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Monday, October 29, 2007

Vol 12 No 22 - Week of October 29th

Final Delivery of the Season
Thanks to all CSA members for your continued support. We hope you enjoyed the variety offered throughout the season. Every year presents new challenges and this year was no different. First it was too wet, and then it was too dry during the early part of the season. To end the season it was too dry again and Farmer Rich had to irrigate in October! Our Farmhand Leslie had some medical problems during the harvest season so Farmer Rich was left with intermittent help during that time. This year we changed our farming system, expanding the fields to be tractor friendly and used black plastic with drip-tape irrigation which presented a whole new set of problems. Weeds were difficult to control on each side of the plastic and it seemed that not enough water was getting on the beds. That equated to a reduction in yields, though the season was much better than last year. Over the winter, Farmer Rich will be revamping ideas on the growing systems in the new larger fields so hopefully we won’t have this problem again. Comments are always welcome, so feel free to drop us an e-mail or give us a call with suggestions for next season. From the Fields: We have a Work-Day scheduled on November 3rd to plant garlic & we hope that many of you will be able to come & help. Farmer Rich was starting to prepare the fields & low & behold the tractor wouldn’t start. A mechanic friend is checking it out. Either way we’ll have the field ready for garlic planting on the 3rd. Fruit Report – Enterprise Apples –Freshly picked from Windy Brow Farm. Work Day @ the Farm: It Garlic Time! Come out for a stinkin’ day of fun at the farm: · Work Day at the Farm – Saturday NOVEMBER 3rd 11 am to ??– Garlic planting day · (this also happens to be Farmer Rich’s birthday – so we’ll have a birthday cake) · Please RSVP so we can plan a nice seasonal lunch · Dress in layers – you never know what the weather will be · Projects include garlic popping (preparing the bulbs into individual cloves · Garlic planting · Mulching · In just a few hours we can plant hundreds of cloves · A great family fun day! Prepared Garlic Treats! We can offer members some prepared garlic products from August’s Harvest: Pickled Garlic Crunch Pickled Garlic Flowers Red Pepper Garlic Dipping Sauce More info on http://www.jerseygrown.com/ – they make nice gifts for the holiday season. Just e-mail us your order & we’ll e-mail you an invoice to pay via credit card! Annual End of Season December 1st – 7:00 pm @ the Hoboken Historical Museum 1301 Hudson Street in Hoboken (a parking garage is close by). All CSA members are invited from all our drop-off locations – Mahwah, Hoboken Midtown, Hoboken West, Jersey City & On-Farm Pick-up! Please RSVP to Nancy Jessup & let her know what you will be bringing to the potluck. Please sned her your name & callback number just incase she needs to make any changes to the menu. Click here to send an e-mail

Thank you for your support!

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.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Vol 12 No 21 - Week of October 22nd

Last delivery next week
As the season winds down (just 1 more delivery) we are harvesting aggressively. Looking forward to next season as we actually starting working towards next season just as this season ends. This includes cleaning up the fields, re-arranging our perennial crops, take down the trellises for the tomatoes & cucumbers and replace about 150’ of fence. Farmer Rich also has to repair all the greenhouses, from recovering the greenhouse plastic to reframing the heated greenhouse. As we don’t use any treated lumbar the base of the heated greenhouse is in a state of desperate repair. We still have potatoes in the ground as we did not get enough help to pick them, despite reaching out to all the members to assist. If we can’t get them out by next week, they will be used for seed for next year. A Garlic planting trip to the farm is scheduled for November 3rd and we hope that many of your will come up to help! From the Fields: The bugs are on a rampage in the fields, probably due to the warmer weather this past week. We usually don’t have a problem this time of year. They wiped out most of the shanghai cabbage, most of the collards and they are producing most of the wholly greens you are seeing tonight. Animal Report: Another quiet week at the farm. No action other than sparrows chasing the blue birds again. Fruit Report – Empire Apples –Freshly picked from Windy Brow Farm. Work Day @ the Farm: It Garlic Time! Come out for a stinkin’ day of fun at the farm: · Work Day at the Farm – Saturday NOVEMBER 3rd 11 am to ??– Garlic planting day · (this also happens to be Farmer Rich’s birthday – so we’ll have a birthday cake) · Please RSVP so we can plan a nice seasonal lunch · Dress in layers – you never know what the weather will be · Projects include garlic popping (preparing the bulbs into individual cloves · Garlic planting · Mulching · In just a few hours we can plant hundreds of cloves · A great family fun day! Prepared Garlic Treats! We can offer members some prepared garlic products from August’s Harvest: Pickled Garlic Crunch Pickled Garlic Flowers Red Pepper Garlic Dipping Sauce More info on www.jerseygrown.com – they make nice gifts for the holiday season. Just e-mail us your order & we’ll e-mail you an invoice to pay via credit card! LAST DELIVERY of the SEASON– NEXT WEEK 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.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Vol 12 No 20 - Week of October 15th

