Indian Creek Farm

DEAR ‘CREEKNIKS:  Donald J., Professor Emeritus of Trump University College of Law, teaches us that he has “complete power to pardon” himself and his family.  He failed to mention that YOU have the complete power to impeach.

That’s right – impeachment is not a power of the Congress.  Only you have the power to impeach yourself and your family.  Simply come to the farm to GET IMPEACHED!  The second wave of ripe juicy fruits is here.  You cleaned us out last week but the trees keep on giving.  As with all crops, peaches are first come, first git.  Commence bumrush.

Sunday Garlic Party 10 AM to 5 PM – Please come pick your own garlic on Sunday.  Join us for the first harvest event of the season where you can pick a few heads for fun with the kids or harvest enough to store for the whole year.  You’ll get volume discounts.  It is a day of easygoing activities with free classes, games, and garlicky snacks.  Free face painting.  Free admission.  The farm will be open for normal picking and shopping.  Facebook event listing, Ithaca Events listing.

Your Sunday Garlic Party Host – Greg has been tending the crop to get ready for the big day.  Here he is after picking the first hundred heads for next year’s seed and biking it down to beat the storm.  It will hang from the rafters of the barn where it gets good air flow from the wind but is safely out of the rain!  Thus the cure will cure.  Greg will teach free classes on Sunday including Garlic Growing and Storage 101 (11 AM), Kids Pesto Making (1 PM), and Medicinal Effects of Garlic (4 PM).  See the Facebook event listing, Ithaca Events listing.

“Donuts.  Are.  Going.  To.  Happen.”  That is Farmer Steve’s bold prophecy of the week.  Behind the bluster, it is a quivering metaphysical kind of statement – dozens of factors could conspire to make a liar out of our oracle.  But donuts don’t depend on weather, so that helps the odds.  Served fresh Saturday and Sunday, presumably starting around 10 AM.

Berry update – Look what an enterprising family scored last week, and what a picturesque shabby-chic picking box.  This week, raspberries are sputtering.  Time to lower expectations.  Still there but you have to earn them.  Strawberries will continue as before:  hunt and you will find them scattered throughout the surprise field.

Raspberry peach perfection – Oh, gosh, a double whammy of farm fresh food whupped into a dessert for days.  Inspired locavore baking by @aurora.rey, Femme Farmketeer and lesbian romance novelist.  Bon appe-peach!

Pristine apples – Time to pick these terrific apples.  Come on, folks.  Don’t be predictable and wait til September to pick apples.  These Pristines are not red but they are blushing with summer buzz.  A good-eating gift before the dawn of August.

Big Old Farm Cat Adopts Little New Farm Cat – You can binge watch 4 episodes of Season 1 right here.  Each episode lasts about 2 seconds.  Ready go.  Episode 1, “The Lick.”

Episode 2 – “The Wink.”

Episode 3 – “The Bath Gets Serious.”

Episode 4 – “The Final Nuzzle.”

Dead tree good for baby porcupine!  Amanda Moshier, Manager of Animal Collections at Cayuga Nature Center, called the farm this week with an unusual inquiry:  Did we have any freshly dead fruit trees to feed Sir Pokesalot?  Watch this positively cherubic young porcupine chew into the tender cambium of a recently fallen peach tree.  Too much fruit hurts his tummy, but the fibrous treestuff is his favorite meal.  Thank you, Amanda and Pokesy, maybe you two could visit the farm one day this fall?  Kids would loveeeee it.

Free stuff – That’s your Fresh Crop Alert for the weekend of July 29, 2017.  But you can have a fresh crop alert on your car FOREVER.  Please stick one of these on something.  We have 2,000 of them sitting around here.  See you at Farmer Greg’s Sunday Garlic Party?  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  You know what time it is.  It’s THAT time.  The one day every year when you let the barnyard beasts host open mic on your family heirloom instruments.

