something to ponder whilst you wander the strawberry patch.  We are open on Independence Day and there’s a big u-pick strawberry special this 4-day weekend through Sunday.  Strawberries will disappear soon after.

Pick a peck for 40% off.  A peck is 8 quarts and a quart is $7.  That would make a peck $56 in England.  But for Farmketeers – here in the U.S.A. – your peck will only be $34!  Thus you will save $22 simply by picking your peck of berries in America.  Works out to about $4.25 a quart.  The volume discount kicks in at a peck, so you’ve got to come ready to pick.  But what to do with 8 quarts?

Make ice popsicles like @4lettersfood!  (Thanks for these first 2 photos!)  Strawberries, watermelon, lime juice, basil, pinch of salt, sugar to taste, and no water.

Make strawberry shortcake like @dolcedelightithaca!

Find butterflyberries like @mommyteessa!  This will be the last big weekend of strawberry picking.  Crop usually fizzles soon after the 4th

Attention Dog People:  For years Indian Creek has been home to a herd of heroic beasts.  They are kind enough to let us live here and cater to their every whim.  They have it pretty good.  They might ramble up to you and bark, but they will not chase you away.  Just ignore them if you are unsure – and please share any concerns.  Example Dog:  Zorro, doing even less than usual.

We love dogs, but we do not encourage visitors to bring dogs to the farm, because there can be crowds of people and vehicles around; not everybody is comfortable with dogs; and, nobody – farmer or visitor – wants to step in waste as they wander the orchards.  If you must bring your dog, please (1) keep your dog on a leash and (2) clean up right away.  Thank you.  You can see that this is not a draconian “NO DOGS EVER” policy.  It leaves room for service dogs and roadtrip companions and perhaps a long-time farm friend who might visit on a not-busy weekday.  However, over the years, word seems to have gotten out that Indian Creek is dog-friendly.  The dog-lover’s grapevine is like the dark web – vast and pervasive and abuzz with chatter.  Dogs were coming from lands near and far.  We started seeing days when it felt like Indian Creek Dog Park.  So we’re asking for your help to keep the farm clean and welcoming to everyone.

Back to our regularly scheduled Crop Alert:  Donuts on July 4th!  America will only turn 243 years old once, so we are celebrating by calling Nick the Donut Kid into work on Thursday.  The first 243 donuts will be served at full price, as will the rest.  (Donuts don’t grow on trees, you know.)  But at least they exist free of British tyranny.  So on this rare Thursday you can get independent (not free, mind you!) toroids of fructotic patriotism from 11:00 to 4:00.  Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 to 5:00 as usual.

Apple cider slushees every day.   These are great in the humidity.  If you like them.  If not, add donuts.  Works great.

Next time you get a Fresh Crop Alert, America will be World Cup Champions again.  Maybe.  We’ll find out Sunday.  Yes, hopefully the women can do what the men have failed to do.  (Do you mean keep their hands to themselves and create a more equitable society?  Well, sure, that’d be great!)  Goooo Team USA!  But win or lose, guess what?  First raspberries are ready to pick!

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

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  We humans are sure of ourselves, are we not?  We swore the earth was flat until we found out it was round.  Even after that, we thought spacetime itself was flat, until we proved that it was curved.  Longer still we thought the universe was infinite, until Albert “I-Did-All-the-Math-Without-Any-Help-From-My-Wife-Cough-Cough” Einstein told us that the universe was, on the contrary, FINITE.  That brings us up to date, leaving only the question du jour:  What is the shape of the multiverse?

Strawberry shape, no doubt.  Each parallel universe with its very own protuberance.  Please don’t ask how we know.  Farmers just know things.  There’s the Old Farmers’ Almanac, for example, which has delivered flawless weather forecasts since 1792, a full 113 years before Einstein man-splained us with relativity brainbenders like:  The faster you move through space, the slower you move through time.  Whoa.

Truth is, no matter how slow YOU are moving through time, the strawberries are totally hightailing it – the season will go POOF in about a week.  In 2018 the strawberries were kicked by about July 5th.  So come pick your own peck soon.  But what is a peck, you ask?  (Aside:  This Fresh Crop Alert brought to you by the yellow Go Finger Lakes sticker on the pole shown above.)