When it Rains - It Pours!
Finally some rain fell at the farm. We received 5” total between two back to back storms during the week. We also had severe high winds at the farm on Friday while we were loading the truck for the Garlic Fest in Hoboken. All of a sudden about 5 trees blew down just on the line between us & our neighbors. Luckily no structures were damaged as they fell into the neighbor’s driveway. COOOOOOOLer temperatures arrive. A low of 28ºF and luckily only spotty frost damage on the plants. There would be a dead pepper plant surrounded by live ones, so there must have been just enough wind to save most of the greens in the field. A neighboring farm lost all of their basil & pepper plants. From the Fields: Just two more weeks to deliver, as long as we don’t get a freeze. We still need to harvest 8 rows of potatoes & hope to get that done this weekend so we can deliver them. More greens will be coming in your deliveries over the next two weeks. Animal Report: “The Twins” – our resident twin fawns came back to visit on Thursday as well as a visit by a quite a few blue birds. The neighborhood sparrows did not like the blue birds visiting at all as there was a ruckus in the field. Fruit ReportKeepsake Apples –Freshly picked from Windy Brow Farm. Windy Brow does have apple picking at their farm this time of year. Their phone # is 973.579.9157 so you can call for directions & dates & times they are open. It is a nice day out in the country! Work Day @ the Farm: It Garlic Time! Come out for a stinkin’ day of fun at the farm: · Work Day at the Farm – Saturday NOVEMBER 3rd 11 am to ??– Garlic planting day · (this also happens to be Farmer Rich’s birthday – so we’ll have a birthday cake) · Please RSVP so we can plan a nice seasonal lunch · Dress in layers – you never know what the weather will be · Projects include garlic popping (preparing the bulbs into individual cloves · Garlic planting · Mulching · In just a few hours we can plant hundreds of cloves · A great family fun day! Prepared Garlic Treats! We can offer members some prepared garlic products from August’s Harvest:
  • Pickled Garlic Crunch
  • Pickled Garlic Flowers
  • Red Pepper Garlic Dipping Sauce

More info on www.jerseygrown.com – they make nice gifts for the holiday season. Just e-mail us your order & we’ll e-mail you an invoice to pay via credit card!

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.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Vol 12 No 19 - Week of October 8th

Garlic Fest - Saturday
Saturday from 1-5 pm we’ll be at the first Garlic Festival @ the Hoboken Historical Museum. We’ll have many different varieties of garlic for tasting as well as dips, pesto, salsa, garlic honey, garlic vinegar, pickled garlic and more….. We’ll have on display over 100 different varieties of garlic as well as some educational displays. Seasonal produce will also be available for sale. Stop by and we hope to have stinkin’ day. Weather Report: Again no rain and Farmer Rich continues to irrigate due to the planting of late season crops. It is very unusual to have to irrigate in October, but necessary as there are another few weeks left to deliver. From the Fields: With three more deliveries to go the harvest will be on getting everything that is deliverable off of the fields. We will be getting fields ready for garlic planting soon and will be scheduling a work-day at the farm probably either on the 20/21st or 27/28th. We’ll keep you posted & hope to have many of you come to the farm to help. Since we have been watering we do have nice greens but fell behind harvesting this week due to our 2-day event at Olde Lafayette Village and not able to harvest on Sunday. We’ll make it up next week!! We still have potatoes in the field yet to be dug and if we don’t get them out in the next few weeks our first newsletter next year will read “potatoes are already planted.” We have a nice delivery of tomatoes tonight, but may have to skip delivering them next wee as they are slowing down. Animal Report: We were counting on another delivery of cabbage, but the gourmet groundhog had decided to devour it. Farmer Rich was finally able to find where the “gourmet” groundhog was coming in & fixed the problem. Probably a little to late, but with 3 weeks to go we hpe it won’t find a new way to break into the fence. Fruit Report – Luwcious variety of Pears–Freshly picked from Windy Brow Farm. Windy Brow does have apple picking at their farm this time of year. Their phone # is 973.579.9157 so you can call for directions & dates & times they are open. It is a nice day out in the country! Upcoming Events: It Garlic Time! Come out for a stinkin’ day of fun at the following event: · October 13th – 1st Annual Garlic Festival @ the Hoboken Historical Museum Hoboken, NJ · Work Day at the Farm to be planned – we’ll keep you posted for a garlic planting day by the end of the month. · Sorry no recipes this week – not enough time 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.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Vol 12 No 18 - Week of October 1st

Dry - Very Dry

Super dry conditions continue. While we did have 1/10” of rain during a roving thunderstorm, Farmer Rich continues to have to irrigate. Normally this late in the season when the days are shorter, any water will usually linger in the soil longer than usual. But is it so dry out there, any watering just seems to disappear. The autumn colors are starting around the farm so peak autumn leaves should be coming soon. While the temperatures were very summerish the last week plus, the mornings are very seasonally cool. Weather Report: During that roving thunderstorm, Farmer Rich was concerned that there was a possibility of hail. Hail is possible anytime during the year when there is a severe thunderstorm, but with only a few weeks to go we would hate to loose our field crops, especially the leafy greens such as chard, kale & lettuces. From the Fields: The fava greens, mustards, radishes and oriental greens are all doing well. Our latest planting of carrots is coming along. The warmer weather crops; tomatoes, eggplant, peppers & summer squash, are all but shutdown. Animal Report: No sign of the gourmet groundhog this past week and seems like all the other wild animals are taking a break. We didn’t see any deer either. A quiet week all in all, but for a lone cat cruising the fields for mice. Fruit ReportGolden Delicious Apples –Freshly picked from Windy Brow Farm. Excellent for eating fresh, pies & salads; Very good for baking & apple sauce. Windy Brow does have apple picking at their farm this time of year. Their phone # is 973.579.9157 so you can call for directions & dates & times they are open. It is a nice day out in the country! Upcoming Events: It Garlic Time! Come out for a few stinkin’ days of fun at the following events: · October 6th & 7th – 6th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village – Lafayette, NJ · October 13th – 1st Annual Garlic Festival @ the Hoboken Historical Museum Hoboken, NJ CORRECTION – last week I had the wrong date listed. This event will be held on the Saturday the 13th.

Here's looking @ You:

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.