Do we hear The Hen of Plenty?!  Why yes we do!  Archie is smashing the keys in a bombastic rendition of The Chickucopia, official theme song of Indian Creek Farm, trumpeting the dawn of picking season proper and the promise of abundant harvest.

And, yes, that means peaches are ready to pick.  Did you think we might lose the whole crop again this year?  Even a broken clock is right twice a day.  Peach farming feels like that.  Roll the dice enough times and eventually you’ll get a yield.  Lady Luck blew us a kiss in 2017.  America’s peach basket got no such PDA.  So come pick.  First come, first get.  ‘Creekniks are going to bumrush the place.  There will be successive waves of ripening, and hopefully enough for all.

Raspberries are picking, too.  Some of you who follow our Facebook and Instagram updates have already scored big in the first wave.  There are many ripening with each sunny day.

Enterprising pickers know to look under the leaves.  Farmketeer of the Week, @mariellenbrown, passed this wisdom to the next generation, teaching her lad the “hike” technique.  If you come back to the farm stand with a frown saying, “There’s no more berries,” we will simply say, “Hike.”  That means go back and look under the leaves.  Prickly, though!  Prickly raspberry canes… prickly farmers!

A surprise crop of strawberries is yours to mine.  Farmer Greg and crew planted 20,000 plants this spring, expecting to harvest in Spring 2018.  But a few dozen quarts of earlybirds have popped, to the delight of farmer and farm fan.  Priced the same as raspberries so you can mix and match.

First apples of the year… Yellow Transparent.  Are they any good?  Could a July apple be worth picking?  Farmer Steve, lifelong orchard veteran, puts it plain:  “They actually taste good this year.”  That’s a text message you can take to the bank.  He doesn’t bullsh-t by text on the permanent digital record.

— FARM BUZZ —

THINGS HAVE COME TO PASS since last we spoke.  In the inexorable flow of the eternal “time being” we have bid adieu to cherished beings on the farm.  We bring you this news of happenings from the off-season.  None of this is fake news.  It is pretty darn real.

The Queen is dead:  We have entered the interregnum.  (Good word, look it up!)  Tundra has gone to chase deer out of the Elysian Fields, where she remains on duty and all business forever.  We thank you, Tundra, for your service.  And we thank you, Farm Fans, for your kind comments on social media when we first announced Tundra’s passing.

The Prince, too, has reported for duty in Elysium.  Balto was always on the work site, always on the beat.  Jazz music has been described as musician’s music.  Balto was the thinking dog’s dog.  Brilliant and complex with impeccable — if occasionally inscrutable — timing.

Natasha has nuzzled her way to heaven.  Hesiod wrote of the “honey-sweet fruit” that grows three times a year on the Elysian Plain, nourishing the blessed.  Honey-sweet Natasha.

Last week we welcomed a kitten.  A pint-sized Canadian import.  Say hello to Féfé, short for Felina.

In honor of friends old and new, and because we have a sh!t-ton of garlic to pick, we are having a U-Pick Garlic Harvest Party, Sunday, July 30, from 10 AM to 5 PM.  Free admission, free garlicky games, free garlicky snacks, free garlicky classes.  You can pick your own garlic (it’s super easy) with volume discounts and the farm will be open for a normal u-pick day.  Now don’t expect a full-on Pigs-n-Apples kind of bonanza.  More like a pokey little community event for picking and whatnot.  All details on the Facebook event listing.

Finally, the newest addition to the farm family.  Say hello to Nancy.  She is such a tool.  In fact, this past week she was the most important tool on the farm.  Nance marked the spot where each new post was to be pounded for the revitalized pagan party palace formerly known as Stumphenge.  We will invite you to beta test “The Henge” soon.  Meanwhile it will be great to welcome you all back to the farm for summer picking.  Thank you for reading this bona fide covfefe from the farm newsdesk.  We had some catching up to do.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

FAITHFUL FARMKETEERS:  We celebrate the apple.  We lean and loaf at our ease, crunching and munching on mutsus.  And we wonder aloud, “What shall we send to our loved ones?  How shall we say Happle Holidays?”

