Catalpa Ridge News: 2008

Monday, November 03, 2008

Vol 13 No 22 - Week of November 3rd

Last delivery of the Season

We had an interesting week to finish out the harvest year. Last Tuesday night 8-14” of snow fell at the farm.

We had 3 seasons all in the same week;

• Monday, October 27th was a nice autumn day

• Tuesday, October 28th was a nice winter day (snow stayed on the ground for most of the week)

• Friday, October 31st was a nice spring day being about 65ºF

photo take on Thursday

Farmer Rich buttoned up the greenhouses for winter, so he has a place to hide when it is cold up there! He will be spending the next couple of weeks cleaning up and preparing for next year. Fortunately the snow has melted off of the garlic beds and we hope to get the garlic planted on Saturday.

As always, an interesting harvest year has passed. Each year has its own peculiarities and next year for certain will be different. Perhaps better, perhaps worse but definitely different.

Thanks to all CSA members for your continued support. We hope you enjoyed the variety offered & the addition of fruit each week. Comments are always welcome, so feel free to drop us an e-mail or give us a call with suggestions for next season.

Fruit – This week we have picked up Empire Apples from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ.

From the Fields: While everything else is dying, the rye grass that we use for a cover crop on the back field is up & growing.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Vol 13 No 21 - Week of October 27th

Last week was a freeze, this week is the flu

Leslie has been out sick for 2 weeks now and fortunately Jessie & Allyson have helped Farmer Rich a few days during the week. Now Farmer Rich is sick and trying to work, but finding it difficult. He’ll be in the field harvesting a few radishes, then has to go & sit in the truck to rest, then go back out & try again. We usually have a large delivery at the end of the season as all the odds & ends are harvested, but with everyone sick it is virtually impossible to get them off the field & into the delivery. Last week we got behind with Leslie out all week and lost the spinach & sorrel. Fruit – This week we have picked up Suncrisp Apples from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. This variety was introduced in 1992 by Rutgers. It is a complex cross of several varieties including Cox’s Orange Pippin, Golden Delicious & Cortland. From the Fields: We covered the garlic area with plastic for planting in November. Allyson helped with laying the plastic & Ron from Adam’s farm helped with making the beds. We got this done just in time before it rained on Saturday night. We have never planted garlic in plastic before. We had too big of a weed problem this year with the garlic and thought it best to give it a try. We did have a lot of success with the vegetables planted in plastic this year, so are trying it with the garlic. Hopefully we will have better harvests and larger bulbs for 2009.

Weather Report: About 3” of rain fell on Saturday night. We needed the rain, but it did little to help as this is the last delivery (Hoboken & Jersey City). Cold weather is predicted later this week and this will probably finish off all of the outside crops. Work Day @ the Farm Saturday, November 8th - Garlic Planting at the Farm 11 am- 2/3 pm help us plant garlic for the 2009 season. Please RSVP so we can plan on lunch & refreshments and send you directions. Possible rain dates (November 15th / 16th) Farming Quote of the Week: The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways. John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) Thirty-fifth President of the USA

Last deliveries Hoboken & Jersey City Sites: October 28th Hamburg: October 29th Mahwah: November 3/4th End of Season Potluck Dinner All CSA members are invited to the end of season potluck dinner to be held in Hoboken on November 1st starting @ 7:30 pm Hoboken Historical Museum 1301 Hudson Street – Hoboken please refer to the details in your weekly newsletter copy

Pick of the Week: click on the links below or to the right to bring you to the delivery specific to your pick-up location. Deliveries will be of similar variety & poundage, but may contain different items. Occasionally, some crops are ready to harvest but not enough to deliver to all our drop-off locations. What we do is start to filter them in each week to a different drop-off until there is enough to delivery to everyone.

