We are busy getting ready for our final Creekside Market Day for 2024
November 30th from 9 until 1
Our goat milk soap is all finished and curing.
We will be working on our calendula & comfrey infused salve so you can stock up for winter.
We will have fresh serrano infused honey, comb honey, mini honeys and our 1 pound jars.
Plus – we will have some gift options that I will add as they are finished.
BUT, We still have a nice selection of organic plants for your garden & yard.
You can also order any of our remaining gift sets, goat milk soap & honey.
They will be available by appointment this week – first come first served
Send me a message by email to pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com
PM on our facebook page Creekside Natural Farm
Or, call and leave a message 815-467-5259
tomatoes & peppers in 4″ biodegradable containers $4
Cabbage, arugula, onions, lettuce, garlic & collards in 4 packs – $3
Succulents, herbs & flowers 4 pks – $3, single (larger) – $4
Succulent planter – $45
Herb planter – $45
Dwarf blueberry bush – $18
Body butters, salve, soap & salt soak
Honey
Goat milk soap – $6
Soap scrub bags
1 pound Raw local honey $14.
In addition to our organic garden plants, we have been busy making our goat milk soap & body products. We will have plenty of our raw honey and also our Suri alpaca yarn.
We are 17 days away from our 1st Market Day of 2024! We’ve been super busy taking care of plants in the greenhouse, getting honey ready & making up some great planters.
Plants will also be available by appointment the following week – First come first served
If you did not make a pre-order – Don’t worry. There will be plenty of heirloom tomatoes available & some other veggie plants. We are also growing a larger variety of herbs & flowers chosen for their benefit to pollinators. All of our plants are grown in organic soil from seed or cuttings in our organic greenhouse.
Heirloom tomatoes ready to be moved up to their final container
Compostable containers for our tomato plants
LOTS of herbs
All of these plus a few I may have missed
St Johns Wort
Mojito Mint
Chocolate Mint
Oregano
Chamomile
Green Garlic
Thyme
Orange Thyme
Calendula
Lemon Balm
Genovese basil
Holy Basil & Lemon Basil
Blue Spice basil & Opal basil
Yarrow is the Herb of the year for 2024!
Rosemary
Our hand made goat milk soap will be fully cured and ready for the Market. We have our regular favorites plus a couple of new Summer scents. Soap is made here on the farm with mainly organic & sustainable oils and butters.
Gardeners bar with ground walnut shells
Honey will be available in 1 pound jars, in the comb, 3 oz skep jars with a mini dipper & I will be starting a batch of Hot Honey with the last of our dried serrano peppers.
Raw & Local fluid honey
1 pound in glass or plastic with dispenser lid
Raw & Local Comb Honey
Our beautiful Suri alpaca yarn makes a great gift.
Our greenhouse is full of baby plants in various stages of growth. We grow all of our own plants – either from seed or cuttings – in organic soil & with organic fertilizer. If we happen to have an insect problem, we use only organic products to keep things under control.
In addition to the following, we will have some surprises for Mothers Day gifting.
Spring garlic can be planted with close spacing for green garlic or given more space for fall harvest of garlic bulbs.
Tomato plants will have 1 more “up potting” into their compostable containers.
Pansies will be just 1 of the flower plants we will offer this year.
Orange thyme is among 1 of the many herbs we are growing this year!
Freshly up potted broccolini, broccoli, cauliflower & cabbage
Hand made goat milk soap
$6
We have also been busy making our goat milk soap. That has been curing for about 2 weeks and will be ready for our Market Day.
Raw & Local fluid honey
1 pound in glass or plastic with dispenser lid
$14.
Raw & Local Comb Honey
$20.
Plant pre- orders can be picked up any time on Market Day. We will have them ready for you. They will also be available for pick up the following week by appointment.
You will still be able to pick up honey and soap by appointment throughout the summer.
We’ve tried other brands but found them too thin to hold up in the greenhouse but still not really “plantable”. We’ve also tried different plastic containers – including one made from recycled plastic – but just don’t feel good about adding more plastic into the environment.
So, here is our new “find”! It isn’t “plantable” but is compostable. It’s a sturdy 4 inch container that we feel will hold up to the longer greenhouse time that peppers and eggplant require and also be great for tomatoes.
Most of our herbs will still be in the plastic containers because we already own them.
They are recyclable & we hope our customers will choose to do that.
Raw & Local fluid honey
1 pound in glass or plastic with dispenser lid
$14
Raw & Local Comb Honey
$20.
You can contact us by email pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com
You can send us a PM on our facebook page
or you can call us at 815-467-5259 (please leave a message)
They have it on their counter – cash only and please have exact change. This is a great favor to us and also makes it easy for our customers who might not have time to come out to the farm.
