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