Indian Creek Farm

The Giant 50-Cent Sale Continues and Zorro Gets a Promotion.

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Indian Creek Farm

PAUSING FOR A MOMENT between sleeping and waking, Zorro reflects on just how far his star has risen. A few short months ago, it seemed that his career had stalled. He only had a minor role on the back of the brochure.

Today his fluffy mug is featured on every bottle of Orchard Ambrosia. Congratulations, Zorro, and thanks for all your hard work.

Meanwhile, the farm is turning a corner. This is the final weekend of the Giant Apple Sale. See the poster and last week’s post for details.

Yes, deep autumn is coming around the bend. We hope you will come out and share the October weather with us—changeable, blustery, and all.

The u-pick apple sale is kind of a big deal. Biggest we’ve ever done. All 3 orchards are included. The mutsus are superabundant.

The Dward Orchard is a-dwindling, but needs pickers all the same. Don’t let these beauties drop. Pick a peck for even your worst friends at 50¢ per pound.

The Vintage Orchard is still easy picking. You’ll find Northern Spy, Red Delicious, Rome Beauty and spots of Cortland and Mac.

On a boo-hissy note, the pumpkin patch is cleaned out. All picked! But it’s a good problem to have—no waste—and we’ll grow more next year.

The Sprout Patch, on the other hand, is overflowing. Brussels sprouts are “cruciferous and nutrisherous.” You heard it here first.

We’re going to pre-shuck a bunch of stalks for you this week. When you come to the weekend sale, ask about picking your own.

Or, technically, lopping your own. Nothing like u-lop Brussels sprouts. Feel like a farmer, but quit when you want.

When you come back down to the stand, you’ll find donuts, late veggies, hot cider, and the cutest thing ever: little lunchbox apples.

Also grownup apples… Those Victorians were so naughty! Their formal facades and fancy names—Claygate, Pearmain—were surely just a cover.

Anyway, back to our top story: u-pick apples for 50¢ per pound all weekend. Thanks to local businesses like Greenstar, Oasis, Agway, Ithaca Bakery, and The Piggery for helping us announce the sale. Lots of new faces on the farm.

Come out Saturday or Sunday, October 26-27, to wander and harvest. If you come before then, just clang the clanger and we’ll magically appear.

Happy fall colors. Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

Posted in Crop Alerts & Farm Buzz | Tagged apples, country life, crops, Farm Life, Food Art, Food Photography, Food Writing, Fruits and Vegetables, Local Food, small farm, u-pick | 2 Comments

Huge U-Pick Apple Sale… Only 50¢ Per Pound… Bring Friends!

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Indian Creek Farm

LOYAL FARMKETEERS, we are going to be straight with you in this week’s Crop Alert. None of our customary gobbledygook. No cheap Photoshop pranks. Just the facts of the case, so to speak.

But first, we will ask you to don your mutsu helmets. It is that time of year. The mutsu apples are about to start jumping.

They are huge apples, and it is a huge crop. These pumpkin-sized paragons of the apple kingdom will clonk you good.

And we are already getting clonked by huge crops in the Dwarf Orchard and Vintage Orchard. So, the huge news is…

Only 50¢ per pound for u-pick apples—any variety on the farm! That is a savings of a billion percent. This weekend and next.

Why such a drastic campaign? The farm boss put it plain: “We are 10% under-customerized for our current apple crop.”

You won’t hear that in the executive wing of Apple, Inc. It is advanced farmspeak for, “A crap-ton of apples is breaking our branches!”

You all have done a superb job picking. But the historic crop can’t be shouldered by Farmketeers alone. So we’ve postered 52 places.

We are being relentless small-time apple hustlers. There are also pumpkins a-plenty, u-pick Brussels sprouts, and buckets of cider.

During the weekend sale, there will even be free wagon rides, weather permitting, from 11 AM to 5 PM.

So, if you can find an excuse to come back to our podunk ranch of misfits this weekend—and pick a big bag of apples—we will wish you glorious sunsets for the rest of your days. We’ll do that anyway, but just sayin.’ Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

Posted in Crop Alerts & Farm Buzz | Tagged apples, country life, crops, cumberland gap, farm, Farm Life, Food Art, Food Photography, Food Writing, Fruits and Vegetables, Local Food, Photos, pick your own, small farm, u-pick, vegetables | Leave a comment

Apple Picking, Pumpkin Patching, and a Special Deal for College Students.

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Indian Creek Farm

THIS WEEK, a few lucky apples and a jug of cider climbed Libe Slope for a hilltop tour of Cornell. We wanted them to get comfortable with the campus experience. They and many of their friends will say goodbye to the farm this weekend, bound for a higher education at Cornell, IC, Wells, Cortland, and other local colleges.