Plants will be ready for pick-up in early May.
Here’s how it will work this year:
All of our plants are grown from seed in our on-farm organic greenhouse. We use organic soil & fertilizer and no chemical insecticides of fungicides.
German Johnson – Recommended for higher productivity in a pink heirloom. Earlier, more uniform, and slightly smaller than Brandywine at 8-16 oz. Fruits have lots of deep, acidic tomato flavor and a rich, creamy texture. This is the regular-leaf strain, which is earlier and more productive than the potato-leaf strain.
UPDATE: Tappy’s Heritage is back!
Tappy’s Heritage is our favorite medium size red tomato. It’s a great multi purpose tomato. One of the first to ripen with abundant tomatoes for eating or canning. We were not able to find the seed when we placed our initial seed orders but found it back in stock today – Just in time!
EDIT: Spring King is sold out
Spring King Produces large, red globes that are slightly oblate. Dual purpose processing and slicing type. Very nice variety for its dark red color, good flavor and blemish-free fruit. When harvested, calyx stays with the plant, not the fruit. Dark green, healthy looking plants provide good leaf cover so there is less sun scald. Yields well late into the season with split resistant 7-10 oz fruit that hold into autumn better than most other tomatoes – could just as easily have been called, “Spring Through Fall King.”
Mortgage Lifter
85 days. Large, smooth, 1-lb pink fruit has a delicious, rich, sweet taste. This variety has become very popular in recent years and was developed by M.C. Byles of Logan, West Virginia. After crossing varieties for 6 years and selecting the best, he introduced this beauty that he named Mortgage Lifter in the 1940s, after he sold plants for $1 each and paid off the $6000 mortgage on his house.
Barnes Mountain Orange
Barnes Mountain Orange – IND (90 days) Kentucky heirloom. Large beefsteak, brilliant orange fruits that deliver flavor and yields. Bring some sunshine into your kitchen with this delicious tomato. Some disease resistance; vigorous plants need staking. As the years go by I appreciate this variety more and more. It is becoming a customer favorite, I think we all realize how rare this one is! Firm and juicy fruits have no other rival in the yellow/orange category. Perfect balance of sweet/tart.
Cherokee Purple
80 days. An old Cherokee Indian heirloom, pre-1890 variety; beautiful, deep, dusky purple-pink color, superb sweet flavor, and very-large-sized fruit. Try this one for real old-time tomato flavor. Our favorite dark tomato and one of our best selling varieties.
Blue Beauty
80 days. This recent Brad Gates introduction was selected from a cross between ‘Beauty King’ and a blue tomato. Fruit is modest beefsteak-type slicer, weighing up to 8 ounces, and the flavor is as good as its outstanding antioxidant content! Gorgeous, deep blue-black shoulders make this unique among slicing types. Excellent potential for market, as the fruit holds well on the vine. Sunburn and crack resistance are a welcome bonus.
Carbon
90 days. Winner of the 2005 “Heirloom Garden Show” best-tasting tomato award. These have won taste awards coast to coast in the last few years, so we were proud to locate a small supply of seed. The fruit is smooth, large, and beautiful, being one of the darkest and prettiest of the purple types we have seen. They seem to have an extra dose of the complex flavor that makes dark tomatoes famous.
Big Rainbow
85 days. Huge fruit up to 2 lbs.; delicious and sweet tasting. These tomatoes are very striking sliced, as the yellow fruit has neon red streaking though the flesh. An heirloom preserved by members of Seed Savers Exchange.
Brandywine
80 days. The most popular heirloom vegetable! A favorite of many gardeners, large fruit with superb flavor. A great potato-leafed variety from 1885! Beautiful pink fruit up to 1½ lbs each!
They also make great salsa
San Marzano
82 days The infamous sauce tomato, deserving every bit of its stellar reputation. Clusters of red, oblong fruits ripen uniformly to allow for small batch processing of your sauces and marinara. Superb flavor, very meaty with few seeds and juice, makes this one of the best canning tomatoes we offer. Try roasting them for an even more rewarding experience!
Amish Paste A longtime favorite heirloom plum.
Large for a sauce tomato, Amish Paste’s slightly irregular plum to strawberry-shaped fruits avg. 8-12 oz. with excellent flavor. These meaty tomatoes are good in salads and great for processing. A Slow Food USA Ark of Taste variety.
Piglet Willie’s French Black Dark, 2-3” fruit weigh 2-3 oz and have a full-bodied meaty taste. Not a true black tomato, but very dark red with chocolate shoulders. Fruit ripens in clusters of 4 or 5 and can be harvested by snipping the cluster stem.
