Indian Creek Farm

THE ROMAN POET VIRGIL served Dante well, escorting him safely through Hell and Purgatory, only to be dumped for the hottie Beatrice at the gates of Paradise.  In those days, pagans weren’t allowed in Heaven, so Virgil was sh-t out of luck through no fault of his own, having lived before Jesus arrived.

But poor old Virgil is welcome in our slice of Paradise any time.  We farmers remember him not for his epic Aeneid, but for his books of classical verse about the appeal of agriculture:  The Georgics, from the Greek words for “earth” and “work.”  And today we thank you, Dear Ithacans, for helping us to derive a livelihood from this earthy work.  Let’s take a spin through 2012—our best year ever despite crop failure across the nation—which got us thinking, “Ithaca is Georgics.”

2012 C.E.

Summer began with the crop alert, Strawberries Now! We are not an asparagus farm (yet), so strawberries are the first edibles of the year.

A few weeks later, Double Your Picking Pleasure and Berry Nuts Unite! announced the arrival of raspberries.

By the 4th of July, the farm stand was bursting with berries of every color. We sang Happy Berry-thday, America!

Then we asked you farm fans to Pray for Peaches, Play With Your Food. Extreme spring weather savaged the tree fruits, but we did okay in the end.

Before July departed, we sounded the alarm: All Veggie Fields Ready for Picking! We threw in a little ROY-G-BIV action for the schoolkid in each of us.

When the heat peaked in August, it was time for Pepperoo. Some said we had jumped the shark. But a farmwide produce party was in the planning.

We ducked the sweltering sun one day to dish out Seventeen Biscuits from the Farmer’s Cupboard of Knowledge.

And on the historic day of August 30, 2012, Veggiestock Hit Farm Country With “Pecks, Hugs, and Rock-n-Roll.” Where were you?

A strange week followed, in which we could only muster this message: The Women Have Left the Farm, and Other Curious Tidbits.

In September, the cider was flowing and the donuts got going. The big question was, Will the Donuts Hold You Over Until the Pig Farmers Arrive?

The First Annual Pigs-n-Apples Party was momentous. Had fun sending out the Picking Report, Party Pictures, and Feedback for the Farm.

In True Stories from the Farmily, and a Word About Pumpkins, we celebrated all kids with “Henry” in their names.

Five days before Halloween, we announced All the Pumpkins You Can Carry, a Big Pepper Sale, and Photos From Y’all.

Then, in All the Presidents You Can Carry, we complained of how you bought exactly zero items in our Dead Flower Sale. (Grrr.)

As the days got shorter and November settled in, we shared some kitchen tips: Jalapeño Ice Cubes, Flying Saucer Videos, and More Chickens.

The end of November brought the Last Weekend at the Farm Stand. We shifted to our winter work in the nursery.

2013 C.E.

Let’s hope this review of 2012 is a preview of 2013 — when we’ll see a busy farm, hearty foods, and lots of visitors. Meanwhile, enjoy your winter. Next time you are skiing Greek Peak in the town of VIRGIL, remember the patron poet of crops, trees, animals, and bees. Then take a little odyssey through nearby HOMER.

Stay tuned in January for a message from our nursery crew. We’ll tell you how to order a fruit tree to plant in your own yard, or how to send a baby tree as a gift that will keep on giving. Til then, thanks again and Happy New Year.

FANS OF THE FARM, we hope you are enjoying friends, family, and food. Happy Thanksgiving, and thank you for our best season ever at Indian Creek.

Just a quick reminder that the farm stand is open today and Sunday on a self-serve basis. Then we’ll be closed for the winter. We’re sold out of everything except WINTER SQUASH and BRUSSELS SPROUTS. So, come out for your last visit of the year, or come see us in the spring.

These days we are out back doing nursery work. We’ll send a few “crop alerts” over the winter months to let you know what is cooking.

As always, thanks for supporting The ‘Creek.

IF YOU HAVEN’T SKIPPED TOWN for the holidays, come kick around the farm this weekend. The stand will be open 12 to 5 both days; the weather will be dry and warmish. Now for the 15-second rundown…

Us fellers are out back in the nursery. We catch bundles of baby fruit trees as they fall from the sky. Then we tuck them in the barn for winter.

Allie will tend the stand on Saturday. She has declared it the LAST DAY FOR DONUTS. This is how many donuts will be left: 0000 0000.

A lad called New Jeff will work the stand on Sunday. He’s a Canadian model. He replaced Old Jeff, made in USA. Sunday is Jeffday, that’s all you need to remember.

And here’s what we have in the eating department: apples, hot cider, cold cider, Brussels sprouts, and winter squashes. Plenty of utility packs of Macs — for pies and sauces and turnovers.

P.S. Allie says, “There’s still a little bit of baby Swiss chard, which tastes even better now that it’s been frosted.” Of course, this is a picture of cider.

P.P.S. The hottest habanero we grow — the dreaded Paper Lantern — is now in Tony’s mouth. And he’s behind the wheel of the tallboy.

So come on out to The ‘Creek.

YOU MIGHT SAY THE FARM is the Other Hamptons:  a weekend escape for so many of our friends from New York City.  On a typical summer day, and late into the fall, you can find lawyers and bankers — alongside misfits and freakniks — pitching tents here for the country air and fireside chat.

This weekend our friends are not escaping New York — they are in deep waters downstate. So we are lighting a Good-Luck-O-Lantern in their honor, and pouring a round of Orchard Ambrosia. Godspeed to them all.

Meanwhile, down at the farm stand, we still have tons of apples. Beautiful Cortlands that look like cherries on steroids. All picked and ready for you.