Recipe Links Beth Haverim Shir Shalom Delivery Hamburg Delivery Hoboken Midtown Delivery Hoboken South Delivery Hoboken West Delivery Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery

Monday, October 20, 2008

Vol 13 No 20 - Week of October 20th

Freeze @ the farm

On Saturday we received a light frost, and then on Sunday morning we had a heavy freeze. It was probably about 25ºF. It did not have too much affect as we had already pulled down the warm weather crops (tomatoes, peppers, zucchini). If it had gotten a few degrees cooler the field greens were in jeopardy. This is probably the first year that all the warm weather crops are gone @ this point in the season as Farmer Rich is getting fields into production for garlic planting. On Thursday Farmer Rich chopped up the collards, tomatoes, peppers and zucchini plants and on Friday, an aspiring farmer, Allyson visited and helped with many field projects. These included ripping up all the plastic from the field beds, which is quite a project in itself. That area is ready to be tilled up for garlic production. Fruit – This week we have picked up Enterprise Apples from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. This variety was first introduced in 1993. They are great for baking, eating, cooking and just about anything you would do with an apple. From the Fields: We have poor yields from the potato crop planted Scott’s fields and the delivery of last week & this week to all the drop-off locations is all we harvested. The potatoes you will be receiving will be mixed, as there was not enough of just a single variety to be delivered.

Weather Report: The cold temperatures are finally upon us and we are experiencing very DRY conditions. In the ying & yang of things if we do get a big rain we won’t be able to get the garlic fields ready but will have very nice greens.

Annual Woolly Bear Caterpillar Report- The annual Woolly Bear Caterpillar Report is in for this year. This has become an annual part of the newsletter for the past 12 years and for the most part has been pretty accurate. Weather folklore enthusiatasts have long assessed that the woolly bear caterpillar is one insect that is supposed to give us some insight as to how severe the winter will be. It is said that if the middle stripe is narrower than either of the black stripes, the winter will be severe. Conversely, if the center stripe is wide, we’ll have a mild winter. If all the stripes are the same size, we’ll have an average winter. (Photo taken on 10/10 – looks like a wide center stripe!)

Upcoming Events: October is Garlic month!Date to be announced – Garlic Planting at the FarmSometime in early November – help us plant garlic for the 2009 season.

Farming Quote of the Week: The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools. Henry Beston, Northern Farm

End of Season Potluck Dinner All CSA members are invited to the end of season potluck dinner to be held in Hoboken on November 1st starting @ 7:30 pm Hoboken Historical Museum 1301 Hudson Street – Hoboken please refer to the details in your weekly newsletter copy

Monday, October 13, 2008

Vol 13 No 19 - Week of October 13th

Season drawing to a close...soon

The last delivery for the season are:

Mahwah - Beth Haverim November 3/4th (this makes up the week postponed due to Rosh Hashanah)
Jersey City & Hoboken - October 28th
Hamburg - October 29th
On-Farm Pickup - October 31st/November 1st

With the season ending soon, now is a good time for members to let us know if there are any veggies you would like to try for next year, as we plan our seed order over the winter. We always like to receive feedback so let us know if there is anything you would like to receive more of, or less of during the harvest season. Seasonal eating can be a challenge to many. Perhaps most feedback we receive during the year is about the members trying new veggies they would never have thought to buy at the supermarket, or are even available there. Of course there are no guarantees. Our best laid plans sometimes go awry (i.e. cauliflower) due to crop loses, but we do try. The harvest of the all-blue potatoes was a bit disappointing this year. Our yields were not as high as in years past. Red Norland & Yukon Gold potatoes will be coming in the weeks ahead, as these were just recently harvested. They too do not have as high yields as we had hoped. There was a lack of rain during the summer, and the fields that they were in were not on our irrigation system. The potatoes planted up at our fields by Scott’s also did not receive enough water during the time the potatoes start to “potato up”! Fruit – This week we have picked up Ida Red Apples from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. Ida Red Apples were developed at the Idaho Experiment Station in Moscow, Idaho from a cross between Jonathan and Wagener.

From the Fields: We are still contemplating where to plant the garlic for next year. Leslie started cleaning up some of the fields, removing the stakes from the tomato plants. This area is where we hope to plant the garlic. We still have to pull up the dead plants, remove the plastic, add compost, till it, then make raised beds. All this before it gets too cold!The autumn leaves are almost at their peak and that probably will happen this week. We notice quite a dramatic change when driving down to Bergen & Hudson counties, where the leaves have hardly changed as of today.

Weather Report: Fortunately, we did not receive a heavy frost at the farm, though many of our neighboring farmers did get it. This gave us a chance to harvest some of the warmer weather crops for tonight’s delivery. The tomatoes were already pulled for last week’s delivery so it looks like the tomato season is over.

Upcoming Events: October is Garlic month!Date to be announced – Garlic Planting at the FarmSometime in early November – help us plant garlic for the 2009 season.