Mountain Magic produces high yields of 2 oz., bright red, round salad tomatoes with very sweet flavor. The uniform, crack-resistant fruits may be truss harvested. Great in salads or right off the vine.
Sweetie A good, reliable, sweet red cherry. If you’re looking for a classically delicious, productive and sweet cherry tomato, this is the easy choice. Fruit are 1-1½” in diameter. Skin is firm but not tough. Great for gardeners or for market production, as fruit are delicious right off the vine, productive, relatively firm and store well. A true basket filler that lives up to its name.
Pink Bumblebee
60-70 days. A stunning cherry tomato, of recent breeding from Artisan Seeds. The fruit has a bright, sweet flavor, and the color is vibrant fire-engine-red with golden orange striping. Vigorous vines yield crack resistant fruit over a very long season. Tolerates cool nighttime temps and hot days. Salad will never be the same!
Black Cherry
75 days. Beautiful black cherries look like large, dusky purple-brown grapes; they have that rich flavor that makes black tomatoes famous. Large vines yield very well; very unique and delicious.
Sungold
Intense fruity flavor.
Exceptionally sweet, bright tangerine-orange cherry tomatoes leave everyone begging for more. Vigorous plants start yielding early and bear right through the season.
Black Strawberry
60 days. Fantastic, sugar-sweet tomato flavor, that is fruity, with a hint of grape and plum flavors. If you relish the experience of digging into a bowl of high-quality cocktail tomatoes, then the Black Strawberry is your tomato. This 1-ounce fruit is marbled in blue, scarlet and gold. A bowl full resembles a luminous and luxurious bunch of gems, and indeed the flavor is decadent and indulgent, with perfectly sweet and tart balanced flavor! This extremely productive and early variety makes it an obvious choice for gardeners and market farmers who want rugged, early-producing plants, and do not want to sacrifice eating quality.
Sweet Cherriette Almost always the first tomato of the season for us, sometimes by two whole weeks! Beautifully branched, small vines are great for container culture or hanging baskets. Flavor is reminiscent of red currant types, and more tart than you would expect with a name like Sweet Cherriette. Fruit are larger than true currants, but smaller than cherry tomatoes. We call it an indeterminate dwarf, as it pumps out several flushes of fruit over the course of the season.
Nevsky Dwarf Another round, red, mid-season tomato? It takes a lot for a tomato to impress us these days and Nevsky surely did. Dwarf plants with good disease resistance produce fruit that hold late into the season when all other varieties succumb to wet, cold weather. Attractive, meaty, round, slightly flat, slicer type fruit average 6 oz. The blemish-free fruit keep well after harvest. And it tastes really good, too.
Confetti Dwarf This tomato really knows how to party, and not just because of the name. Dwarf Confetti’s striped skin is a festive addition to any garden or food dish, and the sweet flavor has a pizzaz that many older dwarf tomato varieties lack. Slightly flattened 6-8 oz globe fruit have yellow/pink bicolored flesh. High yielding plants benefit from a short cage or staking so they don’t fall over.
Tasmanian Chocolate
Delicious slicer for small spaces.
A small plant with abundant flavor, Tasmanian Chocolate retains the superior qualities of its heirloom parentage. Unlike traditional heirlooms, it is well-suited for patios and containers (owing to its tidy plant habit and short stature) and only needs a standard tomato cage for support. These burgundy 4–6 oz., ribbed tomatoes are richly flavored and perfect for slicing onto sandwiches.
Jalapeno Lemon Spice
A stunning burst of fruity flavor and vibrant color makes this a super exciting new hot pepper! This colorful jalapeño was introduced by New Mexico State University.This variety has major eye appeal and stands out in salsas and other fresh preparations; the color is stunning and really pops. Edible landscaping is a breeze with Lemon Spice; the sturdy plants are covered in sunny color. Great for mixed-bed or container planting.
Red Knight Bell
Big, blocky fruits are early to turn red. Stronger disease resistance than King Arthur and a more compact, open plant. Flavor is fruity and sweet.
Flavorburst Initial color is lime green, turning to golden yellow when ripe. Excellent, sweet flavor. Medium-large fruits are mostly 3-lobed and slightly elongated.
Blot A stellar sunset of colors and the very best flavor we have tasted in a sweet pepper. The flesh of this thick walled pepper is supremely crunchy and juicy. A wonderful snacking and raw eating pepper, adding dazzling color to salads, and well suited to cooking too. An amazing pepper
Melrose Pepper This is a superb heirloom frying pepper, brought from Italy years ago. The 4” fruit turns brilliant-red and start producing very early, with flavor that is rich, flavorful, and very sweet. Great fried or fresh, a true Italian that seems to have been widely grown in the Chicago area.