We shall ship them boxes.  Heirloom Harvest Apple Boxes!  Each package is an exotic orchard to-go, full of special varieties that you won’t find in the grocery store.  Even the Primal Apple Pusher in Paradise never dreamed of Cox’s Orange Pippin or Ashmead’s Kernel.  Tempt your friends to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and bad apples.  See photos and details and order now for shipping by Xmas.  New – You can now ship to California and Arizona!  And all states red or blue.  Even spray-tan orange.

ORDER YOUR BOXES

Freshly lopped Brussels sprouts.  You can get them at the farm stand every day.  We’ve moved inside the double doors.

$20 squash sale.  Fill a reusable farm bag with all the squash you can fit for only $20.  4 kinds of squash.  Keep the bag.

We are still pressing cider weekly.  Trying to go a couple more weeks, but the supply will evaporate without warning.

We are still filling carboys.  Drop off your jugs with your name and number.  We’ll fill and call you.  Don’t wait.

You can still get apples at the stand.  Value bags of mutsus and the last spies.  Mutsus are the most versatile apple ever.

Don’t hoard the apples – send to friends and family!  Order apple gift boxes now for shipping by the winter holidays.  You can see photos and details here.  Order online at our sister site, Cummins Nursery:

ORDER YOUR BOXES

Speaking of giving season… We would gently urge you to consider supporting the Finger Lakes Land Trust.  They are a great nonprofit here in Ithaca.  Almost 19,000 acres of lakes, farms, and forests are protected – forever – by the Land Trust.  You can hike 32 nature preserves that are free and open to everyone.  Did you know that Indian Creek Farm is protected by a conservation easement that will keep it in farmland forever?  Well, the Land Trust protects small farms like ours.  You can chip in to their campaign and help them advance an ambitious slate of 2017 conservation projects.  Every gift helps, $25, $50… and a generous family will match your new gifts.  Thanks for supporting local, place-based organizations like the farm and the Land Trust.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

GENTLE ‘CREEKNIKS:  You have no idea how bleeping good it is.  Roasted acorn squash is some bleepety bleep squash.

You simply cut it in half and roast it face-down.  Acorn squash is a naturally sweet food.  You don’t even need those fancy recipes with honey and cinnamon.  The edges will caramelize on the pan.  But a farmer’s secret:  Wait til it cools down, scoop out the flesh, form it into patties, and fry it in a pan!  Holy smokes it becomes a savory-sweet pancake affair.  Add sea salt and chow down.  Dip in chipotle?

A Facebook Farmketeer recently wrote:  “What is a carnivale squash?”  We had just been talking about this heady topic by the woodstove.  Farmer Ly offered her genetic theory:  “When an acorn squash and a delicata squash have a love child, they usually get a carnivale squash.  But it has to be love.”  You can really see it in this picture — left squash plus right squash yields middle squash.  Good looking kids.

You can load up on the 4-squash harvest.  Fill a reusable Indian Creek bag with all the squashes you can cram in there for only $20.  Keep the bag.  This is our Black Friday sale but announced on Wednesday night.  So it is our Red Wednesday Night sale.  Going til further notice.  We are still open every day.  You can swing through for 11th-hour Thanksgiving supplies, or any time on the long weekend.

Sprouts in the wok with bacon and nuts.  If you can name a more nutritious food, good for you.

We are still pressing cider.  It freezes great.  The reason we keep telling you this is:  The cider season will end soon.  We will run out of apples.  If you love Orchard Ambrosia, you can buy it now, freeze it, and crack it open down the line.  Once we’re out of apples, we’re talking August 2017.

We still have apples.  You won’t find them outside because the stand has moved indoors.  Come in the double doors and poke around the modest winter display.

And you can order Apple Gift Boxes for delivery by the winter holidays.  You can see photos and details here.

