Happy New Year!

It's tradition for the new year to make a New Year's Resolution. The normal resolutions tend to be loose weight, save money, finish some task that you have been meaning to finish for 2 years now. These all tend to result in it not happening. You have your few that actually can stick to their resolution and do what they are going to say.

I am one who tends to not do what I set my goal for. It is definitely a weakness of mine.

I cannot believe it is 2012 already!

So here is our new year resolutions for 2012:
-  Eat healthier
-Finish the addition
-Expand our growing business with Butters
- Expand our Rabbitry- meaning getting more customers and accounts.

So here's to hoping that we can stick to them.

And here is to wishing you the best in the New Year! 

I would say that I would type this later and watch the ball drop, but ever since I have had the kids, I don't think I have made it to seeing the ball drop. We always try and usually Eric is waking me up at 10 saying "why don't we just go to bed we are both sleeping?"

Newark Valley Farmer's Market

We have been talking about it for a long time now. We have been going over details, location and numerous other market ideas and hurdles. We had our very first meeting tonight and have set the ball in motion. We have made decisions and our now looking for vendors.

The market will be located on the Village Green right in Newark Valley. It will be Sunday's from 10am-3pm. It will start the 3rd Sunday in May and end the last Sunday of October. It will be a locally produced or handcrafted market only. 



We are looking for vendors:


Produce                           Baked goods                    Soaps
Dairy                               Honey                               Candles 
Jams/Jellies                      Meat                                woodworking
Jewelry                            Concessions                      Quilters
 Painters                           Photographers                   Artists
Musicians


and more.......

If you are interested. Please contact us through our email address.

We are hoping to bring our community closer with their local farmer's and producers. We have lots of ideas in store, such as music, demonstrations, activities and special events.

Specific details have yet to be finalized, but we are very excited about this. There are so many local producers in our area that no one knows about. It would help bring the community to some peoples attention and hopefully join us all together and get us more involved.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

From our family to yours!

Santa Here?

So with this busy time of year, every child that's family celebrates Christmas becomes to learn about Santa. This year Eric Jr finally started to kind of understand what/who Santa was. It started off with some cartoons, but he really didn't get it then. Then our very first indoor market at the Metrocenter he saw Santa. He told him that he wanted "Buzz and Woody" (Toy Story).

The next market we had, there was another Santa. On our way to market we were telling him that Santa was going to be there. He just kept repeating "Baby Reindeer?" We told him that we didn't think so but maybe. When he saw Santa we asked if he wanted to go over to say hi and he said, "No, Baby Reindeer." Santa was great and told him that they were on the roof! He was finally ok with it and let it go. Or so we thought.

I guess we need to start raising Baby Reindeer?!

The Flight Before Christmas movie.
This is where Eric Jr gets the"Baby Reindeer" from.

Since then we have ad many conversations about Santa. Anytime he gets tired and doesn't want to go to sleep he starts crying for Santa. We proceed to tell him that it is only a few days away but he has to be a good boy! He still doesn't quite get it.

My brother talked to him on the phone the other day and he asked him what he asked Santa for for Christmas. he proceeded, "Pirates (?), Raaahhhh Dinosaurs (?), and a few others. None of which included Buzz and Woody. It was cute. My brother said, "Santa must think you are special," Eric Jr replied with "YUP." Too Cute.

Now, everytime he hears a car go by, a noise outside or he wakes up from a nap, or sleeping he starts off "Santa here?"

This is our first child so we are experiencing the joy of Santa through our children for the first time. It is very delightful, sometimes a little rough trying to keep coming up with ways to tell him that he was not here yet. One that has seemed to be working is that Santa is still making the toys. Eric Jr then replies with "Buzz and Woody!"

I will have to say that I am very excited to see his face on Christmas morning.

We have baked cookies together, read books and watched movies about Christmas. He is super excited as are we. I hope to start some great family traditions related to the holiday.

As far as the farm goes, we have no snow. Which is good and bad. I want snow so Eric Jr can play in it. But we don't want snow because the warmer weather is a little more enjoyable. Eric worked outside all day yesterday cleaning the barn. Cleaning around the field and farm to get stuff put away that we normally don't get a chance to put away.