Shishito favorite old Japanese variety which produces 3 inches long, slightly wrinkled fruit that is perfect for making tempura and other traditional recipes. Fruit is emerald green in color, ripening to red, and mildly flavored with just a bit of spice.
Ajvarski Sweet Pepper
80 days. Two-foot, stocky plants are covered in 6- to 7-inch, broadly wedgeshaped pods that ripen from green to deep, rich red. These peppers are incredibly fragrant and tasty. When you throw half a dozen on your grill, everybody in your neighborhood will smell them! These thick-fleshed traditional peppers are roasted on flat metal stoves, peeled, then ground into a traditional relish called ajvar, which is eaten spread on bread, often with sirenje, a local cheese similar to feta. Nearly every rural household puts up a supply of ajvar for winter eating. In autumn, North Macedonians flock to the markets in fertile valleys in the east to buy bushels of the best aromatic roasting peppers from the local villages. The original seed was a gift from the students in the villages of Kalugeritsa and Zleovo.
Sweet Banana
60 days. We’re thrilled to offer this classic sweet wax pepper that has been grown by generations of gardeners. Sleek, tapered fruit reaches 6-7 inches long, 2 inches wide and a translucent ivory color when immature, ripening quickly to stunning red-orange.
Poblano The 2 and 3-lobed fruits are smooth, shiny, and very dark green. Similar in appearance to Baron, but fruits average slightly larger at 5–6″ long x 3″ wide. Plants are tall, vigorous, and have an excellent yield potential.
Serrano Hot Pepper
75 days. An iconic chili hailing from the mountains of the Hidalgo and Puebla states of Mexico. Second only to jalapeño in popularity, serrano does have similar characteristics, except that the serrano averages 2-3 times hotter than jalapeños and are typically a bit thinner and shorter (approximately ½ inch thick and 3-4 inches long). This ubiquitous chili is easy to grow and prolific.
Jalapeno Craig’s Grande
A delicious, fat jalapeño that is perfect for making lots of salsa. Perfect for anyone who loves jalapeños. It has thick, flavorful, hot flesh.
Jalapeno Lemon Spice
A stunning burst of fruity flavor and vibrant color makes this a super exciting new hot pepper! This colorful jalapeño was introduced by New Mexico State University.This variety has major eye appeal and stands out in salsas and other fresh preparations; the color is stunning and really pops. Edible landscaping is a breeze with Lemon Spice; the sturdy plants are covered in sunny color. Great for mixed-bed or container planting.
Dancer Eggplant
Deep-pink Italian type.
Semi-cylindrical fruits are mid-sized (7–8″ long by 3–4″ diameter), mild, and nonbitter. Plants are strong and high-yielding.
Rosita Eggplant Lovely 8-inch x 4-inch neon, lavender-pink fruit has a mild, sweet, white flesh. The skin is tender and not bitter. Produces excellent yields.
Patio Baby Eggplant
The best container variety.
Bright purple flowers add beauty to this compact, edible ornamental. Well-suited for balconies, patios, and gardens and also ideal for pack sales and urban farming operations. Patio Baby is a true mini, maintaining proper proportions of fruit to calyx as it grows. Thin-skinned 2–3″ long fruit with tender flavor, perfect for grilling or roasting. Continuous set of spineless fruits make harvest pain- free and child-friendly.
You have a few days this week to get your soap, skin hydration supplies & honey before we take a break from on-farm pick-up. We will be taking a break for the rest on January to work on our 2024 plans.
We will have on-farm pick up available for the remainder of this week – January 4 through the 7th.
Send us an email or PM on Facebook with your order and preferred pick up day and time.
pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com
Goatmilk soap $6.
Creamy Body butter – $15.
Lavender or Orange/ginger/ylang ylang
Salve – Small $10. large $19.
Lavender or unscented
Facial Oil – $25.
Salt Soak – $6.
Raw & Local fluid honey
1 pound in glass or plastic with dispenser lid
$14.
Raw & Local Comb Honey
$20.
We are considering offering strawberry plants again this year and adding blueberry plants.
Both varieties can be grown either in a container or planted in the garden. However, our immediate area does not have the correct soil PH for blueberries. So, we are choosing this dwarf variety in order to provide the perfect PH.
Seascape was released by the University of California breeding program in 1992. This day-neutral has been highly successful for north eastern growers for summer and fall production. The plants have the potential to be the most productive of any day-neutral. The berries are large, firm and have good flavor when picked ripe from the plant. Seascape is considered by our customers to have the best flavor of any of our everbearers.