These enterprising folks from the Cornell Food Recovery Network took 601 pounds of apples, squash, and pumpkins from the farm to be distributed through their partners at the Friendship Donations Network.  In that sharing spirit, hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  There are more kinds of psychotherapy than there are dubious critters in the U.S. Congress.  You got cognitive behavioral therapy, humanistic therapy, rational emotive therapy, group therapy.  Psychoanalysis.  Even retail therapy.

We are licensed to practice donut therapy.  In response to recent events, we have extended our office hours to include this Saturday and Sunday.  Serving fresh donuts from 10 to 5.  Everyone is welcome.  The donut does not discriminate.  The farm does not hate.

This pear tree has not heard about the election.  It is still shiny and resplendent and hopeful.  Truth is, the trees in our Vintage Orchard don’t have much to say about the POTUS, FLOTUS, or SCOTUS.  They’ve stood here quietly for a hundred years through presidents and wars and scandals.  Politicians come and go; agendas get washed away.  The trees make fruit through it all.  The latest poll of everyone on the farm crew predicts that this pear tree will be here in 4 years.

The farm is a melting pot.  Over 75 kinds of apples grow in the orchard.  Some are sweet and mellow.  Some are tart and edgy.  Some have grown here for a century.  Some are newcomers.  Each one adds its unique energy.  Every one matters.  Picking is basically kicked for the season, but you can treasure hunt for Rome Beauties.  A few hang on the trees.  Overall a great crop this year.  Thanks for picking it clean.

Cold War apples are on sale at the stand.  You can take home a whole bag of hand-picked Red Spies for less than the price of a Foreigner album during the ’80s.

Cider still flows.  Each week we are pressing fresh Orchard Ambrosia.  You can drink it here and take jugs home.  It is GREAT for freezing – the season will end soon so buy more than you need.  Later thaw out a jug for an off-season treat.

Bring your carboys.  We filled a bunch for people this week.  It is unpasteurized Orchard Ambrosia which you can get at a volume discount:  only $6/gallon (5-10 gallons) and $5/gallon (over 10 gallons).  Leave your carboys with your name and number.  We will fill them and give you a ring.

Brussels sprouts.  You probably pronounce it “Brussel sprouts” without the middle s.  That’s okay.  That’s just how you say it.  There are many other people who say it like you.  We won’t blame broader problems on people who drop that s.  There is no ‘capegoating on the farm.

Apple gift boxes.  You can order online starting next week for delivery in time for Thanksgiving and winter holidays.  Stay tuned for a special newsletter next week and place your orders before we sell out.  We only have enough of the specimen apples for a couple hundred boxes.  Lovely gift of Finger Lakes food.

What are we doing now?  We’re in the nursery.  Time to dig 40,000 baby fruit trees.  Store them in the barn for the winter.  Ship them in the spring to backyard growers and professional orchardists around these… United… States.

Rhode Island Greening?  What about Wisconsin Redding?!  Michigan Bluewallbusting?!  Annyyyywayyy, back to business.

The farm is still open every day 10 to 5 til further notice.  Come keep Amanda company by the woodstove.  Today she is reading Still Life with Woodpecker, which might add some dimension to your thoughts about the election:  “There are two kinds of people in this world:  Those who believe there are two kinds of people in this world and those who are smart enough to know better.”

A few more timely nuggets from Woodpecker:

“If you’re honest, you sooner or later have to confront your values.  Then you’re forced to separate what is right from what is merely legal.  This puts you metaphysically on the run.  America is full of metaphysical outlaws.”

“Often… it is that aspect of our being that society finds eccentric, ridiculous, or disagreeable, that holds our sweet waters, our secret well of happiness, the key to our equanimity in malevolent climes.”

“Tunnel vision is caused by an optic fungus that multiplies when the brain is less energetic than the ego.  It is complicated by exposure to politics.”

Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

LOYAL FARMKETEERS, welcome to the 2016 Presidential Election Issue of Crop Alerts & Farm Buzz.  In our country of 320 million people, it has boiled down (some might say melted down) to two individuals.  Two out of 320,000,000.  And soon to be one.  One to lead us all.  One cursed apple from the whole blessed orchard.