Farming Quote of the Week: Whoever makes two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before, deserves better of mankind, and does more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together. Jonathan Swift

End of Season Potluck Dinner All CSA members are invited to the end of season potluck dinner to be held in Hoboken on November 1st starting @ 7:30 pm Hoboken Historical Museum 1301 Hudson Street – Hoboken more details to follow next week

Monday, October 06, 2008

Vol 13 No 18 Week of October 6th

Amber Waves of Grain

We are delivering winter wheat this week from Farmer Diane’s leased fields just down the street from our farm. During the summer we often stop by Diane’s farm stand to touch base with her & talk shop, and on one particular Sunday afternoon there was a breeze blowing & when looking over the wheat fields we understood where the “amber waves of grain” came from in America the Beautiful! It was truly stunning and only wish we could have captured it for you to see. We hope you find this an interesting addition to your deliveries. Technically, winter wheat is planted in the fall and harvested in July. Then it has to dry naturally. Please see recipes on the back & if any of you have any ideas for other uses of wheat, just e-mail Sometime Farmer Sue and we’ll pass them along to everyone! We had another delivery van problem on Tuesday morning and had to delay the Tuesday Jersey City & Hoboken deliveries until Wednesday. The fan belt snapped & fortunately Farmer Rich wasn’t stranded in the middle of no-where, but unfortunately it snapped about 45 minutes before the first drop-off. The veggies did not like being out the extra day and we apologize if the delivery looked abit off. We do hope this is the last of the delivery van problems for quite awhile. It has been breaking down so often that we just leave the key with the mechanic! Fruit – This week we have picked up Empire Apples from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. From the Fields: The cool weather crops are looking extra good this week. We narrowly missed the frost that did affect other areas around us this past weekend. We are still behind preparing fields for garlic planting. Fortunately we secured some garlic for planting from a local grower and also some for the deliveries as we had losses in our field this year. The Franklin greenhouse is scheduled to have its plastic recovered. This greenhouse was extremely beneficial all season long for additional crop production than we could have done with just our on-farm greenhouses. We hope to be able to continue renting it again for the 2009 season. Weather Report: Another 2” of rain fell on top of the 2” from the week before. The fields are fortunately spared from becoming too muddy. Animal Report – Sometime Farmer Sue saw our resident Great Blue Heron on Sunday morning as we were loading the van for the Garlic Gathering.

Farming Quote of the Week: Piles of gold are not as good as stores of grain. Chinese Proverb.

Upcoming Events: October is Garlic month!

2^nd Annual Garlic Fest at the Hoboken Historical Museum on October 12^th – 1301 Hudson Street
Date to be announced – Garlic Planting at the Farm Sometime in October – help us plant garlic for the 2009 season.

also, Windy Brow Farm (where we get your fruit) Pick-Your-Own-Apples 10am-4pm daily & weekends w/Wagon Rides 359 Ridge Road Newton, NJ info: 973.579.9657

Monday, September 29, 2008

Vol 13 No 17 - Week of September 29th

The Leaves are Changing

We know that autumn is here, as the leaves are changing color with nice pockets of color as we drive to & from the farm. The days are getting shorter with sunsets coming earlier each day. We have someone interested in starting an apprenticeship at the farm and she is meeting Rich on Wednesday. This is a very positive development and we hope to be able to post some great news next week. Farmer Rich & Leslie worked on the back field until they had problems with the rototiller. We are trying to get the back field into production for next year. This is a big project so that is why we are starting it early. With harvesting it is so busy this time of year, but whenever there is a chance to work on the field we are. Fruit – This week we have picked up Luscious Pears from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. From the Fields: Everything is looking good in the fields & greenhouses and we are encouraged as it is better than in past years at this time in the season. The rain we received certainly puffed up many of the crops. The fall crops are quite happy with the cool nighttime temperatures. Leslie & Farmer Rich pulled down the tomatoes which means there will be green tomatoes coming in future deliveries. The reason we pulled down the tomatoes as that a frost is imminent as we wanted to harvest as much fruit before they became frozen. Hopefully next week we’ll be pulling down the peppers. Weather Report: We received about 2” of rain as of Sunday night. So far we haven’t had any problems with the heavy rain such as flooding or washing any plants out. We have had a problem with heavy rains in the past, but looks like we are lucky this time. Animal Report – We have a squirrel in the big field this week. Looks like it got there by jumping from a tree branch and didn’t land where he wanted to. So far no damaged, but he is probably up to no good! Upcoming Events: Windy Brow Farm (where we get your fruit) Pick-Your-Own-Apples 10am-4pm daily & weekends w/Wagon Rides 359 Ridge Road Newton, NJ info: 973.579.9657 October is Garlic month!