Butters are still going full force. I am getting 2 bushels of pears in the crocks to make pear butter and I have 2 bushels of Apples waiting for me to peel and core them. The pears are starting to wind down so I am trying to get enough stockpiled and made that we will still have the pear butter for awhile. But with the holiday buying of butters for Christmas gifts has made it hard to keep up!

I have always loved the giving homemade or specialty gifts for Christmas instead of your store bought items. Especially for adults that really have everything that they need.

I have to get back to peeling pears (ugghh), but I want to wish you all a happy Holiday and hope you enjoy your time with family and friends.

Christmas Dinner

There is so many different holiday traditions this time of year.

We celebrate Christmas and have 3 separate Christmas dinners. We generally have ham at my mom's and my grandparents. At Mom and Dad K Christmas we are having Chicken. I don't really know about the sides. I think they change from time to time.

One that we always had when my grandmother was alive is Scalloped Potatoes! It was delicious. I will be making it again this year for Christmas at my mom's.

What do you normally make for Holiday dinner? What are some of your favorite foods for the holiday?

Some of my favorites would have to be the cookies. I am not normally a baked good eater. But I cannot resist cookies on Christmas.

Eric's family favorite is "Peanut Butter Balls" (Buckeyes). Mom makes them a little different than a traditional Buckeye which makes it even more delightful.

We have people that ordered Rabbit for their Christmas dinner! Some people picked up Chicken.

Either way, I hope you got at least your main meat local! We have plenty of vendors at the Otsiningo Winter Farmer's Market that sell meat. You can probably still contact them and get a hold of a local product!

Poultry, Rabbit and Turkey CSA

We have worked a lot on this. Weighing the pros and cons. We are thinking this through over and over again. We are hoping to debut our CSA and have sign-ups at the Feburary First Friday event. We will only have a limited number of openings available.

What exactly is a CSA?

"A CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farming operation where the growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production."  Wikipedia.

Our CSA would consist of you picking up once a month. We will be finalizing details and items the closer we get to debut.

We are definitely including chicken and rabbit. We also are hoping to include a Thanksgiving Turkey in November. Once again these details are not final. But if you have some input on what you might like then we would be all ears. Please let us know.  

Wordless Wednesday

Dark Days Challenge- 12/11-12/17

Last week I did not do a very good post for the Dark Days Challenge. I was not happy because I was so excited to start this. So forgive me for last week and hopefully this week will kick off what I am hoping to be a great Dark Days Challenge posting spree!

This week I decided that I would do something with our rabbit meat. We sell rabbit meat at market and the common question is...."How do you cook it?" I have been meaning to try numerous different recipes so I can have more than just "my favorite" recipe.

I never had rabbit until I met my husband. I never knew how good it was for you until I researched it. When we were getting ready to raise it to start selling, I had to make sure that I knew what I was talking about.

I had planned on doing a rabbit of the month recipe on our website and have not yet done one every month. I don't like to recommend recipes unless I try them first. So this is giving me a great reason to test out the recipes I plan on recommending and handing out to potential customers.

This week I made:

Roasted Rabbit with Garlic, Rosemary and Hungarian Hot pepper and for a side I made Fried Corn with onions and Peppers

Roasted Rabbit with Garlic, Rosemary and Hungarian Hot pepper


1- 2 1/4 lb rabbit (Cross Creek Farm, Berkshire NY)
salt
pepper
2 garlic cloves, chopped (Cross Creek Farm Berkshire NY- Italian Red Garlic)
Rosemary (Cross Creek Farm Berkshire NY)
Hungarian Hot pepper (Cross Creek Farm Berkshire NY)

Season both sides of the rabbit with salt and pepper.
Combine garlic, rosemary and Hungarian hot pepper in a small bowl.
Rub mixture over both sides of rabbit
Cover and refrigerate 2-3 hours
Preheat oven 475 degrees
Uncover and roast until tender and cooked through, 30-35 minutes.


Fried Corn with Onions and Peppers


Corn (Iron Kettle Farm, Candor NY)
Onion (Cross Creek Farm, Berkshire NY)
Red peppers (Cross Creek Farm, Berkshire NY)
Green Peppers (Cross Creek Farm, Berkshire NY)
Butter

Melt butter in skillet over medium heat.
Saute until onion is just beginning to turn crispy.



The corn, peppers and onions I used were ones that I had frozen. I believe that the corn would have been so much better if it was made with all fresh ingredients.