It’s preposterous!  When you ‘Creekniks — you lovely and diverse ‘Creekniks — come picking at The ‘Creek, we don’t say, “You have to elect one apple.  You have to pick one apple from this whole orchard.  And that apple might not even like your kind of people.  But you have to keep that apple on your collective kitchen counter til 2021.”

On the contrary, you can pick as many apples as you want.  But there is one rule:  You can’t stop time.  And the clock is ticking.  This week is almost certainly your last chance to pick Mutsu apples and Rome Beauty apples.  Only a few trees left.  First come, first get.  Ready… go.

Same deal with donuts.  You don’t have to elect just one.  You can buy bag after bag.  But this weekend is probably your last chance til next autumn.  We’re leaning toward shutting down the donut factory on Sunday at 5 PM.

Orchard Ambrosia!  We are still pressing fresh cider every week.  Get your gallons and half-gallons.  Might only have a few more weeks of cider.

Here is one way to extend your season:  Fill your carboys with bulk cider.  This is unpasteurized Orchard Ambrosia which you can get for only $5/gallon (5-10 gallons) or $4/gallon (over 10 gallons).  Just leave your carboys with your name and number.  We will fill at our next pressing and give you a ring.  Then you can make winter hooch.

Another way to extend your fresh-food feels:  Make sauce from apples you pick or buy at the stand.  Mix and match, blend and boil.  @mapleandmatcha

A few other things to pick while they last:  delicata squash, last hot and bell peppers, Brussels sprouts.  You can also get squash, sprouts, apples, pears and more at the stand.

Yes, folks, time to pick the crops clean.  Local food is precious.  You all did a good job on the pumpkins.  Just a few left from the THOUSANDS we planted.  These stragglers will go to The Piggery pigs.  Nobody cares about pumpkins after October 31.  @arstephens18

Yes, the seasons are really turning in the Finger Lakes foodshed.  We are still open every day 10 AM til 5 PM.  After this Sunday, it will be dark by 5 PM anyway.  @gregdov

Rain or shine, the farm is open daily.  We are here at the stand or doing chores around the farm.  You might find Amanda warming her magic potions on the woodstove, such as this “Golden Milk,” a healing brew featuring turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, honey, coconut, black pepper, ginger…  @redbearbotanica

Well, Dear Farmketeers, by the time of our next crop alert, there will be a new POTUS electus.  It is a messy business choosing one person to lead us all.  Not the 1%, but the 1 PERSON, or 0.0000003125% of the population.  When we farmers get bogged down in the heady math of politics, we look to Zorro to break things down for us.  He does not disappoint.  His single word of wisdom for today:  “Foooooood.”   Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  Abra cadabra… Harrius doublus!  Poof, now you have twice as much Harry Potter.  This Saturday and Sunday, the farm will be pottering proper.  (If you can’t bear to hear more about that snide little pagan Potter, skip to slide #3 below where we report on the crops.)

Saturday DOWNTOWN – We will return to Diagon Alley downtown as Ithaca is overrun by wizards, warlocks, sorcerers, magi, and enchanters of all ages.  Find our booth with the bubbling copper cauldron.  Meanwhile the farm will be OPEN, so if you want your fresh cider served free of amateur hexes and wayward wandsparks, you can escape to The ‘Creek.

Sunday AT THE FARM – Wizarding Weekend 2.0 sees an expansion of the global franchise to scattered locations including the farm.  Join us for a special Sunday called “Happy Harryween” when you can catch free rides on the Hogwart’s Express (see wagon in beta trial), a free puppet show (2 PM), pumpkin carving, apple picking, and more.  FEEL FREE TO WEAR YOUR HALLOWEEN COSTUMES.  Not just wizards.  That snide little parseltongued pagan Harry Potter did not invent Halloween and we won’t let him steal it.  All freakniks and ‘Creekniks are welcome.  Activities run 10 AM to 6 PM.  Rain or shine!  The usual Sunday crops and donuts will be available… see below.

