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Monday, August 27, 2007

Vol 12 No 13 - Week of August 27th

Tasting Day
We had a great day at the 8th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting @ the Hoboken Historical Museum on SUNDAY. It was also great to meet many CSF members there. Thanks to all the members who helped at the tasting table, Valerie & Eric who helped me at the checkout and to Holly & Bob for all their hard work! We had a trying end of the day Saturday and start to the morning on Sunday. Our delivery van was leaking by the rear axle and we were on borrowed time for a possible problem with the differential (we think), so luckily we got to Hoboken a-o-k, but had to gear ourselves for getting the van dropped off to our mechanic in Midland Park. With no way to get back to the farm from Midland Park I fortunately was able to borrow my parent’s car in Ramsey to get back to Wantage. We were able to get back to the farm & pick up Farmer Rich’s S-10 pickup so he could make the CSF deliveries on Monday & Tuesday while the van is being fixed. We finally arrived at the farm at 9:30pm. Even though there was a full-moon, I was able to identify a number of constellations (no street lights at the farm). We had a beautiful end to a very long day by seeing some shooting stars! Weather Report: We had 2 ½” of rain on Tuesday which wrecked a lot the heirloom tomatoes. Not only our tomatoes were affected but many of the farmers who we planned on getting some varieties for the tomato tasting. What happened is that there was a long period of time without rain, and the excessive rain cracked the tomatoes and they were not shippable. This was not very good news when were the a few days away from the Tomato Tasting & a week away from CSF deliveries. We didn’t do too badly all in all. Some farmers we know in Warren County had a severe hail storm which whipped out entire crops and one group had to cancel their annual tomato tasting and another lost over 1 million mums! What’s Up & Growing: Looks like the turnips are finally coming up. The red mustard as well as green mustard is doing nicely. The lettuce that was to be transplanted bolted so that failed. The late planting of tomatoes in the greenhouse were staked up & are in flower, so we should be able to deliver tomatoes to the end of the season, barring some disaster or another. These tomatoes are resistant to frost as they are under cover. Animal Report: We had a nice stand of kale until our “gourmet” groundhog decided to eat most of it by the time we left on Saturday. While we were loading the van on Saturday for the Tomato Tasting, twin fawns decided to watch us sorting & loading the truck. One of the twins was definitely curious and I was able to get pretty close to them before they bolted. I was wondering if perhaps the one twin was the same fawn I found in the cattails some weeks back. It was almost like she recognized me! Corn Report: Sweet corn from Green Valley farm is in tonight’s delivery. Green Valley is just down the road from our farm. Fruit Report – Gravenstein Apples –Freshly picked from Windy Brow Farm. Upcoming Events: · September 8th – 6th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting – Ramsey Day · September 15th – 3rd Annual Garlic Day @ the Arboretum-Frelinghuysen Arboretum – Morristown, NJ Pick of the Week: Click on the link below (or on the right) for your drop-off location. This time of year the deliveries will be the same in pounds & variety but may include different items at each location.

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