The rabbit was AMAZING! And as you can probably tell I love Garlic and rosemary. I promise next week I will try to make something that isn't rosemary garlic! : )

I will also have to say that challenge is making realize that there is a lot I can make with what we grow on our farm. Very excited to continue and looking for new recipes!

Roberson Museum- Home for the Holidays!

When I was in grade school, I remember going to Roberson Museum for their Christmas display. I remember being in awe of the many different trees, the country trees, and the whimsical trees that I would never think of. I have wanted to take the kids there so they can enjoy it just as I did.

When we were approached to do a local event at Roberson, I jumped on it. I knew that Roberson was a very busy place and in knowing that was hoping and thinking it would be a great event.

It wasn't as great as I had hoped, but it was nice to see the people that did come to support us and even if they didn't come specifically for us they enjoyed the fact that they could buy some local gifts for their loved ones.

I will have to say that my display was GORGEOUS!


This was one of our last events before Christmas. We will be at the Metrocenter in Binghamton on Saturday December17th from 9am-Noon. Make sure if you want to get some last minute gifts, you stop by.

I have made some gift baskets and we will be bringing the last of the Christmas wreaths and poinsettias for those of you that have not yet decorated for Christmas.

Dark Days Challenge- Week 1- Dec.4-Dec11.

Going into this week trying to plan out what I was going to have was very exciting. I kept thinking of different things that I could make. 

As it got closer however, I seemed to have had to rush things together. We have been very busy lately making holiday wreaths, butters and jams to sell at our big event this weekend that I had almost forgot.

This week I decided that I would make 

"Garlic Rosemary chicken with Maple baked Butternut squash."

I did not get to take a picture which made me a little upset because I really wanted this post to be perfect.

But this is what I did and the ingredients.

Whole range Cornish Cross Chicken (Cross Creek Farm - ours)

Chopped Garlic cloves (Cross Creek Farm- ours)

Rosemary Garlic powder seasoning (Cross Creek Farm - ours)

Butternut Squash (Stoughton's Farm- Newark Valley)

Maple Syrup (Sugarbush Run - Newark Valley)

I first chopped the garlic and put it inside the Chicken. I then rubbed the Rosemary Garlic seasoning all over the outside of the chicken. I added a little water to the roasting pan just to add a little extra moisture. Covered it tightly with tin foil and cooked it in the oven for 1 1/2 hours at 375 degrees. I then took the foil off and let the skin crisp up for 15 minutes more.

With the butternut squash, I cut it in half, dug out the seeds, laid it in a baking pan and filled the part where the seeds were with Sugarbush Run maple syrup. I then rubbed the maple syrup over the rest of the squash. Added a little water to the pan and covered tightly with Tin foil. I baked it the same amount of time and temperature as the Chicken.

I then scooped all the squash out of it and mashed it with a potato masher.Add a little extra Maple syrup and dished it up.

Eric Jr loved it!

I will have to say that this task was a little harder than I thought it would be. I caught myself a few times grabbing the salt and some other things. I did however find a place where I can get salt from and it will be within the same state. Not as local as I preferred but it may work. 

I plan on doing something better next week. Stay tuned to find out! 

Make sure you check out the other blogs and see what they did this week for the Dark Days Challenge.

TRIVIA THURSDAY

For this Trivia Thursday we are going to be giving away 1FREE FRUIT BUTTER (any variety). 

Make sure you answer the trivia question by 8 pm on Friday December 9th.

You may submit your answer on the Facebook page and/or email  if you would like. Just make sure you post your email address with your Facebook comment.  

HOW MANY VARIETIES OF HERBS DID WE GROW THIS YEAR?

If you win, I will notify you via email. You will have to pick up your product at the Otsiningo Winter Farmer's Market at the Metrocenter.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Dark Days Challenge

As a farmer and producer, I always like to encourage people to buy local.  The best way to help our economy and country is to keep the money local.

I found this blog that started a challenge to create 1 meal a week using all local food. Thanks to Niechelle Wade at Sunny Hill Farm. I signed up.

With our local farmer's market being open during the winter I am hoping this will be a little bit easy.

               

I did not get to do a meal this week, but I have it all planned out for this coming week. I will be doing my first Dark Days Challenge post this week.