Apple Picking – This weekend could be the last hurrah for apple picking.  It is prime time to get your haul of classic late season varieties:  Mutsu, Rome Beauty, and Red Delicious.  Please help us pick the orchard clean and make good use of this year’s crop, which turned out half-decent despite complete loss of the peaches, plums, and apricots.

Make Pie – Turns out Mutsu is a brilliant pie apple.  Also delicious when eaten out of hand, but a professional performer in pies.  Just ask your high-scoring neighborhood locavore.

Pumpkin Sale #1 – We must find a home for every pumpkin by Halloween.  Pick any 5 pumpkins for $20!  Any size.  Any patch on the farm.  Everyone is so worried about Harry Potter’s cruddy living conditions under the staircase, but Harry Potter DOESN’T EVEN EXIST.  These pumpkins are real and they need a home.  Please come pick.

Pumpkin Sale #2 – Stuff one of our new (cute + pretty) red bags full of pumpkins for only $12.  You keep the bag.  You WILL get complements on these reusable bags.  They’re not green like Greenstar or black like Wegman’s.  Splashy red!

Donuts – Still serving 10 AM to 6 PM on Saturday and Sunday.  Attention donut-fiends:  This could be the last weekend of donuts.  To be determined after Halloween.  November is next week.  Things will start to fizzle down.

Cider – Fresh and tasty, crisp and local.  We pick apples and pears; we squeeze the juice; we bottle it.  Nothing fancy.  Just good.  Served hot and cold on the weekend.  Available in jugs daily.  Pressed fresh a couple times a week.  Freezes great.

Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant – By the time you get this Fresh Crop Alert, the summer veggies might not be so fresh.  Cold nights and possible ice pellets will wither the remaining tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.  Pick them for $1/pound.  Ask about our secret rows when you get to the stand.

Brussels Sprouts – Get them on the stalk.  As old-fashioned as it gets.  Once upon a time everyone grew these in their yards.  Now it’s a novelty to see sprouts on the stalk.  Special deal:  Buy sprouts, pluck them off the stalk, and you are left with a big green magic wand.  Wave it over the wok when you stir-fry the sprouts with bacon or facon.

Squashes – It’s a squashy time of year.  Butternut, delicata, acorn, and carnival/dumpling.  Eating squash recipes on fall nights can warm the very heart.  Secret tip:  Add crumbles of feta cheese when serving butternut squash soup.  Another:  Add crumbles of feta cheese to baked delicata rings-n-onions.

See You in Wizardland – Both Potter parties are rain or shine.  Come dressed to play and pick.  Costumes encouraged.  Help us harvest pumpkins.  Pick apples.  Still open every day til dark.  Watch the Hogwart’s Express in prototyping trials.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

EVERY HARVEST SEASON, foodies come out of their kitchens to kibbitz in Franglish (terroir, anyone?) and gossip about pairings.  “This booze gels with that bologna.  This Velveeta shines with that saltine.”  It’s a heady business.  If you can stomach it.  But it didn’t start with the millenials.

“Pumpkines Payre withe Pumpkines” – In her legendary medieval tome, The Locavore’s Cornucopia, Madame d’Veg (1066-1199 C.E.) suggested pairings which were considered outrageous in her day, but they show prescience on a par with the great Nostradamus.  Her boldest claim:  Pumpkins pair with pumpkins.  We are honoring that notion, one millenium later, with a 5-for-$20 sale on pumpkins!  ANY SIZE!  Pick 5 pumpkins for $20.  Pick yours in any patch on the farm.

“Orange Gourds Do Goe withe Red Bags” – Even the doyenne de gastronomie could not have foreseen our Dozen Dollar Pumpkin Pack.  Or could she?!  Did she?!  In her honor, you can fill our new red bag with pumpkins for just $12.  Keep the bag.  That’s the whole point.  It’s reusable.  Duh.  Get with the zeitgeist, people!  Reduce, reuse, re-apple.

