Catalpa Ridge News - Vol 11 No 3
CSF deliveries to: Hoboken Midtown - Hoboken West - Jersey City Hamilton Park - Ramsey - Vernon Valley - On-Farm Pick-up Wantage
Ever since our first year we have been delivering daisies this time of year. They grow naturally in our fields and are quite pretty swaying in the breeze. Just a little something extra to brighten up your day. (Sorry no recipe – just put in a vase with water and enjoy).
From the Fields This past week it has been VERY dry with no rain. We think there is an alien conspiracy to take our moisture to another universe. Hopefully the farm received some much needed rain in Monday night’s storm. Farmer Rich has been diligently irrigating the fields and has purchased some new sprinklers from Tractor Supply. Sometime Farmer Sue tilled up the round field to be planted this week. Farmer Rich and Leslie will plant it this week with tomatoes, peppers, herbs & squash. Farmer Rich did notice a ground hog eyeing out the crops in the big greenhouse and another one was eating some parsley. Last year at this time the Tasmanian Devil had struck. Luckily he has not returned
Weather Report: Hot-Hot-Hot for the past few days and this is the transition period between the cool weather & warm weather crops. Cool weather crops (such as lettuce & greens) are starting to shut down and the warm weather crops (such as eggplant, peppers & tomatoes) are growing in spurts. Oriental greens are almost done and this is the last delivery of Tokyo Bekana. The fava’s are starting to “bean-up” and the peas are shutting down (both are cool weather crops).
Animal Report:Creature of the Week
Who’s Climbing on the Garlic? For those of you who have visited the farm know how “wild” it is. We have 
deer, bear, groundhogs, rabbits, song birds, hawks and more. This past weekend Farmer Rich was getting ready to water the greenhouse and the sole garlic plant in the greenhouse had an ugly toad climbing up it! It was probably no larger than the length of his thumb. I guess it wanted a better view of the crops! When Farmer Rich asked Sue if she had any recipes for ugly toads, it appears that the toad gave Rich an obscene hand gesture!
What’s Up & Growing: This week’s plantings included Gai-Lon, celery, celerac, peppers, eggplant and tomatoes. Amaranth and golden-ball turnips were seeded (prior turnips were washed away in the rain 2 weeks ago). A pick-your-own cherry tomato row has been planted so any members visiting the farm this summer can pick their own to bring home.
Strawberry Report: Looks like this is last week of strawberries. Normally we are only able to deliver one week, but this year we were able to deliver two as we were working with two farmers. This week’s strawberries are from Heather & Adam Hubbard, just around the corner from us. Fruit from Windy Brow will be starting in July!
Pick of the Week:This time of year we may have to split the deliveries between the different drop-off sites. Perhaps one site will get Kale, while the other Maruba. The deliveries will all be the same size & variety, but may include a few different items. Click on the link on the right for your drop-off site to see you pick-of-the-week.
Farmer Rich setting up new sprinkler
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