Local food to me means that I will be making a meal using food and spices bought at my local farmer's market Otsiningo Winter Farmer's Market, grown by me or if I have to buy something I will make it something bought within a 100 mile radius. I will be posting in each blog entry where the product is coming from. I will also try to link to the producer's websites so that anyone around our area will be able to find local products.

I encourage you to do this as well. Whether you have a blog or not. Or just want to challenge yourself....this is a great way to buy local and support your local farmers who at this time of year in our area is a little challenging due to weather conditions.

But never the less we all need each others support! I hope to inspire you as some of the blog entries that I have read from the past challenges have inspired me!

First indoor winter market this Saturday!

It's that time of year again where it is too cold to be outside selling products but us farmer's still need to make money to keep going. Last year we were located at Cornell Cooperative Extension on Front St in Binghamton.

Our handmade wreaths

This year we are at the METROCENTER in downtown Binghamton! Bigger space equals more vendors. We have also had some of our normal vendors try to produce more product to be able to sell through the winter so they will be joining us!

Our first market will be Saturday December 3rd from 9am-2pm. Please come join us and buy local! It may be winter but there is still farm fresh products around.

Cross Creek Farm will have Free range chicken, free range cornish hens, rabbit meat, fruit butters, dried herbs, herbal teas, handmade holiday wreaths,  Apples and pears, winter squashes and more....

Sunny Hill Farm Beets in
the high tunnel

Sunny Hill Farm has a high tunnel helping to extend their produce season as well as their honey, beef and pork.

Mcrey Farm always has grassfed Beef, Lamb and pork.

Gorman Farms has Chicken, beef and pork.

Full Quiver Farm has fresh baked breads and cookies.

Serentity Pet Treats has treats for dogs and cats as well as some grooming products all made by hand.

Old Barn Hollow will have a huge variety of jams, some of the  most unique but greatly flavored jams.

Ever After Botanicals product

Ever After Botanicals has all natural and organic bath and body products as well as cleaning products.

Ravenwood Gardens  has local herbal blends and spa treatments

Engelbert Farms raises organic meats and some of the best cheese products I have ever tasted..

Binghamton Urban Farm selling pea shoots, sunflower shoots, organic dried beans, artisan cheese and pasta  and sunflower oil.

Castle Tower Alpacas with their warm fiber products.

There are more, I just cannnot think of them at the moment. Please make sure to visit all the websites that I have linked to, learn more about the farmer and their product and join us at the winter market. Where not only can you get fresh local products during the summer, but you can also get them during the winter!

Free range Chicken and Cornish hens

We will be taking our last batch of Chickens for the season to the butcher on Thursday. If you are interested in placing an order please make sure to let me know.  The chickens are $3.99 per lb.

If you can pick up Thursday evening, then you can have them fresh.

If not they will be frozen.

We can set up a time for you to pick up your chickens or Cornish hens either at market or at the farm.

We have a bunch of Cornish hens available as well. They are frozen.

Please email or call (607) 657-8251 and let me know what you would like: approximate pounds, fresh (Thursday night only), frozen, how many, pick up time and date, phone number, and name.

crosscreekfarmfamily@yahoo.com

"O Christmas WREATH, O Christmas WREATH"

Yes I do know that those are not the words to the song, but it sounded kind of cool. I was trying to find a song that involved wreaths, but I couldn't think of one.

Anyways, as you know we have decided to make our own handmade wreaths this year for the holidays. Was not sure how this would come out as it was my first time ever trying to do something like this. Dad had made them years ago, but we had not a clue. So it began with Dad showing everyone how.

Then it started moving a little quicker, Eric and Dad were working on     putting the pine bows on the wreaths, Mom was clipping the limbs off the trees, and I was decorating. In theory this was working out good.

Of course Eric Jr was trying to get into everything and bug Julianna! Hopefully next year he will be helping us make them!

I have included some pictures of some of the wreaths, I will take more tomorrow and you will be able to find more photos on our Facebook page throughout the week.

These are not all of them, I forgot the camera for the first few. Those will be added to the Facebook page tomorrow! Plus the ones I get done tomorrow!

If you are looking to get one and want to pre-order it, please let me know. Email me with a date, place and time to pick it up.

Holiday baskets and upcoming new items!

I have talked to a few of our customers about this, but I figured I should announce it on here. 

