Happy Thanksgiving

We are so thankful  for each one of you. Thought you would enjoy one last picture of the wagon. We use it at the farm and we are getting ready to put it away for the winter.

Final Week of the Season

Last Saturday was a perfect day at our stand. We had a steady flow of customers and we got to visit with each one of you. We got to exchange ideas about our favorite apples, see Will's new rooster that he was bringing home to his farm, and explain to people," yes the corn on the cob is still good even though it is so late in the season."

Children were picking out the perfect pumpkin and we were enjoying the comments on our pink-wort looking pumpkins (they are really a french squash).

October at the Farm

We have winter squash, pumpkins, apples, apple cider, beef, pork, honey, jam, apple butter, hot pepper jelly, and farm fresh eggs. Everything we sell we grow!

Fall Season is Here!

We went from summer to winter overnight. The apples are in full force and the apple cider is a tradition our customers look forward to. Many of you are stocking up and it is always interesting to hear all the different ways people store their food supply.

SEEDS

When you are a Seed Person, you think about them, wonder who their parents were, what characteristics will they have, where did they come from...........and hope they will germinate. We spend time during the winter months going through our notes, voting for our favorite, and looking through wonderful catalogs. This is the time when we get to see if we made good choices. We tried Zinnia seeds from several sources, but these shades of Pink were very exciting to see. The seed was more than we usually spend, but take a look and we think you will agree, that it is a great color.

TOO FUN

If you are a farmer at heart and love to grow things, this has to be your favorite time of year. The flowers are at their peak, the produce is doing well, and the corn and peaches are ready. And who can resist a vine ripe tomato? We have picked everything this week at the farm, pickling cucumbers seem to be at the top of the list, you all must be making some nice pickles.

The oatmeal cookies are made from the fruit and oats grown here and the 2011 honey is in the bears, ready for you.The apple butter and hot pepper jelly are new items for us, you will enjoy the flavors.

Corn on the cob is finally here and we are having the great debate at the "fruit shack" as to which variety, which color, and which way to cook it is the best..........so far, we are at a tie.......yellow vs.white.

Come by and see us and if you are not too far away . If you are long distance, we hope you will enjoy the story and pictures of our bounty at Horse Creek Farms.

Dill, Peaches, and Cut Flowers

We have several customers making pickles and the dill is out our back door, along with the cut flowers. The peaches are just getting started. We have heard lots of good stories about pies and cobblers.

Friends at the Fruit Shack aka roadside fresh market

When we started growing our fruits and vegetables, we had a thought of bringing the freshest and sweetest tasting food to our community. It has been an exciting journey and YOU our customers have been there every step of the way. You have supported us by purchasing our products, you have made suggestions about things to grow, worried with us when the weather has been crazy, and some where along the way we have become a community by the side of the road, on Irish Bend Loop.

We could tell you endless stories but we will share just a few today. Let us start with this first one. We stood on the front step of the fruit shack and looked towards the road, the four year old customer was not moving, he was fixed on the tractor coming down the road. He raised his little hand in hopes the tractor driver would wave back. We said," keep waving he has not seen you yet." We will never forget the look on that child's face when Guy spotted him and waved back. The child's Mother said to us," how did you know he would wave to my son?" We replied, "this is farming country and he is our neighbor." That boy was so excited and loved machinery, so this was a fun trip to the farm for him.

Another one our favorite stories is the couple who comes from Corvallis weekly. They have stopped for years and we love to hear about all of their retirement projects. You need to remember, we open June 1 and close Halloween, so there are seven months when we do not see any of our customers. So, when we reopened in June and just the husband came by, we were worried, what had happened? Several of our customers who are regulars recognized him too. They were worried also. We all braced ourselves and finally said, "where is the Mrs.?"
 He started laughing, that is why you were all acting so weird, you thought something happen to my wife. It was a relief to everyone to know, she was recovering from eye surgery and could not be out in the sun light. We were so glad to see them together on their next trip through.

This is not going to sound correct, but we had a good customer/friend that shopped local with us from day one. We nicknamed him "redman". He only ate red strawberries and red tomatoes! Nothing else would do.

You will find our parking lot full of every kind of rig, from the corvette person out for a drive to the local farm employee stopping in for a snack in their tractor or bulk truck.