A peck is 8 quarts.  It is almost as big as a kid.  Pick a peck for 33% off.  A peck is 8 quarts and a quart is $7.  That would make a peck $56 in flat spacetime.  But for Farmketeers – intrepid travelers on the twisty Riemannian manifold of relativity theory – your peck will only be $38!  Thus you will save $18 simply by picking a peck of berries in the multiverse.  Works out to about $4.75 a quart.  The volume discount kicks in at a peck, so you’ve got to come ready to pick.  But what to do with 8 quarts?

Perfect for snacking, baking, blending, preserving, and sharing.  Like these strawberry lilac cream puffs by @aras_jasmine.  These extraordinary bon bons are her “go-to pâte à choux filled with lilac whipped cream and @indiancreekfarmithaca strawberries macerated with fresh lilac-infused sugar.”  Yummmmm mmmm mmmm mmm.  Mmmmm.  Mm.

2019 debut of the cider slushee!  Get a freebie slushee if you cycle to the farm this weekend!  People who pedal deserve a biker’s bonus.  After you pick a peck of strawberries into your panniers, fuel up for the ride home with apple power.

Donuts every Saturday and Sunday 11:00 to 5:00.  The Mark II Donut Robot knows how to do ONE thing in life – pump out toroidal frybombs of fructotic splendor.  Sprinkle yours with cinnamon sugar or eat them “neat.”

Apple cider, “Orchard Ambrosia,” Nectar of the Gods, er, Dogs.  Yes, we still have the last apples of last harvest – “keepers” as they call them, apples that store well.  And we’re pressing them into cider til it’s gone.  It’s October in June.  But don’t be scared.  It’s still just June.  But only for a few days.

Garlic scapes.  Farmer Greg’s savory specialty.  About 96.4% of you (up from 94.3% in last week’s estimate) have never tasted garlic scapes.  You can’t parade around the Finger Lakes acting all locavore foodie if you haven’t sizzled these in a pan or pickled them for off-season snacks.  Scape season is short!  Try a tangle.  (Pictured with basil which will be picking soon.)

Blueberries.  Here at the farm stand.  Ready to take home.  They might be good smushed into a donut hole.  Or slathered up on waffles with sliced strawberries.  Your choice.

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

FARM FANS:  We have about 2 weeks to Make America Strawberry Again.  No, it’s not because the Orange One will raise his pumpkinny pennant over the Very White House on July 4 and declare victory over democracy – that quaint little relic of a bygone epoch.  It’s simply that all the strawberries will be picked by around Independence Day, when, as luck would have it, we will be celebrating our collective escape from the madness of a bygone tyrant who propounded his own most dubious tax package.  (A fellow who could never be jailed for obstruction or taking “oppo” intel from foreign agents because he was an actual real-life KINGGGG.)

Anyway, 33% off pick-a-peck strawberries.  Just in case the new federal tax plan hasn’t trickled down to your level yet, don’t worry.  You can get ahead of the 1% by saving 33% on berries.  Come pick your own peck.  A peck is 8 quarts.  A quart is $7.  That would make a peck $56 in normal numbers.  But not for Farmketeers!  Pick your own peck for only $38!  Thus you will save $18.  Works out to about $4.75 a quart.  The volume discount kicks in at a peck, so you’ve got to come ready with a can-do attitude.  If you don’t know what to do with 8 quarts… share berries with your neighbors and best frenemies.  They will think you thought of them without being prompted.  (Old farmer trick.)

Jam special:  Get super-ripe strawberries (prepicked) for only $5/quart while supplies last.  Farmer Alice sent a last-minute text before newsletter time.  Said there’s berries that got slightly overripe with all the sitting around on rainy days waiting for fairweather pickers.  Perfect for jam sessions.  You don’t have to pick these berries.  We got em ready for ye.

Rhubarb.  Goes with strawberries to make pie.  Everyone should know that by now but we won’t say “duh” since everybody can’t know everything.  Garrison Keillor – erstwhile monarch of the radio variety show – used to sing about strawberry-rhubarb pie.  But allegedly he got too “handsy” so the tune is fading.  He and Uncle Biden should chat about personal touching policies in their folksy schticks.  Someone could write that one-act play.  A Prairie Home President?

Donuts are back and better than ever.  The Mark II Donut Robot started last weekend with a clang-blang-and-a-whimper, but now she’s pumping out cidericious frybombs with aplomb.  Every Saturday and Sunday 11:00 to 5:00.  Sprinkle yours with SIN-amon sugar or eat them unadulterated.