“Apple Pycking and Familie Time” – Friends and families wandering the orchards.  Just as it was in the middle ages.  Except cellphones have improved.  And the apples are different.  But same idea.  Now picking:  Mutsu, Red Spy, Splendour, Cortland, Red Delicious, Rome Beauty.  This is the LAST WAVE of apples for this season!  Come pick now!  Cute photo from loyal ‘Creekniks @hookedproductions.

“Bigge Green Apples withe Artisticke Humours” – Mutsus are those big, green, crisp, honey-sweet apples famed since yesteryear for their versatility.  Great for eating fresh, baking pies, and, if you are an advanced Farmketeer, making bunnies.  And it’s vegetarian and no bunnies harmed.

“Fresh Cidre with Olyve Tapenade” – Here the lady bridges antiquity and modernity.  Says that our classically minded Orchard Ambrosia is best paired with olive paste from Athenian orchards, ideally aged at least 2,000 years.

“Donuts and Weekendes” – Long before the weekend was a thing, and eons before the communists turned it into like a human right, Our Lady of What-Goes-With-What predicted that fresh cider donuts would be the perfect complement to your Saturday and Sunday routine.  Served 10 to 6 PM.

“Payres Payre with Crisping” – You can choose from our panoply of pears at the farm stand, take ’em home, slice ’em up, toss ’em in the oven at 225° and forget about ’em.  Hours later, a beautiful guilt-free snack.  Shown:  Shenandoah pear crisps.

“Squashes and Onyons” –  If there ever was a tough-skinned vegetable with delicate insides, it’s the delicata squash.  They don’t store well and you can really only get them now.  ‘Tis the season, ’tis delicious.  Sear with onions.  Sprinkle with feta?  Also still picking in the vegetable fields:  some peppers (hot and bell), plenty of eggplant (but ask about our secret row if you want classic rather than Japanese eggplant), just a few cherry and heirloom tomatoes.  Plus Brussels sprouts and several kinds of winter squashes.  Make soups and stuff.

“Orchardes and Magyck” – Yes, we will return to Wizarding Weekend at Press Bay Alley on Saturday, Oct 29.  But this year we will also have a special day (Wizardween?  Potter Party?) at the farm on Sunday, Oct 30, 10 to 6 PM, in celebration of the dark arts.  You can catch the Hogwart’s Express (wagon rides), see a free puppet show at 2 PM, and get pumpkins, apples, donuts, cider, caramel apples, and more.  Basically a normal fun Sunday at the farm with a few magical extras and YOU SHOULD TOTALLY WEAR YOUR HALLOWEEN COSTUME TO TEST IT OUT.  It’s kinda the last big Sunday of the fall so come join us — rain or shine!

“Paynts and Childes” – This Sunday you can pair your child with our facepainter Ella from 12 to 3 PM.  She’ll be at the farm stand turning your kids into works of art – Oh, they already ARE works of art?  Of course they are.  They’re masterpieces.  But a little paint can do wonders.  Not just for kids!

“Farmes and the Powers of Sunshyne” – Not even Nostradamus saw this one coming.  The ‘Creek is going solar!  We’re pairing our barn roof (background) with panels by our neighbors Renovus Solar (thanks for pic).  This is a big deal that will fundamentally change how the farm uses energy — and even put net juice back INTO the grid.  The installation is in progress, so just a sneak peek for now.  More news to come about this delicious pairing between the farm and Renovus.  Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

DEAR FARMKETEERS:  The changing light of autumn focuses the brain.  Simplifies the message.  Distills the plan.  Time to pick apples.  Time to pick pumpkins.  Both are abundant and ready for you.  Distractions can wait.  The harvest won’t.  Please come pick and play.

