news and articles

• Through October 2010
  The Edible Garden
  Growing and Preparing Good Food
  
  Lucke`s Mill Creek Farm will be attending the Oct 16 – 17, 2010 Fall Finale Weekend at the New York Botanical Gardens. We were invited to participate in this prestigious Festival Weekend on the Tasting Terrace. We are delighted to join the famous artists and chefs that will be cooking on the weekend including: Mario Batali, Michael Psilakis, Marc Forgione, and Todd English.
  
  Celebrate Harvest Week, October 9–17, by making apple sauce, pressing apple prints, and exploring fruits and seeds harvested by animals around the Garden.
  
  So Much More Than Just Good Food! Stroll the cool and refreshing paths of the 50-acre Forest* along the scenic Bronx River, stop and smell the roses in the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, experience the serenity of the Rock Garden waterfall, and enjoy summer refreshments and lunch at one of our Cafes.
  
  Find out more about this culinary event here.
  
• Summer 2010
  Luke's products were recognized by one of the premier gourmet and artisan food magazines as a unique healthy natural appetizer.
  
  Beyone the Bulb
  If you can’t find any garlic scapes at your farmers’ market this year, it might be because Bob Emens got them first. Every June, Emens sources nearly 1,400 pounds of the tender green spirals from farms across New York, including his own Mill Creek Farm in Clifton, and turns them into Luke’s Pickled Garlic Scapes and Garlic Scape Pesto. With three pickled varieties to choose from, including Dill and Habanero Pepper, they are an addictive seasonal treat.

  “I discovered garlic scapes at a farmers’ market years ago, but it took a gift of pickled scapes from a close friend to wake me up to their possibilities,” says Emens, who named the brand after his farm’s original owner. “They were unique and locally grown, and were clearly a flavorful and healthy snack.” Processed and pickled at their peak of freshness, the scapes’ garlic flavor is much milder than the bulb’s and the texture is similar to a young green bean. They add zing to salads or pasta, even cocktails, but eating them straight out of the jar is fine too. Read it here.

• Fall, 2010
  Fall 2009 Planting for 2010
  Another crop is going into the ground. More garlic is planted than previously and we expect to continue this trend over the coming years.
  
  We look forward to the emergence of the plants and continued growth of the business in the future . Click on the image to your right to see the 2010 Fall Planting. As well as growing the garlic we continue to grow the business and will provide online purchasing with credit cards soon. Stay tuned for more garlic, more products and new ways for you to purchase.

• June, 2010
  Jim Mott “The Itinerant Artist Visits Luke's Mill Creek Farm
  In June of 2001 we were pleased to host Jim Mott “The Itinerant Artist” at the farm for 2 days. He visits various locations, the host puts him up while Jim paints local scenes. His blog that talks about his visit to my house – about halfway down the page.
  
  Here is an excerpt of that post: "When Bob Emens contacted me last December about hosting, I knew I’d have to make his place part of my local “tour.” Not only was he the first person to make an offer after reading about my project in Mark Hare’s column, but his location – the hamlet of Clifton in rural SW Monroe County – added useful geographic diversity to my list of stops. And there was an added hook: Bob farms and pickles garlic scapes. How could I resist the chance to paint a garlic scape landscape? The time for that, Bob said, would be early June, right before the scape harvest.
  
  A scape, incidentally, is the flower stalk of the garlic plant – typically cut from the maturing garlic plant before flowering, to allow the garlic bulb to develop more fully. The scape has been gaining popularity as a vegetable in its own right. This painting of a scape (above) was done on my second evening, as I waited for a dinner of pasta with garlic scape pesto.
  
  I arrived on a hazy Wednesday afternoon. First off, I got a tour of Bob’s handsomely built house (he’s also an engineer and designer), and his extensive property. Then, after months of eager anticipation, I settled down to do my first garlic scape landscape. More exactly, it was a small field of garlic plants with the neighbor’s house in the background. I have to admit that painting garlic scape landscapes wasn’t as fun as thinking about painting them, but the effort connected me to the place and made me appreciate dinner more: grilled salmon with garlic scape pesto, and dill pickled scapes on the side. Fortunately my brief adventure in Clifton was just beginning.
  
  After dinner we drove to the local cemetery – a small, square parcel of mowed grass with simple stones and several trees, including a venerable, dark spruce. I’m not someone who is necessarily drawn to cemeteries, but this one made me feel pleasantly – if oddly – at home. The place expressed simple beauty, and a sense of being cared for, despite evidence that some local teenagers had driven a pickup truck through some of the rows of gravestones.
  
  I think it was partly the ploughed field along one side of the cemetery, stretching out and up across a large, wide hill that gave the place a special resonance. My spirit felt settled and uplifted at the same time. Late dusk charged the setting with mood and inspiration rather than spookiness – although I was a little unsettled when Bob, in another corner of the cemetery, started conversing loudly with no one I could see or hear. I’d forgotten he had a cell phone.
  
  Read more in the blog and see more artwork here.
  

• January 31, 2010
  Mitch Pritchard • Staff writer •
  Simple gift leads Chili man to new garlic business
  
  "The scape is the hard part near the neck of the garlic plant. It is usually snapped off and left on the ground to go back into the soil. But they've become the centerpiece of Emens' business, Luke's Mill Creek Farm.
  
  Emens, 59, sells pickled garlic scapes and garlic scape pesto to wineries, novelty food shops and at festivals.
  
  "I wanted something to do when I retired as a write-off and to feed my Type A personality," Emens says. "I thought I could improve on the product, but boy, that is easier said than done."
  
  This Democrat and Chronicle full article can be read here.
  
• September 4, 2009.
  More growth in 2009.
  2008 was a great year and we brought the taste of Luke’s products to even more new people in 2009. Each festival is such a treat for the experiences, new faces and comments on my products. The crop for 2009 is looking healthy and growing rapidly. Hope to see everyone at the festivals! Click on the image to your right to see the 2009 Crop.
  
  
  
• June 18, 2008
  A GOOD APPETITE; A Garlic Festival Without a Single Clove
  `... it was no surprise that the first time I came upon a cascading pile of vivid green, curling garlic scapes at the farmers' market, I had to buy some, even though I had no idea of what do with them. ..Scapes, I learned, are the flower shoots of the garlic bulb. Farmers cut them off to encourage the bulbs to grow plumper. When the garlic is harvested before individual cloves are formed, it is called green garlic.`
  
  This New York Times article is full of interesting information about ``all things garlic including many wonderful recipes. Read it here.

• Chile Pepper - June 2007
  Bulbs of Plenty by Kelley Kingman
  This 4-page article features Luke's products.
  "The Garlic Festival is the perfect crossroads for the farmer and the food-lover, and often the two are one and the same."
  
  Read this article here.

Chile Pepper magazine, is the hottest magazine around for those who love bold, flavorful food. Luke's family of fine food products have been featured in this "hot" magazine for the tastebuds.

Kelly Klingman, writer, was introduced to Luke's fine products at a festival and wrote to us. Please click on the link below to read Kelly Klingman's article.

"We met briefly at the garlic festival this past fall. I am writing a feature article on garlic festivals for the May/June issue of Chile Pepper magazine. I sampled your pickled garlic scapes and would like to include it in a sidebar of festival highlights"
Kelly Klingman