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! : )

Fall....winter....rain/snow

Yes it is that time of year again. Every morning we get on the computer and look at the upcoming forecast to see what's ahead and plan our week. We are trying to get garlic in the ground. We have tons to get in the ground and we are hoping things dry out a little.

Two years ago we waited so long that we ended up planting it in the snow. Hoping not to have that happen this year. The weather is not cooperating though. Everyday it changes.

We finally got everything picked up and put back from the Fall Festival. And I would like to thank everyone that came to spend time with us. Sunday was pretty good but Monday was kind of a flop. So we will only be doing it 1 day next year.

There is also a lot of other things going on behind the scenes here. There is going to be a couple of announcements in the near future! I generally try not to announce things too soon. I want to make sure that they work out and are set before I tell everyone.  And to our customers who keep asking if we are pregnant yet this year....that is not one of the announcements and we are not pregnant! : )

But all in all it is amazing and exciting news for us. And of course for you guys!

I have been working on getting herbs processed and packaged. It is taking a little bit. We have a ton of them. I am thinking of making a rosemary garlic seasoning. What do you think?

We also debuted our Herbal teas at the festival and took them to market this past weekend for the first time. I am still working on packaging. I would love feedback on these. It's hard to know with teas what the right amount is. It is really funny how different people think. Between my father-in-law, Mother-in-law, husband and I we all seemed to have a different opinion on how strong or weak it is. So the most important opinion is the customers!



I have also started making fruit butters. My first was your plain and simple Apple butter. I then found an amazing recipe for Blueberry butter! And then came the Cherry Butter. We have a limited quantity of the cherry and blueberry butters. I only froze so much during the season not knowing that they would sell so quickly. The cherry and blueberry are amazing though!

Also I want to make sure that everyone is aware that we have a gift basket raffle going on for $50.00 worth of Cross Creek Farm products. This includes 2 chickens, 1herbal tea mix basket, 2 herb shakers, butternut squash, pumpkin, apples and an apple butter. Tickets are $1.00 a piece and I will draw a winner on Sunday October 23, 2011. That means get your ticket at market on Saturday!

Frost!!!! Festival Set-up!

We woke up this morning and went to start some coffee. We then looked out the window and "Oh my god!"  We got a HARD frost. When we went out to get in the car, I opened the door and you could see the "ice" crack. It was crazy.  

We got over that ..... and the day began! I managed to get most of the decorating done at the stand and for the festival. We organized some more stuff in the field. 

We also took the time to take a HAYRIDE. The same hayride we will be giving on Sunday and Monday. We were trying to time it to see how long it was. We also wanted to take a few pictures to give you a sneak peak as to what the view is going to be! It is beautiful. So I hope these picture entice you to come ride!

Oh yeah, I couldn't resist a few pictures of the kids on the hayride! Eric refused to get off and got mad when we took the hay bale that grandpa was sitting on off the wagon. He kept saying "Hayride" over and over again! Julianna just kept screeching at her brother! We have nicknamed her the "Screech owl." She is cute!

Tomorrow....We have to get ready for market. Which means a trip to Cornell Orchards. We will be picking up fruit for Saturday's market and also for the festival. So we will be taking the trailer! That is a WHOLE LOT of fruit! 

This weekend is supposed to be beautiful! Make sure you come to the 1st Annual Cross Creek Fall Festival. We have bigger and better plans for next year. We just need to make sure that we will have the turn out we need! 

Sneak Peak

This week is going to be crazy!!!!!!!

Yesterday we had breakfast, the same breakfast we will be serving to you for the Cross Creek Farm Fall Festival Farmer's breakfast. It was amazingly delicious. Dad has made it for Eric and Mom before but I have never had it. So naturally, I had to try it before we started selling it! (Good excuse for someone to make me breakfast huh....hehehe)

After that we walked through where we were going to be putting everything. The activities, vendors, parking, hayride, seating, food and more. We are not sure yet who all is coming for vendors yet, but we do know for a fact that we will have Full Quiver Farm (who we will be getting our biscuits from) and Aleatory Alpacas. They will both be there Sunday. We have a few more interested just waiting to confirm. Lots of variety equals lots of fun for you!

We of course made our EXTREMELY large shopping list. And our EXTREMELY long "to do list." We all took a look at that and I think you could have heard a pin drop! None of us knew what to say so we just laughed and someone said "who's idea was this to do this in 3 weeks!"

So after all that, I came home and finished canning my Blueberry Butter and started another batch. Then I went to base paint the signs. We have a lot of directional signs and stuff to paint. Eric was moving some wood and stuff that we had to get out of the way of parking and hayrides.

Today we are planning on moving the tents a little and starting to decorate! The best part! We are going shopping later today to get 90% of the stuff for the festival. I told Eric we are going to have to take the trailer!

Thomas the train, Elmo, Hello Kitty
Dora, and 'Mater

Instead of just doing breakfast, we decided to do hamburgers and hotdogs throughout the day as well. We will have Coffee, hot apple cider, water, juice boxes, and soda.

Last night after the kids went to sleep, Eric was stripping Stevia and I finished some of the painted pumpkins that I did. Just for a small preview I made sure I took a picture so that I could show you. Elmo, Hello Kitty and Dora came out pretty good. I didn't finish Thomas the train because the base paint was still wet. And I tried my hand at 'Mater, and well, I will just let you be the judge. He looks a little messed up.

Eric Stripping Stevia.

As things progress, I will be taking sneak peak pictures to show some things that we will have here! Right now I am off to do chores and set up the stand for this morning.