Now I know personally, shopping for the holidays ends up being something that I am excited for until I start doing it and it ends up more frustrating because I don't know what to get or trying to get the exact thing that I want and can't find it ends up making me mad. So what is easier and more local than buying something from your local farmer?

Being that we are doing more craft fairs and winter indoor markets, we have a lot planned for the holiday season. We will be taking pre-orders and as soon as we get some of the items made up, I will take pictures and post them on here and our Facebook page.

Some of the things we plan on doing are:

Gift Certificates- for any amount

Gift boxes:

• Herbs
• Butters/Jams
• Teas
• Both (Herbs, Butters/jams, Teas)

Gift Baskets:

• Herbs
• Butters/Jams
• Teas
• Both (Butters/Jams, Teas)

Handmade Pine Wreaths

Herbal pillows

And anything else we can think of putting together! 

Make sure if you know you want something you get your pre-order in. Our first Indoor market is December 3rd at the Metrocenter from 9am to 2pm. If  you want it for then you need to let us know soon. I will be doing a craft fair on December 4th as well, so if you want to place an order and pick it up there that would be fine too. Please just let me know where you would like to pick it up.

And we have a few more surprises up our sleeves if I can get them done for the holiday season! I can't wait!

Fibers of Your Life

This year we have decided to attend some more farm artisan/craft events. This weekend was our first one.

It was called "Fiber's of Your Life" and was at the Oakdale Mall in Johnson City. It was definitely a long event. There were Alpaca's there, which provided quite the entertainment for the vendors. It was hilarious to watch the people stop dead in there tracks and be astonished that there were animals in the mall. We had our fair share of entertainment on what people thought they were too.

There were a few fiber vendors. Handmade Jewelry, Ever After Botanicals with homemade organic cleaning and body products, Allen's Old Barn Hollow with her award winning Jams, Sunny Hill Farm with their delicious honey.

I was very surprised to see a few of our regular market customers came to visit even after going to see Eric at the Otsiningo Farmer's Market.

I had Julianna with me both days. Luckily on Saturday I had Mom Krenner with me to help out with her. She was a little more miserable than she was on Sunday. Grandma lost a few pounds from walking the entire mall a few times! : )

On Sunday it was just Julianna and I, and as I was sitting there, I was thinking to myself what job could I do that I was able to have her with me all day long. Only in this type of business can I spend the whole day with my child and still be working and making money. It makes all the struggling of living on little income worth it.

I am very excited to attend the next one. And will be making a lot of Christmas related items.

We have decided to make handmade Pine Wreaths for Christmas this year. Can't wait to get started on those! We have a lot different stuff planned for the holiday season. We will be doing gift baskets of herbs, butters and some mixed baskets. They are great gifts to give for the holiday season!

Otsiningo Winter Market and Holiday Show Schedule 2011

I created a page on the top of this blog that will have this on there to refer back to.

Otsiningo Winter Market will be at the Metrocenter in Binghamton this year. They are opening up the parking lot to market customers for free. Make sure you come check it out, new vendors and new happenings.


We will also be joining in on First Friday- That will be the First Friday of every month from 5pm- 8pm at the Metrocenter in Binghamton
If you have never heard of First Friday here is a short summary.

      

          First Fridays, 6:00 to 9:00pm. First Friday Art Walk, presented by Gorgeous Washington Street Association, features a myriad of 35-45 art venues which vary each month. This is the Gorgeous place to be where you can enjoy art openings, gallery hopping, music, dance, theater, fine dining, entertainment and more. Most venues and activities are located downtown Binghamton.

Here is the list of all of our events right up until Outdoor Market begins again. I will keep updating as we keep adding events.

                            

 November 12th from 9am-9pm Fiber for Your Life [Oakdale Mall]

 November 13th from 11am-7pm Fiber for Your Life [Oakdale Mall]

 November 17th from 2pm-5 pm Local Food, Fiber and Energy Fair [Cornell Mann Library]

December 3rd from 9 am-2pm. [Metrocenter] 

December 4th from 10am-3pm Holiday Craft Show 2011 [Vestal High School]
December 10th from 11am-5pm "Home for the Holidays" [Roberson Museum]
December 11th from 11am-5pm "Home for the Holidays" [Roberson Museum]

December 17th from 9 am-12  [Metrocenter]

  