Apples with special features get packed into “utility” bags — they are designed for your baking projects and marked down for quick sale.

This sack of blemished Rome Beauties speaks clearly to bakers and Dylan fans. “Bake me now,” it says, “for Tomorrow Is A Long Time.”

Our guy in England says that “the women” over there refer to Mutsu apples as “oven busters” — take a big one home and bake it, and you have a feast for two.

We still have gobs of pumpkins. Last week’s All-You-Can-Carry sale went pretty well. Lucy and Rob here got a good pile for pennies on the dollar.

Not to be outdone, this dad got help from the kids — and the vines — to maximize his haul. They hacked the system fair and square.

The sale intensifies this week — 50 cents a pound for winter squash and small pumpkins! Any pumpkins left Monday will feed The Piggery pigs!

So get your soup and pie ingredients now! Pumpkin pie… butternut squash soup… they warm the heart. Add a dollop of local sour cream and crumbles of feta.

The pepper sale is still hot. We have big bags that can flavor your whole winter — chop them now and freeze them. Thaw out a baggie a week.

Sprout season continues. The price is somewhere between 2 and 3 dollars. This piece of tape isn’t sure and neither are we. But it will all work out in the end.

Farm-fresh broccoli is 2 dollars a head. Or is it called a crown? Anyway, definitely 2 dollars, and definitely in the cooler. That much is clear.

This time of year can be a lovely kind of ugly. Leafless trees, slate gray skies, cold rains. All have their places. Same with yams — warts and all.

Ah, garlic, the “stinking rose.” It is a potent antiviral — and antivampiral — that is tough on colds and political allergies. Carry some on Election Day.

Garlic’s country cousin, the onion: it is the jack-of-all herbs. We know a guy who doesn’t like onions. We would ostracize him but he does eat onion rings.

The Dead Flower Sale was an epic fail. Apparently FREE wasn’t good enough. But we’re not going to PAY you to take them. We’re not complete chowderheads.

This weekend’s forecast is partly crappy with a 70% chance of crud. Best we can do is offer you donuts and hot cider — sugar and spice.

We’ll be here. The woodstove will be going. You’ve been so good to us this year — help us finish strong by using up the remaining crops.

Starting Monday, the stand will be self-serve on weekdays. We plan to be here on the weekends through November, but it will depend on weather and stuff.

Finally, remember that the biggest sale of all happens on Tuesday: pay absolutely nothing and get all the presidents you can carry. As luck would have it, 99.9% of us can only carry one president. So choose wisely. We apple farmers are voting on the Spitzenburg Esopus ticket.

Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.

FIVE DAYS TIL HALLOWEEN and here’s how the pumpkin thing is gonna go down — all the pumpkins you can carry for $12!

You must pick them in the pumpkin patch…

…and carry them by yourself — no tote bags, pack mules, or little red wagons.

This would not count as a $12 “carry,” although you can drive your haul down to the stand at checkout time. Then load up your arms with pumpkins and walk to the cashier. Whatever you carry costs only $12!

We also have prepicked pumpkins out front. They are priced according to our normal scheme — how they compare to the size of your head. It’s a fun old game. Want a hint? Let your kids buy their own.

Next to the pumpkin patch is a knee-high forest of Brussels sprouts. They are just waiting to be lopped. The loppers are supposedly hanging on this sign. It is magnetic poetry, farm-style: all the pieces are screwed in.

There are 5 s’s in “Brussels sprouts,” not 4. Just a reminder.

Apple season is dwindling down to the last couple days of picking. But there is fruit to be found in the Vintage Orchard. Saw a young couple — all flirty and apple-cheeked in the autumn air — picking a bushel of Rome Beauties yesterday.

You can always turn to your local farmer for expert tasting notes. We worked particularly hard on the McIntosh description. You’ll find prepicked Macs at the stand, as well as Mutsu, Cortland, Rome Beauty, and Red Spy.

Big sale on “utility” apples. They have a few birth marks or life scars. People are like, “Eww, a birth mark or life scar,” so these apples get downgraded to the utility bin. These are not airbrushed Hollywood apples, they are real apples for baking, saucing, and eating. Only $4 for a 5-pound bag and $6 a peck!

If you wish to make apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. Carl Sagan said that billions and billions of times.

And if you wish to create a tree-hugging dirt worshipper, you must first train him to be a blossom-kissing flower-whisperer.

Do it right and he’ll turn out like this — brawny, capable, and suggestible.

PHOTOS FROM Y’ALL

And now a quick break for beautiful pictures from a customer, Charles E. He sent this mouth-watering shot of last night’s dinner — Brussels sprouts from Indian Creek Farm and goodies from other farms around town. Inspiring!

Here is his little Mutsu Monster. Didn’t have the heart to tell the kid that it’s not an ear of corn. Nom nom nom…

WHAT ELSE IS COOKING?

Last week’s pepper sale gets even crazier this week — buy 5 pounds and pay $1 a pound (sweet) or $1.50 (hot). Time to score a winter’s worth of flavor.

Make up a bag of sweets and a bag of hots. Chop and freeze.

Hot spiced cider makes a gray day brighter. Stuff is so good — especially when you knock back alternating shots of hot cider and cold Orchard Ambrosia.

It wouldn’t be fall at the farm without a world-class assortment of dead flowers. The Goth crowd will be here selecting specimens for their Halloween costumes.

Dare you to wear this on your derriere.

The whiteboard in our workshop is like the internet — everything written there is true. Today it says, “Mox nox in rem,” which is Latin for, “Let’s get on with things, night is coming.” And by night we mean winter. So get out here and pick.

Hope to see you at The ‘Creek.