Northblue
A cold-hardy blueberry variety known for its landscape appeal and quality fruit production. Berries have a “wild” taste, ideal for baking or fresh eating, and are particularly juicy. A half-high blueberry with wild lowbush ancestry can withstand temperatures to minus 35°F, though snow protection boosts production. Recommended for those seeking higher yields in colder climates.
Plants will need to be ordered soon so please contact us by e-mail with your interest so we know what to order. The price for each blueberry plant will be between $18. & $20 and the strawberry plants will be around $3.50 each.
pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com
We wish a happy & healthy 2024 to all of our Creekside Natural Farm friends and family. Looking forward to a new garden season!
Here is my favorite tomato to give you something to look forward to.
Blue Beauty
80 days. This recent Brad Gates introduction was selected from a cross between ‘Beauty King’ and a blue tomato. Fruit is modest beefsteak-type slicer, weighing up to 8 ounces, and the flavor is as good as its outstanding antioxidant content! Gorgeous, deep blue-black shoulders make this unique among slicing types. Excellent potential for market, as the fruit holds well on the vine. Sunburn and crack resistance are a welcome bonus.
We will have lots of lavender, honey from our farm hives, hand made goat milk soap, herb and succulent plants AND, the garlic will be ready! Plan to come out.
Lavender in the stages of processing
Fresh lavender soap will be cut, cured and ready for the market.
In addition to our organic garden plants, we have been busy making our goat milk soap & body products. We will have plenty of our raw honey and also our Suri alpaca yarn.
All of our plants are growing in organic soil in our organic greenhouse. Most are heirlooms – that means you can save the seed (after hand pollinating & isolating a blossom) and grow the exact same variety from that seed. It also means that variety was chosen for incredible flavor – not the ability to ship the produce across the country & not necessarily for the perfect appearance of the tomato, eggplant, pepper, ect… We do grow a few hybrids (not at all the same as GMO) because we have requests for some – like Sungold cherry tomatoes and dwarf tomatoes for containers. We choose some hybrid sweet bell peppers because we have not found a reliable heirloom that turns color in our climate (Red Knight, Flavorburst & Cupid are examples). All of our herbs are grown from open pollinated seed or cuttings that we take from our own plants.
Tomato plants
Pepper plants
Herb plants
Cabbage & celery
Broccoli, parsley & yarrow
Rosemary & lavender
Sunflowers, summer squash, cucumbers & cantaloupe
Cilantro, celery, sweet marjoram, chamomile, parsley, lettuce, onions & yarrow
Our raw honey come from hives on our farm
Raw & Local fluid honey
1 pound in glass or plastic with dispenser lid
2 new soaps this season – 1 with a new scent and 1 with a new shape
Both made with local goat milk and organic oils & butters (Olive, coconut, tallow, shea & castor)
Sunflower/Sandalwood
Gardeners bar
Our honey is re-stocked and available for easy pick-up at Minooka Grain & Lumber.
You can get our honey without a trip to the farm!
They have the basket on their counter. Glass jars only at this time.
1 pound for $14. Cash only
My first batch of Spring soap is Lilac – because it’s my favorite!
All of our soap is made here in small batches. We use organic and sustainable ingredients – local when possible. Our goat milk comes from a local farm. The majority of our soap is made with the following ingredients. We do make a sea salt bar with no animal products and – what I call a Luxury bar with added butters replacing some of the coconut oil & some extra wonderful EO’s.
Local goat milk, organic olive oil, organic coconut oil, organic tallow (from grass fed/local beef), organic shea butter, organic castor oil, Creekside honey, Lilac FO & lavender pigment.
I will be making soap from now until about mid March. We like to give our soap a minimum of 6 weeks for curing. As the soap cures, the liquid evaporates and the chemical process between the oils and the lye continues. The result is a nice long lasting and mild bar of soap.
Up until the past few months, we have been able to keep our ingredient costs down by using what we had purchased at the “old” prices. We are now using ingredients with a much higher cost and will be raising our price to $6.00 per bar. The new price will start with our May Creekside Market Day. We do have some bars still available at the $5.00 price. So, if you need soap now, let me know. I can send you a list.
email pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com
send me a PM on Facebook
call 815-467-5259
The new year will bring a few big changes to our little farm.
The biggest being that we no longer have our Farmstand for vegetable & egg sales.
We will have our organic plants available by pre-order. You will be able to pick them up at our May Creekside Market Day. I will be putting a list together in the next week so you can get an early start in planning your garden. Because, who doesn’t love to dream about beautiful & tasty veggies?!
Mortgage Lifter
Our Creekside Market Day will continue as it has for the past couple of years.