January 2nd from 5pm-8 pm  (FIRST FRIDAY) [Metrocenter]

January  14th from 9 am-Noon [Metrocenter]

January 28th from 9 am-Noon [Metrocenter]

February 3rd from 5pm-8pm (FIRST FRIDAY) [Metrocenter]

February 11th from 9am-noon [Metrocenter]

February 25th from 9 am-noon [Metrocenter]

  

March 2nd from 5pm-8pm [Metrocenter]

March 10th from 9am-noon [Metrocenter]

March 24th from 9am-noon [Metrocenter]

  

April 6th from 5pm-8 pm (FIRST FRIDAY)  [Metrocenter]

April 14th from 9am-noon [Metrocenter]

April 28th from 9am-noon [Metrocenter]

                          

Picking up the pace!

Once again I have fallen behind on posting. I am sorry. I will try to update you on the many different things going on!

As I told you before, we are now making fruit butters for Cornell Orchards. And I have told you that we get our kiwi's from Cornell as well. Well that essentially turned into me trying to figure out something to turn them into for Cornell Orchards and us. So I found this great recipe for Kiwi Jam. Yes a little strange but insanely delicious. The very first batch I made I followed the directions step by step. After finishing the batch and tasting it, I knew I wanted to change it. It was super sweet. You could barely tasted the kiwi. So I reduced the amount of sugar by half. That batch was AMAZING. It is sweet like a jam is supposed to be, but it has a kiwi after taste to it and just enough tartness.

So now my line has expanded to:

Apple butter
Sugar Free Apple Butter
Pear Butter
Sugar Free Pear Butter
Blueberry Butter
Cherry butter
Berry Cherry Butter
Kiwi Jam

It is amazing to me that just trying to find a way to use up the fruit that we bought for the festival that we didn't sell turned into this! From the point of Cornell ordering I have 2 other accounts that have wanted to carry our butters.

I really did not intend for this to go this way. Not that I don't have enough on my plate with 2 young kids, herbs, teas, and normal farm stuff. Don't get me wrong we have always tried to find a way to extend our season, and obviously this has fallen into place! It is great, I am just trying to play catch-up.

I will be dropping a delivery off today at Hollenbeck's Shurfine in Newark Valley. I am very excited for them to carry it. The store being 10 minutes down the road from us it helps our locals to find us.

INDOOR MARKET

Indoor Market has been confirmed! We will be at the METROCENTER in Binghamton. Parking will be FREE!!!! We may be adding some new vendors as well which is always exciting.

Our first market will be on December 3rd from 9 am-2pm.
                            December 17th from 9 am-12
                            January 2nd from 5pm-8 pm  (FIRST FRIDAY)
                            January  14th from 9 am-Noon
                            January 28th from 9 am-Noon

I will do a completely seperate post with the schedule on it so you can refer back to it.

I am also looking to do some more craft shows and fairs in the next couple months as well. Our first one is this weekend.

Fibers of Your Life at the Oakdale Mall
Saturday November 12 from 9am- 9 pm
Sunday November 13 from 11am-7 pm

Local Food, Fiber and Energy Fair at Cornell University Mann Library
November 17th from 2pm-5pm

There are also a couple that I think we are going to do in December as well. I will keep you posted on that.

With all that being said, I have a lot of work ahead of me this week. We are still going to be doing the Farmer's Market Saturday but being that I also have a 2 day event that same day and the next, I have to make a ton of stuff. I am still trying to catch up on herbs throughout all of this. I still have not put together a lot of my teas yet. I have to get my herbal pillows done..... and the list goes on.


So in short, this is the reason I have not posted for awhile. Look for some posts coming up though.

And of course I had to show you a picture of the little ones on Halloween!

Eric Jr was an Elephant
Julianna a Skunk

Now on to the busy holiday season!

The kiwi's are coming, the kiwi's are coming.

For those of you that remember our hardy kiwi's that we got from Cornell 2 years ago.....THEY HAVE RETURNED!

We have very limited quantities!

For those of you that have never heard of such a thing. Yes they are grown in NEW YORK. They are grown on Cornell Orchards Lansing site! They taste exactly like a kiwi, but don't have the fuzzy skin. You can eat the whole fruit and it contains a ton of Vitamin C.  Something you absolutely must try!

First butter delivery!!

