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.