We will continue to offer our handmade goat milk soap, body products, raw honey and alpaca products & a few “surprises”.
We are considering offering a few classes. Let us know what would interest you. The suggestions we have received so far are for canning, gardening & soap making.
Honey and soap are available throughout the year by appointment.
Desiree red potatoes (yellow flesh)
Heirloom tomatoes
Shishito peppers
Sweet Frying and bell peppers
Seranno, Poblano & jalapeno peppers
Our Creekside Market Day is this coming Saturday ( Sept. 17th) from 8 until 1. In addition to fresh produce, we plan to have fresh flowers, Fresh Salsa kits, fresh herbs, dried peppers, lavender bundles, our Creekside raw honey & hand made goat milk soap.
Creekside Market Day is a great opportunity to see (& smell} some of the items that we don’t stock in the Farmstand. Our hand made goat milk soaps, body products, raw honey from our farm & Suri alpaca yarn.
We’ve been busy making soap so it will be cured and ready on Market Day. A couple of our favorite fall scents are back.
Our Farmstand is open for the season. It will be stocked with fresh produce as it’s ready. Everything we sell is produced on our farm and raised organically. That means that we will only have what is currently in season.
We do not have the electric cooler this year so are using the large “ice chest” style cooler for things that need to stay cool. We are not selling eggs. Flowers will be out on the weekends. Our Raw honey is available by pre-order. Please contact us ahead of coming out.
pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com
815-467-5259 (leave a message)
Message us on our Facebook page
Our Farmstand is self-service. We ask that our customers park along the driveway near the Farmstand and remain in that immediate area. There are electric fences to protect our animals & other hazards on a working farm. Please keep children with you and any pets in your vehicle (with the a/c running).
Roma tomatoes $3. per pint
New Potatoes $5. per bag (2 pounds)
Fresh garlic Jumbo $2. Large $1.50
Veggies that need to stay chilled. Beans, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers & eggplant
Roasted Garlic Dip
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat an oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
Cut off the top of the head of garlic to expose the cloves, trimming about 1/4 inch off of the top of each clove. You may need to trim individual cloves along the sides of the head. Brush the cut cloves with a small amount of olive oil, then nestle the head into a piece of aluminum foil.
Bake in the preheated oven until the cloves are tender and nicely browned, about 1 hour. Remove, and allow to cool to room temperature.
Once cool, squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins and into a mixing bowl. Mash well with a wire whisk, then add the sour cream, mayonnaise, green onions, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Whisk until evenly blended, then refrigerate 2 to 4 hours to allow the flavors to blend.
Lavender ready to cut
Fresh cut lavender – bundled and ready to dry
In addition to the dried lavender and fresh garlic, we will have our handmade goat milk soap & lotion bars, raw honey from our hives in several options, Fresh flowers, some succulent and herb plants and the start of the summer vegetables.
Garlic – ready to harvest
Garlic
Cleaned fresh garlic on top and curing garlic on the bottom
Our next Creekside Market Day will be on Saturday, July 9th from 8 until 1
Lemony Sunflower soaps
We will be in our farmstand with our own seasonal produce, fresh flowers, raw Creekside honey, handmade goat milk soap & body products & plants (succulent & herbs).
This is your best opportunity to check out the different soap scents & pick up some honey since we don’t keep soap or honey in our self-service farmstand.
We will make an update of available produce as we get closer to the date.
Our Farmstand will continue to be closed until July 9th. We hope to have summer vegetables at that time and will keep the stand open through the summer.
During the break, we will have honey available by appointment.
Raw & Local fluid honey
1 pound in glass or plastic with dispenser lid
$13.
Raw & Local Comb Honey
$20.
Mini Honey with dipper $5.
You can contact us ahead of coming out at 815-467-5259
pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com
or message us on our Facebook page
Our self service farmstand is located along our driveway. We ask that you park along the driveway. This is a working farm with many things happening – large equipment, farm animals, electric fences, ect… . Please stay in the immediate area around the stand, keep your children with you and your pets in your vehicle.
We’ve added some large started dahlia plants & 3 sizes of aloe in clay pots.
Aloe, Dahlias, mixed flower bowls & succulent gardens
Culinary & Cocktail herb bowls, washtub herb gardens & individual herb plants
Calendula, orange canna plants, wave petunias & 1 pansy bowl
One of a kind succulent garden
Dig your hole deeper than what you will need to the size of your plant. Extra loose soil at the base of your plant will give your plants roots a great place to spread out. Tomatoes can be planted deeper than they were growing in their container & will send out roots all along the buried stem.