Apple cider, “Orchard Ambrosia,” Nectar of the Gods, er, Dogs.  Yes, surprise, surprise.  We still have the last apples of last harvest – “keepers” as they call them, apples that store well.  And we’re pressing them into cider til it’s gone.  It’s like October in June.  But don’t be scared.  It’s still just June.

Blueberries at the stand.  None for u-pick, just packed and ready for taking home.  They might be good smushed up on your donuts.  Or ganged up on waffles with strawbs.

Garlic scapes.  These are Farmer Greg’s savory specialty.  About 94.3% of you have never tasted garlic scapes.  You can’t parade around town acting all foodie if you haven’t sizzled these in a pan or pickled them for off-season munchings.  Scape season is short.  Try a tangle.  (Pictured with basil.)

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

BELOVED FARMKETEERS:  Aloha from Strawberristan!  Where daiquiris flow like smoothies at a Malibu day spa the morning after Oscar night.  Where they flow, indeed, like Ithaca rain on opening weekend of farm season.

Which is now.  Yes, the farm is open and you can pick your own strawberries.  Yesterday was a strawberry social sneak with early birds plucking the first juicy berries in a steady rain.  Truth be told there were fruit fanatics who showed up on Wednesday, 10 minutes after the Facebook post went live, even though the post said we’re opening Thursday.  These were snappy digital natives, no doubt, who reminded us with their actions and not their Snapchats that overachievement trumps reading comprehension 10 times out of 9.  To the rulebreakers go the spoils!  But you have to work for it:  Strawberries are u-pick only; we won’t have any stocked at the stand just yet.

Today and this weekend, the soft launch of berry season continues.  There will be strawberries to pick most days for the next couple weeks, but you really won’t know how many til you get here.  That’s just how it works.  Depends on sunny days and how many pickers beat you to the patch.  Determined pickers will look under the leaves and at the far end of the rows where the crowds don’t go.  For this first weekend, since the crop is just getting started, there probably won’t be enough ripe berries for bulk pickers to gobble up buckets and buckets, so the bulk discounts won’t start til probably next week.  That will help leave berries for lots of different people who are eager to start farm season.  Please come pick any day, and you can go to the playground if you get bored or can’t find the exact number of berries you had convinced yourself you needed.

Top crop for many of you is donuts.  You can get them every 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.

Scapes and slushees are here.  Wash down your donuts with tart cherry 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’ll be open 7 days a week – that means every day for you AP math whizzes – til Novemberish.  That also means a parade of bountiful new crops, Goddess willing The ‘Creek don’t rise.  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.  But do come soon, for “Mox nox in rem” – let’s get on with things, the night is coming.  Summer is short; winter WILL come.  Just saying.  Now starts the harvest.

Among all these firsts – strawberries and donuts – we also have a last:  Our farewell to Professor Dave. 

This spring our dear friend passed away.  Many of you know Dave from his days at the farm stand, where he chose to spend so much of his time among friends, cracking jokes and helping with the daily circus of agribusiness.  But most of you probably did not know that Our Dave was a renowned classicist, author of books on Latin prose and poetry, an award-winning teacher of a perennially packed course on Greek mythology.

We would feel honored if you took a moment to read Dave’s obituary in the Cornell Chronicle which begins, “Classics scholar David Mankin, beloved by Cornell students for his inspiring and idiosyncratic teaching style, compassionate mentorship and the signature black sunglasses he wore to class…”  Well, that’s our Dave – truly an original and a genuine ‘Creeknik forever.

The story makes a weighty point about Dave’s influence on the humanities:  “Dave Mankin’s knowledge of Latin authors and scholarship was superb, and he was strongly committed to undergraduate teaching; students took his classes in droves, and recommended them to their friends,” said Hunter R. Rawlings III, Cornell president emeritus and professor emeritus of classics.  “In this era of declining enrollments in humanities courses, Dave Mankin countered the trend with remarkable success.”

In the citation for a Distinguished Teaching Award, students admired his, “vast knowledge and erudition, his humor and easy-going manner, and his concern for students’ problems.”

Each of us at the farm has her own stories about Dave, stories of humor and generosity.  Farmer Steve wanted you to know that we will be having a small memorial this Sunday; if any of you knew Dave and wanted to attend, please send an email to stephentcummins@gmail.com for details.

Thanks for all the laughs, Dave. 

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.

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