I have officially finished my first order for our butter's. We will be heading up to Cornell Orchards tomorrow to drop it off.

Exciting, Exciting, Exciting!

3 Little Pigs

Mater (front), Toots (back left), Digger (back right)

When I was young, my family had a potbelly pig. Her name was Miss Piggy. She was house trained and loved to lay down with you and was one of the best family pets we ever had. In my opinion anyway.

So when Eric pointed out these "Mini Pigs" on craigslist I was so excited! I wanted them so bad. I immediately called my mom to tell her about them because  I knew she would be just as excited as I was!

Well there were 3 of them that were rescue pigs. One was 1 1/2 years old and the other 2 were 8 months old. You would not know that they were the same age though. 1 of the 8 months old she found starved. He was so small because he was not given the proper nutrients that he needed during growth. The other 8 month old was so fat that his belly dragged on the ground and he had a hard time walking. The 1 1/2 yeah old I don't remember his story, but he is so friendly and will follow you around the farm.

We ended up getting them on Monday. We built small temporary pasture for them for the winter. In the spring we will be making it bigger.

Eric Jr absolutely loves them and we had a hard time getting him away from them.

The bigger/older one's name is Mater. The middle one is Digger (because he digs so much). And the little one is Toots (because of course he was tooting)!

Toots

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

  

Mater ( L ), Toots (R)

Eric Sr and Eric Jr working on the pig pen!

Carpenter Eric Jr, had to have the pencil behind his ear!

RAFFLE BASKET WINNER!

I had Eric Jr pick the winner. I asked him for 1 and he gave me three, so then I had Julianna grab one from the 3!

And the winner is:

LIBBY GRAHAM

Congratulations. Please email me to let me know when and where you would like to pick it up. We can bring it to market next weekend if you would like! 

Cornell Orchards wants us to do what??!!!

I have been waiting anxiously to be able to tell you guys about this! It is so exciting for us!

As many of you know, at our Fall Festival I brought out my Apple Butter and Blueberry Butter. The Cornell Orchard Store Manager (Kristina) came to the festival! She is new this year to the store and I think is making things even better at the Orchards. She is a younger woman bringing in fresh ideas!

From Left to right top to bottom:
Berry Cherry Butter, Apple Butter, Blueberry Butter
Pear Butter and Cherry Butter

So while she was at the Festival she purchased my Blueberry Butter. We had talked before about how she makes Plum butter. She is from Germany and only uses spices that she has her mother send from Germany. I wish I could try her's! (hint, hint Kristina if you are reading this!)

So when we received an email last week from her I became a little nervous and excited all at the same time. In her email she stated that Cornell Orchards wanted to ask if I would be willing to make Apple Butter for them. It would have their name on it, but say "Made by Cross Creek Farm."  She also added that she did not want me to feel obligated to say yes.

"Are you kidding me, YES!!!"  Cornell Orchards has how many people going through it. Cornell University's students are just a few, then their parents, locals, .....Yes, Yes, Yes.

So then we had a meeting to sit down and talk today. I went in wondering how many apple they were going to want me to make. So as we were talking we got talking about the other flavors that I have been playing around with. Which led into us making Pear butter for them as well. I will be making Peach butter during the peach season as well! And of course when Blueberries come into season I will be making that as well!

We were extremely excited to get our herb shakers in there, and now our butters! We had talked before about how we were always looking for income during the winter for the farm besides just the every other weekend farmer's market. And that is why Kristina thought of us!

Thank you Kristina and Thank you Cornell Orchards!

Down To Earth Whole Foods

Excitedly we just took a large quantity of herb shakers to Down to Earth Whole Foods in Endicott. Make sure you go check them out. It is awesome to have a local grocery store support local farms. It shows that the community is there to support each other!

We used to do market with them when we did the downtown Binghamton market. I remember watching her come with the kids and being amazed! They are such hard working people and super nice too! They made these amazing cookies that of course we could not resist!

I love these cookies!!!
Chocolate Chip

Well it all came flashing back today when we dropped the herbs off. There it was, the cookie rack! I could not resist. Of course Eric Sr got one too. And I will have to say that they are even better than they were back then!  Of course it was 11 in the morning so I felt kind of guilty eating a cookie at that time but Eric reminded me that there is a lot of healthy stuff in those cookies! Ok twist my arm! : )