6th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village – October 4th & 5th – Lafayette, NJ
2nd Annual Garlic Fest at the Hoboken Historical Museum on October 12th – 1301 Hudson Street
Date to be announced – Garlic Planting at the Farm Sometime in October – help us plant garlic for the 2009 season.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Vol 13 No 16 - Week of September 22nd

Jack Frost is Knocking

Last week our headline was warm spell and this week its Jack Frost is knocking at the door! What a difference a week makes. We had a low of 38º F during the week and there were frost warnings on our local newscasts. The warm weather crops are winding down anyway, but a cold snap will finish them off. The cool weather crops are really enjoying these cooler days & nights. Our planting or mustards & dicon radishes are really doing well and are ahead of schedule. Fruit – This week we have picked up Golden Delicious Apples from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. From the Fields: The lettuces are coming along quite well. The oriental greens are starting to do well but are having a problem with slugs finding them. We are gathering up the winter squash and potatoes throughout the week. Chard, kale, sorrel and more New Zealand spinach are on the horizon. Leslie planted some late lettuce, endive and celery for late October deliveries in the Franklin greenhouse. Two of our late seedings failed, but our other plantings are coming along great so this offsets the failures. This includes some green mustard. The cilantro has done quite well as you know in having it in your delivery this week. With only 6 weeks left to go, the field planting has stopped. What begins now is setting up for next year. We need to plant garlic in October as well as perform some field work. We are going to remove the small greenhouse & put in more raised beds and hopefully erect a new structure to get a cooler on-site, perhaps a “field-house”. This will also help with storage, as well as a protected area to work in when we have to bunch up the greens. Weather Report: The previous rains have helped keep the soil moist, but it has been dry during the past week. Farmer Rich did have to irrigate the beets & chard this past week in the lower greenhouse. Animal Report – The crows have found the zucchini & tomatoes are decided to start pecking at them, thus destroying a few here & there. Farming Quote of the Week: It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn. BC Forbes Upcoming Events: Windy Brow Farm (where we get your fruit) Pick-Your-Own-Apples 10am-4pm daily & weekends w/Wagon Rides 359 Ridge Road Newton, NJ info: 973.579.9657 October is Garlic month! 6th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village – October 4th & 5th – Lafayette, NJ 2nd Annual Garlic Fest at the Hoboken Historical Museum on October 12th – 1301 Hudson Street Date to be announced – Garlic Planting at the Farm Sometime in October – help us plant garlic for the 2009 season Pick of the Week: click on the links below or to the right to bring you to the delivery specific to your pick-up location. Deliveries will be of similar variety & poundage, but may contain different items. Occasionally, some crops are ready to harvest but not enough to deliver to all our drop-off locations. What we do is start to filter them in each week to a different drop-off until there is enough to delivery to everyone.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Vol 13 No 15 - Week of September 15th

Warm Spell.....

The temperatures in September so far seem warmer than the August temps! So far this is not causing too much of a problem with cool weather crops and temperatures should soon return to normal. The week’s delivery includes more winter squash which are coming along rather well. More are to be pulled off the field soon, which will include butternut, acorn, buttercup and spaghetti varieties. They are all up at our field at Scott’s as well as more tomatoes, potatoes and peppers. We hope to get the potatoes up this week. Our fields at the farm are full now that we have received adequate rain over the last two weeks. More spinach, kale, chard & collards are coming and the lettuces are looking good too.

Fruit – This week we have picked up McIntosh Apples from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. From the Fields: The mustards and dicon radishes are way ahead of schedule with some red mustard in this week’s delivery. The newly seeded plants are mixed at this point with come doing well and some not. Some did get in a little later than we had wanted. The lettuces and oriental greens in the field are all coming along nicely. Leslie will be transplanting more lettuces in the Franklin greenhouse for the later deliveries. Weather Report: We received another rain this past week, about 2 ¾” in all. The temperatures are very un-fallish, reaching over 90º on Sunday, which is typical July or August and not September. According to the Weather Channel, the temperatures should be coming more in-line over the next week or two. Animal Report – Still very quiet as it usually this time of year that the groundhogs want to fatten up before their winter hibernation. They are probably hiding in the bushes just waiting for the most opportune time to break in & feast. Upcoming Events:

Windy Brow Farm (where we get your fruit) Pick-Your-Own-Apples 10am-4pm daily & weekends w/Wagon Rides 359 Ridge Road Newton, NJ info: 973.579.9657 October is Garlic month! 6^th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village – October 4^th & 5^th – Lafayette, NJ 2^nd Annual Garlic Fest at the Hoboken Historical Museum on October 12^th – 1301 Hudson Street Date to be announced – Garlic Planting at the Farm Sometime in October – help us plant garlic for the 2009 season.