We never knew when we started Horse Creek Farms what the results would be.

Rag Rugs

The rag rugs are a new item for us. The Birky family makes them on their family loom from material that is recycled clothes and yardage.They are a nice hand crafted gift that is very unique and durable. Every rug is a different color combination. Our favorite is the ones made from old jeans. We currently have a strawberry red with green and ivory stripes which is real pretty and of course several blue and red rugs. They are priced at $30.00 and $40.00 depending on the size. They make a nice wedding gift or gift for that student headed off to live in the dorm. New rugs of different colors will be added throughout our season.

Directions to the Farm

We have been giving lots of directions to our many new customers. Thanks to all of you who have been understanding and kept driving until you found us We were confused as to why you were having direction troubles. Here is what we discovered, there is a Lakecreek Drive at Tangent which you turned right on (this is about 10 miles before you are suppose to turn our way, on the Lakecreek Drive at Halsey),  there is an Irish Bend Loop across the Willamette River in a different county and there is an Irish Bend Loop on our side of the river, and to add to the crazy directions, the map shown on Google shows the map being O.K., but when you put your address in and ask for the directions.....it directs you to a location one mile west of us. And we are beginning to wonder how any of you found us!

I am the one who is always lost and my friends call me directional challenged, so trust me me when I say " I understand how this makes you feel." So, we will be going old school and putting out some road signs to help you get to the best fresh market roadside stand ever.

We are at the intersection of Lakecreek Drive/Irish Bend Loop/Peoria Road. Five miles west of Halsey.

Strawberry Season was a good one!

The season was a month long and everyone picked so many berries. We are now waiting for peaches and corn on the cob. See you soon.

Happy 4th of July!

Horse Creek Farms was closed today and we hope all of you got to enjoy the red/white/blue day Of course we just finished putting our own personal strawberries in the freezer for next winter, nothing like waiting until the last week of strawberry season.

Several of our customers have bought our meat for the first time and it seems to be a big hit. We have lamb, beef, pork, chicken, and chukar. If you have never had chukar, it is a upland game bird, small in size, and fun to try.

We did it!

The Beef and Berry BIG LUNCH was a perfect day. Yummy food, great customers, hard working employees, and sunshine.

Vickie Herring Patty McCard

Down By The Orchard

Tom & Steve

J.D & Strawberries

Aart, Alfredo And Mayra

Yes! There are berries!

No one can believe we have berries, but we do. They are ripe and getting sweeter by the day. Picking was good today and the field was filled with activity. We will try and get more pictures to share with you in the morning.

Plantings of color

Strawberries Today

We are selling strawberries today and our season is under way. If you get a chance, check us out.
Our farm also raises oats that we make into oatmeal, beef, pork,chickens, farm fresh eggs, and a fun oatmeal cookie which the recipe came from Mom. I always forget to list the honey, it is from our bees in the orchard.
Lois makes our jam from our fruit and we have added apple butter and this yummy pepper jelly. We hope to have an apple butter demonstration this fall, watch for details on our blog and website.

Brooka and Dunn aka The Spots

Dunn has a size 6 foot and the shoer trimmed him last week. His feet look like dinner plates!

Wow!

What a day, sunny and warm!!!!!!!!! Enjoy!!!!!!!. No raingear, no hooded sweatshirts, and no three layers of clothes.

Strawberries are getting ripe!

We are seeing more red in the landscape of the strawberry field. It is the time of year we look towards the results with great anticipation of what the crop will be. Several of our loyal customers could not wait for the strawberries, so they have been buying strawberry jam to hold them over until they can get those sweet berries that Oregon is known for.
Check back, we will update you on the crop's progress.

Strawberry Season 2011

Horse Creek Farms will be open Friday only this week  (June 3, 2011) The following week we will  be open everyday starting Tuesday, June 7th. Hopefully, the sunshine will stay with us and ripen the berries. Please call or check back to the website or blog or facebook.

We will set our prices next week.

We cannot wait for you to come by the farm and see what we have changed and added. Our neighbor Kenneth has some beautiful tables and swings for sale, the wood is unique and interesting. Also, some of you tried our meat last fall and loved the flavor. We will offer both pork and beef. We only raise a few animals a year and they have a stress free life eating left-overs from the stand each evening.