Pumpkin Sale Continues – The new red bags are a hit and so is the All-You-Can-Pack Pumpkin Sale.  For $12, you can fill a red farm bag with pumpkins and keep the bag.  You can mix and match pumpkin sizes.  Squeeze ’em in.  It’s like 3-D Tetris.  We had somebody get 28 pounds of pumpkins in there.

Triple Pumpkin Patch – The big mama pumpkin patch had babies.  Now you can find your pumpkins in 3 places on the farm.  Every pumpkin left behind will be meaningless on October 32nd, so please come pick.  Watch a few moments of last week’s frenzy.

New This Week — Mutsu Apples Open!  These are big beautiful apples that look like a pumpkin crossed with Golden Delicious.  Our English double agents say, “One of its parents is Golden Delicious so it has that lovely sweet honeyed flavour.  It cooks superbly too and the women picking them in our local orchard used to call them ‘oven busters’ — take a big one home and bake it and you have a feast for two — and you don’t need many for a deep apple pie.”  We all love Mutsu season.

New This Week – Other Apples!  The stand is stocked with dozens of varieties.  A rare chance to explore apples you won’t find at the supermarket.  Now open for u-pick:  Red Spy, Spigold, Cortland, and Winecrisp.  Plus Mutsu, of course.

Fresh Donuts & Crisp Cider – Did you know?  Our fresh Orchard Ambrosia contains apples and pears (nothing else!), so our apple cider donuts are really PEAR-APPLE DONUTS.  Mmmmm hmmm.  Get yours on Saturday and Sunday 10 AM to 6 PM.  Hot and cold cider available every day.

A Muffin of Pears – Yesterday turned brighter when Amanda Farmstanda delivered a single gluten-free ginger-pear muffin (burnt slightly upon the bottom, truth be told) baked with hand-picked pears from The ‘Creek.  Right at snack time.  Just saying.  You can’t buy these here.  But you can bake ’em.

Last Veggies of the Year? – A frenetic picking session at dusk saved these San Marzanos from a possible frost.  Turns out the rest of the crop survived the night.  But Allie says, “There are still bell and hot peppers, eggplant, and a few tomatoes.  Threat of a frost Friday night, so they might be frost-damaged by the weekend.”  Come pick now!

Veggie Frenzy – See crowds of ‘Creekniks scoring tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants last weekend.  You’ve been warned, Farmketeers!  Come git.  Don’t wait.  It’s the ninth inning for vegetables.  Except Brussels Sprouts.  They’re looking great!

How to Make an Apple Shiny Without Grocery Store Shellacs or Waxes — Amanda Farmstanda (not the one who burnt the muffin) demonstrates this advanced technique.  You can practice on apples that you pick!

Farm Shirts – Yes, we are still hawking these dandy merches.  And, yes, Amanda Farmstanda (the same one who made the nummy, if burnt, muffin) still thinks the fuschia shirt is hideous.  But technically the color is called SANGRIA and isn’t it dashing on this handsome lad?  Note how it hides dirt better than the sunny yellow one.  So it’s practical, too.

Honor System Reminder – If you pick an apple, please take it home.  If you bite an apple, and you don’t like it, take it home anyway.  You can slice it up, slather it with peanut butter, mash it into sauce, or chop off the bite marks and gift it to your frenemy.  Anything is better than the heartbreaking waste of 1,000 apples thrown on the ground.  How would you like to be bitten once and thrown away?!  Be the change you want to see in the world.  Bite it, buy it.  Pretty please.

Go Big – The Mutsu Orchard is right next to the main pumpkin patch.  Both are EASY PICKING.  You can pick a peck of apples and a bag of pumpkins in 15 minutes.  And you can score BIG.  Big pumpkins.  Big fun apples.  Just look at Farmkeeter Eva.  She was like, Whoa.  High-level ‘Creekniks will ask whether that is indeed a Mutsu in the photo or rather a Spokane Beauty.  But if you’re working on that plane of apple knowledge you probably have your own orchard, so you should probably get back to work.  It’s harvest time!  To the rest of you, hope to see you at The ‘Creek.