That’s because college students can get a 1/2-peck of u-pick apples and a 1/2-gallon of cider for just $10! Students, come wander the orchards and save a few bucks with your student ID Friday through Sunday.

Little did we know that the Spy family—Prairie Spy, Northern Spy, and Spigold—had tailed us and was hiding in the ivy. More about these dubious specimens shortly.

What’s Picking Now?

{ The weekly u-pick report. }

The Vintage Orchard is in peak form. Hundreds of trees are heavy with classic varieties, and the $24 bushel sale continues.

We need your help—find these varieties with our color coding system. Ribbons a-fluttering in the breeze.

The Dwarf Orchard is ABSOLUTELY POPPING with apples, including the Spy family in Rows 13 and 14. Grab a map and go!

These gorgeous pumpkins will be meaningless on October 32nd. Carve one soon, Halloween is round the corner.

With so many to choose from, simply find the one that speaks to you. The super-smooth friend you’ve always dreamed of, the one who makes problems vanish.

We thought about pre-carved pumpkins, but we just couldn’t modify the genes in time for planting. Maybe next year.

Down at the Stand

{ Farm treats to eat. }

Apple cider donuts are usually sizzling on weekends 10 AM to 5 PM. It’s all up to a 13-year-old wizard with a full social calendar.

The stand is like an apple fortune cookie this time of year. “SIR PRIZE! You will marry a WEALTHY SPOKANE BEAUTY with a HOLIDAY SUNTAN when you go to CORTLAND for your SWEET 16 and you will call her HONEYCRISP.”

Spokane Beauty is the She-Goliath of the apples. We fully expect her to crush the competition like our own Lewis Billy did.

But it won’t be easy. The “Rescue” pear is a titan who towers over Bartletts and other common varieties.

The stand still shows the colors of summer produce—though fall squashes are creeping in and you better act fast for tomatoes.

Farm Buzz

{ Gossip. }

Farmer Natasha caught a mouse this week. Just for a plaything. She’ll be taking a few weeks’ vacation now.

Farmer Henry learned to cut his first flowers. There are still zinnias and other u-pick flowers, but don’t wait long.

These farmer gals experimented with adaptive reuse of jute sacks. The innovation never stops in farm country.

We are happy to report that the ecosystem in the back of George Jones is flourishing. Bees, mosses, and mattresses.

And there are the Spies again, just lurking around the farm. Are they bad apples? Or are they safeguarding the fruits of democracy from shadowy figures in hoodies? “See” you at The ‘Creek.

Posted in Crop Alerts & Farm Buzz | Tagged apples, country life, crops, Farm Life, food, Food Art, Food Photography, Food Writing, Fruits and Vegetables, Local Food, Photos, pick your own, small farm, u-pick | 2 Comments

Cider Sale, Honeycrisp Sale, Mini-Pies, and Apple Butter.

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Indian Creek Farm

PLAINSPEAK this week—the picking is copacetic and the stand is cornucopic. So we’re skipping the usual nonsense like marrying berries and newscasting vegetables. Just the dope is reported below.

The turn of October means two big sales—cider and Honeycrisp—and two new desserts that you can get at the stand. Come beat the weekend crush.

We’ve pressed gobs of Orchard Ambrosia. Get a gallon for only $5 til Friday sunset. That’s 37.5% off the cover price!

Honeycrisp apples are now only $1.99 a pound, prepicked! No picking to do, just grab and go while supplies last.

The u-pick sale on Macs and Cortlands continues this week—and now includes Red Delicious (blue-ribboned trees) and Northern Spy (red ribbons).

Of course we are oozing with pumpkins. Here is one of three carving contest winners, “Zombie Squash,” by a young partygoer.

It is still early fall, but early won’t last long. Summer veggies will be shriveling like the Gorton’s Fisherhat. Pick them and “put up” now.

New Farm Treats

{ To Eat and To Wear. }

Our hot-jarred Apple Butter, brewed in giant copper kettles over open fires at the Pigs-n-Apples Party, is nondairy applicious joy.

Our pals at Underwood Bakery made 175 mini-pies for the Party. Got gobbled in hours! So they will bake some for the farm stand every day.

These limited edition treats (the shirts, not Piggery people!) are available in 7 sizes. Get your official 2013 party shirt at the stand for only 10 bucks.

Farm Buzz

{ Party Report. }

One thousand four hundred (1,400) people came to the party, give or take a few rugrats who slipped under the turnstiles.

We were semi-organized and everyone was cool about it. Sheriff gave us advice about the parking, but kids broke the speed limit in Gimme! Coffee sacks.