We cannot wait for you to see the inside of the fruit stand, we went wild and painted it. It lighten it up so much and gave it a fresh look for our 2011 season. The customers have liked it so far.

Just a quick reminder, we will have our Beef and Berry BIG LUNCH June 17th. Tickets are on sale here or at The Shedd Cafe. $14.95 per person.

Keep thinking sunshine' 

Planting 2011 Crop

The planting of the 2011 crop is well under way. The pumpkins, a few plantings of corn, cabbages, and sunflowers are growing. The cut flower garden is coming along with a nice color selection and the flower boxes on the farm market stand aka fruit shack are looking good.

We are going to try and raise some huge pumpkins in 2011, the seed comes from a over 600 pound parent.We have never tried this before, so we will keep you posted on our progress.

Today at the stand has been a great day of seeing our customers after being closed all winter. Everyone is stopping in to see when the strawberries will be ready to pick. It is so good to see that everyone is well and thankful.

Have a good Memorial Day Weekend from all of us.

Recycle, Reuse, and Reduce.

We have been Spring Cleaning in preparation for our opening. We learn something new every day at the farm. This week it was hauling “Scrap” as they say, to the metal buyers. Have you ever done this before?

We take our little trailer and away we go into the land of metal.

Once you arrive the first thing you notice is stuff everywhere: iron, metal, aluminum, wiring, cooper, and things we could not identify.

The workers are fast, they weigh, sort, run the forklift, and take a picture (with some unreal computer system) of everything passing over the scale. It is lots of action, noises, and this funny little horn system. The security is tight because of all the metal theft, so be prepared to produce I.D., be on camera and a recorded picture of the rig you come in.

My hope is I was not doing something embarrassing when all the pictures were being snapped.

Yellow Plum - Pineapple Jam

1. Wash and pit plum - Do not peel
2. Grind finely (put in blender)
3. Put into kettle: 3/14 cups plums

1 can crushed pineapple (20 oz) – Do not drain

¼ cup Lemon juice and 1 package mcp pectin

4.       Stir thoroughly  to dissolve pectin

5.       Bring to boil (Stir constantly)

6.       Add 8 ½ cups sugar (pre measure + dump quickly)

7.       Mix well

8.       Bring to a full rolling boil that can’t be stirred down

9.       Add ¼ teaspoon marq. Or Wesson oil to prevent foaming

10.   Boil hard exactly 4 minutes – Stirring constantly

11.   Remove from heat, skin foam + pour into clean jars / no lids

12.   Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath

Jam

Our first jam we sold in our stand was peach. It is still one of our favorites. It is made by a local jam maker with local fruit from our orchard. We started selling jam in 1998. We now offer strawberry, blackberry, boysenberry, marionberry, raspberry, plum, peach and apricot.

This season we will be adding pepper jelly and apple butter.

Our Stand Will Be OPEN

May 6, 13, 20, and 27 (Fridays only in May)

10am – 5pm

Beef, pork, oatmeal cookies, jam, oatmeal, farm fresh eggs & unique gift.

New displays & new creation each week

Spring at the Farm

Feel Good Quote

"For beautiful
eyes, look for the
good in others;  for
beautiful lips,
speak only words of
kindness;  and for
poise, walk with the
knowledge that you
are never alone."
Audrey Hepburn

Spring Day 2011

We welcome the sunshine this morning. Don't you just have more energy when you wake up to one of those crisp, clear, sun filled days? As I make this post, I can hear the birds in the oak tree ouside of my offfice, boy are there a couple of "bossy bettys" in the group.

Mud Boots

This  is the time of year when we all get ready to pull off the mud boots and wear something else, anything else! Although, like all the things in life that change, the rubber boot has come along way baby. When I    started wearing them you had basic black and army green. And remember how cold your feet got? Now we have color and insulation! Thank goodness there is no film footage of me doing a faceplant in the mud a couple of weeks ago. There I was in my cute little muck boots, plowing through the mud (without a tractor) with my feet, using my arms like some big windmill, trying to stay balanced. The rain water and our clay soil had made this wonderful mixture of yuck. I took a step, but my foot and boot did not come with me, hence the faceplant. For once I did not have a crowd of onlookers.