We add a handful of Bio-Cal to each hole and mix it with the loose soil. You can also use ground egg shells or other types of calcium. Calcium helps with blossom end rot & also works for peppers & eggplant.
Place your plant in the hole. If there are any leaves growing that will be covered with soil, you can pinch them off where they join the stem. If you’re planting in a biodegradable pot, be sure that the soil will totally cover the pot. Once I have the plant in place, I will pull in enough soil to hold the plant upright in the hole.
Fill the hole around your plant about half full with water. I add fish emulsion to our planting water.
When the water has soaked in around the plant, back fill the hole with your loose soil. I like to leave a small depression around the plant so my watering water will soak in rater than running off. Now you can water your plant one last time and you’re finished planting!
One of our tomato plants 4 days after planting & so happy to be in the ground!
The final step is to give our plant some support. Heirloom plants are indeterminate – which means that they will continue to grow until something (frost or disease) kills them. If you keep your plant healthy, it will be less susceptible to disease and will grow taller than our 5 ft tall cages! We also add a steel steak because these plants will be large and heavy with tomatoes.
Tomatoes do not require much additional water after the first couple of weeks. We very rarely water ours at all after that point. Too much watering will also water down the flavor of your tomatoes. If you do need to water because it’s been extra hot & dry, only water the soil around the plant – never the plant.
Mini succulent gardens are $6. each. Some have 3 smaller plants & some have 1 larger plant.
Succulent garden in a white tin container with saucer is $15.00 and contains 3 or 4 plants
Aloe plants in small – $10.00, medium – $15.00 or large – $20.00. All sizes in terra cotta pots with decorative gravel
We also have a selection of one-of-a-kind succulent gardens. Priced from $15. to $50.
These will all be available on May 7th at our Creekside market Day.
We are taking orders for mixed herb containers only.
All of our herbs are grown in our organic greenhouse – either from seed or from our own plants that we propagated.
We will also have a few larger plants that will be available on Creekside Market Day.
Send us an email pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com
Send us a message on our Facebook page
Call us 815-467-5259 (leave a message)
Mini washtub planter holds either 2 or 3 plants. They make a great indoor planter for a sunny window. We have 4 combinations available – Oregano/rosemary/sweet basil, Mojito mint/Chocolate mint, Oregano/sweet basil/chives & lemongrass/lemon basil/opal basil $15. each
Herb Bowls are back! We have a Culinary bowl has Oregano/rosemary/sweet basil/cinnamon basil/chives. The Cocktail bowl has Mojito & chocolate mint/lemongrass/sweet basil/cinnamon basil. Both have a pansy plant. These planters can live outside or inside. $20. each
We also have individual herb plants in 3.5 inch containers for $3.50 each
All of these plus – Lemongrass, Cilantro, French Tarragon, Garden sage, thyme & chamomile.
Rosemary
Mojito & Chocolate mint
Lots of basil! Genovese, Opal, Lemon, Cinnamon & Cardinal
Oregano
Chives
We will be taking orders for our organic plants & potato sets this year.
We have listed all of the available varieties on both our Facebook page and at www.creeksidenaturalfarm.com. We currently have a list of tomatoes, a list of peppers & a list of our potato varieties. These are all available for pre-ordering and we strongly recommend that since some of the items are very limited.
Tomato and pepper plants will be ready for our Creekside Market Day on May 7th.
You can pick up your potato order starting today
To order – email pam@creeksidenaturalfarm.com
Send us a message on our FB page
Or call 815-467-5259 (leave a message if we don’t answer)
Graig’s Grande jalapeno is a large jalapeno that can be used green or allowed to ripen to a more flavorful and hot pepper. It’s large size makes it a great stuffer.
Lemon Spice jalapeno can be used green or allowed to ripen to yellow. In it’s ripe stage, it is hotter than the average jalapeno. It is also a beautiful addition to your salsa or canned jalapeños.
Serrano peppers are hotter than a jalapeno – great for drying and makes a wonderful siracha sauce!
Poblano peppers can be picked green or allowed to ripen from brown to red. Ripe poblanos have a wonderful rich flavor.
Carmen is a sweet Italian frying style pepper. Perfect for sautéing and adding to a sandwich or raw as a snack or added to a salad.
Lunchbox yellow pepper is a sweet snacking pepper. It also works well stuffed with your favorite cheesy filling.
Flavorburst Bell pepper starts as a lime green pepper and ripens as a super sweet large orange bell
Red Knight Starts as a dark green bell and ripens to a sweet red. Large peppers with thick flesh.
We will have a very limited number of pepper plants available this year. We’ve chosen our favorites based of flavor and their productivity.
