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!