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.

• Hoboken Midtown Drop -Off
• Hoboken West Drop-Off
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Drop-Off
• Beth Haverim Drop-off
• Click here for the Recipes of the Week

Vol 12 No 12 - Week of August 20th

Hoboken Tomato Tasting - Sunday

The 8th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting @ the Hoboken Historical Museum is SUNDAY. We’ll have over 30+ varieties to taste as well as farm-fresh produce for sale. Hope to see many members there. It is always great to meet CSF members we have never met before as well as see many of you we have been seeing for years. Always a fun event! The tasting is from 1-5 pm. It was a beautiful day to harvest potatoes on Sunday– and harvest we did! We harvested blue potatoes with the help of CSF members. Last harvest we dug with pitchforks in hand and this time we attached a small plow to the back of our small tractor to break up the soil and then harvested the potatoes. This turned out to be very efficient and saved a lot of time. Thanks to the members who helped! Weather Report: After the last rain, the fields turned up very dry. We had to run irrigation to keep the turnips going. Looks like it will be raining all week this week – which is needed. The temperatures have turned very cool which will slow up the warm weather crops such as tomatoes & eggplant. Not unusual for this time of year, as it is approaching the end of August! What’s Up & Growing: The red mustard and some tender green mustard is sprouting. The white carrots have not germinated yet, but they do have some time. The next planting of beets has just started to sprout. We hope they will come up with the coming rain. More lettuce & Chinese cabbage is slated to be planted this week. From the Fields: We lost a delivery of spinach as it bolted. As you notice in tonight’s delivery the heirloom tomatoes are more plentiful. There are some problems, but overall the remainder of the season looks good. The new planting of zucchini is coming along. Animal Report: It looks like we have a gourmet groundhog who is selectively sampling many of the crops. This week he hate the red amaranth, the rest of the broccoli he didn’t finish last week and appears he is developing a taste for heirloom tomatoes. Farmer Rich can’t find where he is breaking in. There must be some area of fencing in need of fixing. Corn Report: The sweet corn in tonight’s delivery is from a neighboring farm – Green Valley Farm. They use IPM technique and only spray when necessary. Farmer Adam’s corn (which was no-spray) was lost to striped cucumber beetles eating the tassels of the corn, therefore it could not pollinate so we could not delivery any of his corn. Fruit Report – Nectarines –Freshly picked from Windy Brow Farm. Upcoming Events: · August 26th – 8th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting – Hoboken Historical Museum · 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.

• Hoboken Midtown Drop -Off
• Hoboken West Drop-Off
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Drop-Off
• Beth Haverim Drop-off
• Click here for the Recipes of the Week

Vol 12 No 11 - Week of August 13th

A little too much rain! We always hope for the perfect season but it never happens. This year we started in a drought and how this past week as brought a little too much rain. The crops are generally doing well except or some spotty areas that are too wet. Next Trip to the Farm - Sunday – Aug 19th More potatoes to be harvested - Just let us know that you plan on coming up so we can plan on lunch & refreshments and send you directions. Spend the day or just come for a few hours. Weather Report: Rain-Rain & more rain. We received 2+ inches the beginning of the week and another 2+ inches on Friday. We unfortunately have a few sections of the field that are swamped out and some crops will be lost. On Friday, Rich & Leslie were able to work in the large greenhouse due to the heavy rain and were able to weed it. This was good as it was overdue. After the rain stopped the temperature nose-dived into the low 50’s. By the time they left, Leslie turned on the heat in the truck! The day before it was almost too hot to work. What’s Up & Growing: We replanted turnips for the 3rd time. If they don’t do well this time, we guess it is time to throw in the trowel on them. The recently seeded spinach probably will have to be replanted as it is not sprouting. One area that needs to be replanted is too wet to work. White radishes, Oriental greens, tender green mustard were planted this week. The Red mustard planted a few weeks ago is finally up. The other two plantings of potatoes are close to harvest time, which is perfect timing for the trip to the farm on Sunday. From the Fields: The cucumbers continue to produce well. We are getting some blight on some of the plantings of tomatoes. This unfortunately means those plants will die. Two greenhouse plantings and two field plantings so far are o.k. (these plantings amount to about 300 plants). The last plantings are carrots are growing well and so far the ground hog has not found them! The heavy rains put our beets turnips & radishes in jeopardy. Hopefully the fields were drain well. The summer squash are starting to taper off. Fruit Report – Tydeman Apples –Freshly picked from Windy Brow Farm. Tydeman’s descended from McIntosh in 1945 by virtue of a crossing with the little known Worcester Permain at the British East Malling Research Station. Beneath the thin, slick-feeling skin is a near-white, fine-textured flesh bearing a mild, enticing flavor. Upcoming Events:

• August 26th – 8th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting – Hoboken Historical Museum
• September 8th – 6th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting – Ramsey Day
• September 15th – 3rd Annual Garlic Day @ the Arboretum-Frelinghuysen Arboretum – Morristown, NJ

Who’s eating the tomatoes? A tomato horn worm !

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.

• Hoboken Midtown Drop -Off
• Hoboken West Drop-Off
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Drop-Off
• Beth Haverim Drop-off
• Click here for the Recipes of the Week

Vol 12 No 10 - Week of August 6th

The New Jersey State Fair started on Friday and the Open Vegetable Show was on Saturday. We won Best in Show for both hardneck & softneck garlic, with 10 blue ribbons in garlic overall and a blue ribbon for our only tomato submission, the Ramapo tomato. It is always fun to exhibit! The fair runs to August 12th in Augusta, NJ. If you want to check out events at the fair, visit: http://www.njstatefair.org/ . Fun for the kids to see farm animals, see the exhibits and they also have a carnival too. Our Farm Hand Leslie won 13 blue ribbons for her submission of vegetables, herbs & garlic. She was very excited and also won Best in Show for Anise Hyssop & Bee Balm!

Next Trip to the Farm - Sunday – Aug 19th More potatoes to be harvested - Just let us know that you plan on coming up so we can plan on lunch & refreshments and send you directions. Spend the day or just come for a few hours.

Weather Report: While it rained on Friday night the ground is dry. While Rich should have been watering on Saturday, he was at the State Fair but was able to water the spinach on Sunday. The re-seeded, re-seeded turnip crop needs to be tilled under & replanted with another crop. There were reports of hail with that storm, but luckily did not hit us, as the chard in the field was undamaged.

What’s Up & Growing: Leslie transplanted lettuce from seedlings into cells in the greenhouse to be transplanted in the field. Chinese cabbage is almost ready to be planted in beds along the side of the greenhouse. The cilantro is up and eggplants are going better despite a slow start.

From the Fields: The lettuce which was transplanted in the greenhouse & the field should be ready in another week or two. The turnips & black Spanish radishes are coming along slow, but should be ready soon. The tomatoes are doing well. We have scattered plantings so hopefully are immune to any disaster. We have about 5 different varieties of cucumbers also doing well. There are some failings of cucumber plants to “the wilt”, but luckily have planted enough plants to off-set this.

Fruit Report – Raritan Rose Peaches –Freshly picked from Windy Brow Farm. This heirloom variety was developed by the NJ Agricultural Experiment Station. It was introduced in 1936. This variety would be considered by many to be equivalent to the Rutgers Tomato in the Peach world.

Upcoming Events: • August 26th – 8th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting – Hoboken Historical Museum • 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.

• Hoboken Midtown Drop -Off
• Hoboken West Drop-Off
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Drop-Off
• Beth Haverim Drop-off
• Click here for the Recipes of the Week