Some youngsters got old-school messy. Painted pumpkins prettier than store-bought dolls. Fired slingshots and corn javelins.

The grownups mixed it up, too. Pig farmers were vanquished, once again, in tug-of-war. If you go to The Piggery, tell them there’s always next year.

The home team took home another prize when our own Lewis Billy (left) took down the Piggery’s Goliath in the heavyweight title bout.

But the biggest lesson of the day was that big things come in small packages. This little treasure hunter found the Golden Apple!

A lovely mountain soundtrack rang through the orchards, courtesy of The Wide Awake String Band (Rosie Newton, fiddler) and The Andersons.

Time to thank you all for coming, and special thanks to our collaborators at The Piggery and Eve’s Cidery. Good people and good products.

Only 4 out of 1,400 people left items behind. These will be placed in the lost-and-found at the stand Thursday. Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

Posted in Crop Alerts & Farm Buzz | Tagged apples, country life, crops, farm, Farm Life, food, Food Art, Food Photography, Food Writing, Fruits and Vegetables, Local Food, Photos, small farm, u-pick | 2 Comments

A Profusion of Pickable Apples, and Particulars on the Pigs Party.

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Indian Creek Farm

THE VEGETABLES ARE PANICKING. They know it is time for the apples to shine, and they don’t want to be left on the vine.

So, they’ve been photobombing. Just to say, “We’re still here.” You can’t get an apple picture without a pepper intruding these days.

Tried to snap a portrait of these Autumn Gala, but a sweet Italian fryer nosed in. Kind of cute, but RUDE!

Have you tried Sir Prize? That is the official name of this golden beauty. Please pardon the garlics; they’ve never had social skills.

Jonagold is a New York original, a cross between mellow Golden Delicious and tart Jonathan. The pepper is acting kind of desperate, really.

Snowsweet has firm white flesh like a Cortland and doesn’t brown quickly—perfect for fruit salads. (Yes, there are fall raspberries to pick, too.)

But leave it to St. Edmund the Russet—patron saint of apple lobbyists—to retaliate on the eggplant. “‘Tis Apple season!” he cried. “Viva la manzanaaaa!”

Truly, folks, we have a jillion apples to pick. Please help us harvest Empire, Fuji, Macoun, Cortland, McIntosh, Jonagold, Snowsweet, and more.

Go forth and make pies, sauces, smoothies, and snacks. This is LAST CALL, in fact, for the pie contest at Pigs-n-Apples: Bring your pie before 2:30 on Saturday!

Farm Buzz

{ Party Prep. }

Nothing says autumn like a Pigs-n-Apples Party (Facebook). Please join us RAIN OR SHINE! Here’s how it will work…

Activities will run from noon til about 3. That will allow families to get home for dinner and whatever. But we’ll eat, drink, and be merry til whenever.

It is a whatever-whenever kind of party. Official games will wrap at 3 o’clock. The rest of the day will simply bumble along.

We’re prepping the basics. Expect us to be medium-organized. Your job is to relax. Bring your banjo if you aren’t super terrible.

Remember, we’re farmers, not party planners. And you’re not the type to go all suburby and nutso like, Why the frick is corn javelin running LATE?!

“Corn. Javelin. Same sentence.” One of our Facebook fans wrote that. Isn’t that the spirit? The party is just time to hang around together.And time to decide—will you root for PIGS or APPLES in the tug-of-war? A chance to teach your children to do the right thing. See you at The ‘Creek.

Posted in Crop Alerts & Farm Buzz | Tagged apples, country life, crops, eggplant, farm, Farm Life, food, Food Art, Food Photography, Food Writing, Fruits and Vegetables, Local Food, peppers, Photos, raspberries, Small Farms, u-pick | Leave a comment

High Apple Season Kicks Off with Empire, Fuji, Macoun and Cortland.

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Indian Creek Farm

BRITISH PEOPLE ARE such badasses. They bite into scarred and scabby apples as readily as they levy taxes on overseas colonies.

They festishize the pippins and russets and kernels. A gnarly, busted up skin is believed to reveal an Old-World flavor beneath.

Americans, by contrast, insist on the shimmering dream apple that Barbie used to tempt Ken in the Garden of Plastic. Shininess is next to godliness.

Luckily, High Apple Season is here. We have boutique apples for Britons (and wannabes) and a gigantic burst of New York favorites, including Empire, Fuji, Macoun, Cortland, and McIntosh. Big time picking starts now, and excited apples are wandering the farm to promote next Saturday’s Pigs-n-Apples Party. Please enter your homebaked apple pie into the contest!