$3.50 each
Our plants are still happily hanging out in our warm greenhouse but will be ready to go to their new home on May 7th. Just because you see plants for sale in the big box stores does not mean it’s time to plant them in our zone (5b). Our last average frost date is May 11th.
When You Bring your Seed Home
Store the seed potatoes in a cool, dark place with some humidity.
Two weeks before planting, bring the tubers into a warm area (65˚-
70˚ F) out of direct light to let them wake up. This will make it easier to cut your potatoes into planting size chunks because the “eyes” will start to sprout.
Preparing the Soil
Potatoes like any well-drained fertile soil. Prepare the soil by spreading
and working in compost or aged manure. You can also add some balanced granular fertilizer.
Planting Your Potatoes
Seed potatoes are subject to decay when they are exposed to hot, dry
soil or cold, wet soil. The soil temperature should have reached a temperature of about 50°F-70°F, or when the dandelions bloom.
You may either plant whole seed pieces about the size of a hen’s egg,
or you may cut larger tubers into pieces with 2-3 eyes each. Plant
fresh-cut seed pieces immediately into warm moist soil, 10”-12” apart
in furrows 4”-6” deep. Space the rows 32”-36” apart. Cover the seed
pieces with 2” of soil. If your soil is on the cool side, allow your freshly cut pieces to heal for about 24 hours before planting.
Use one pound of seed potato to plant 5-8 row feet, 2.5 pounds per
12-15 row feet, 5 pounds per 25 row feet, and 20 pounds per 100
row feet.
Hilling and Weed Control
Cultivate shallowly to prevent root damage. Create a hill of soil or
mulch around the potato plant where the new tubers can develop
between the seed piece and the soil surface. The potatoes will form above the original set so hilling is a very important part of getting a good harvest. When the plants are 6”-8”
tall, gently gather the soil or mulch up around the plant until just the
top of the plant is showing. When the plant again reaches 6”-8”, hill
again, building up a total of 12”-18” of soil or mulch around the
plant. Mulching thickly with hay after hilling will keep the soil cool
and weed-free.
Watering Your Crop
Potatoes are shallow-rooted and susceptible to water stress, especially
when they are bulking. Water plants adequately to ensure even soil
moisture throughout the growing season. Stop watering 2-4 weeks before harvest.
Controlling Pests and Disease
The insect that most affects potatoes is the Colorado Potato Beetle
(CPB). Several strategies are effective in controlling these pests:
• Plant your potatoes late enough to miss the emergence of the
beetles in the spring.
• Pick beetles from plants and destroy egg masses (yellow groups of eggs on the underside of leaves), beginning two weeks after they emerge.
• Watch for larvae; brush them into a container of soapy water.
Repeat daily.
• Entrust or Monterey Garden Spray – Contains a spinosad which is
effective on a wide range of insects including Lepidoptera caterpillars.
Both products are OMRI-approved for organic culture.
The most serious disease threat for potatoes is late blight, Phytophthora infestans, a fungus that thrives in moist conditions (50˚F-60˚F
and 95% humidity). This disease is aptly named, as it strikes in late
summer when the nights are cool and dewy and when the gardens and
crops are almost done. Late blight, which thrives on live plant material of the Solanaceae family (potato, tomato, eggplant, pepper, and
nightshade), can become firmly established very quickly, destroying a
crop in just 3 to 5 days. To control late blight:
• Plant clean, disease-free seed. Infected seed is a prime source
of inoculation, enabling the disease to get established early in
the season.
Do not plant your potatoes where you grew potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant or peppers last year.
Harvesting Your Crop
You may begin harvesting any time after the plants bloom, about 60
days after planting. To find the delectable early tubers, gently rummage around under the plant, being careful not to disturb the roots.
These “babies” are your new potatoes; they’re not very big, but they
are delicious! Remember, though, that whatever spuds you steal
now will diminish your final harvest. When the tops start to die back
(senesce), the potatoes are mature. Allow the plants to finish dying
on their own, or mow or burn the tops to hurry the process along. In
about two weeks, when the tops are dead and the skins are set, dig
your potatoes.
Storing Your Potatoes
After harvesting, allow the potatoes to dry thoroughly. Gently brush
off dirt, but do not wash tubers intended for storage. Discard green
potatoes. Damaged spuds are not suitable for storage, but they are
fine for the table when eaten right away. Store your crop in wooden
crates, baskets, or burlap bags where air can circulate freely. Place
the potatoes in a dark place in your root cellar. Potatoes store best
and longest at 38˚F-40˚F with 80%-90% humidity. Under the right
conditions, you can expect six months’ storage. Save your best storage
varieties for last. Enjoy your harvest!