Monday, September 08, 2008

Vol 13 No 14 - Week of September 8th

Hanna Hits

The rain finally came on Saturday and this was greatly needed. The only drawback was that it hindered some of our harvesting. We had both Leslie & Jessie help harvest on Sunday and get everything bunched up. This week, Farmer Rich made an attempt to till up the back field, but ran out of time about ½ way through. He will probably resume this project in November, when the deliveries are done. This also involved moving many large rocks out of the field. This field will increase our growing area for next year. Fruit – This week we have picked up Mollie’s Applies from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. From the Fields: Farmer Rich seeded Dicon radishes, tendergreen mustard, and oriental greens on Friday, hoping that we would get the rain on Saturday. Also this week, we noticed an unusually large activity of white butterflies, which means that we’ll be seeing green worms in the brassicas (collards, kale, mustards, radishes). We depend on our “air-force” to take care of them, which the birds swoop down to feast on them. That is why Farmer Rich likes to plant red leaf varieties so it is easier for the birds to see the worms.

The bok choi’s and lettuces planted by Leslie are are coming along nicely. The rain fluffed everything up & yes including the New Zealand Spinach.

Weather Report: We received about 3” at the farm on Saturday as Tropical Storm Hannah moved through the area. This filled up the pond as well as watered all the n

ewly planted crops that Farmer Rich planted on Friday. Luckily no high winds and no swampy areas were noticed and it was a nice soaking in kind of rain.

Animal Report – We had another quiet week without any rabbits or groundhogs deciding to feast on your veggies. Perhaps they were hunkered down with the impending hurricane in the forecast.

Some of our peppers prior to harvest:>>>

Upcoming Events:

October is Garlic month!

6^th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village – October 4^th & 5^th – Lafayette, NJ
2^nd Annual Garlic Fest at the Hoboken Historical Museum on October 12^th – 1301 Hudson Street
Date to be announced – Garlic Planting at the Farm Sometime in October – help us plant garlic for the 2009 season.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Vol 13 No 13 - Week of September 1st

Tomato Tuesday

After moaning about the weather being cooler and the tomatoes slowing up, well it looks like they are ripening up just fine. There will be lots of tomatoes in this week’s delivery as well as next week. We have lots of nice heirloom varieties in this week’s selection. Why not try our sauce recipe on the back. Our field up at Scott’s is producing very well, but does need water. We still have not been able to get to the back field to get that field started for next season. We have added Jessie to our weekend work crew to help with bunching up the greens. She has been working off-and-on for about a month now on Saturdays and that is a big help. Fruit – This week we have picked up Nectarines from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. From the Fields: Tuesday, Leslie tilled up the turnip patch as well as two other bed

s. Planting is on the schedule this week for fava greens, radishes and transplant some oriental greens. Our turnips in the Franklin greenhouse seem to have been struck by aphids, so the turnip greens are probably shot. The new planting of zucchini looks good; the plants are small but are coming along nicely. Weather Report: It was a surprise to Farmer Rich that we actually received about ¼” of rain on Friday night. He started the irrigation system and then went to check the fields and found a bit of a muddy mess and low & behold discovered that it had actually rained the night before. It didn’t look like it had rained, but it had. The forecast for this week looks rain free until the weekend. Animal Report – It looks like both the rabbit & groundhog have left the inside field as Farmer Rich has not seen any signs that they are there. Upcoming Events: The annual heirloom tomato tasting @ Ramsey Day is postponed this year due to the extended Centennial Celebration & Parade that Ramsey is having that day. We know that many of our Bergen County members will miss us there this year. Look for us in Ramsey in the Spring for the Heirloom Tomato Transplant Sale on May 16th. October is Garlic month!

6th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village – October 4th & 5th – Lafayette, NJ
2nd Annual Garlic Fest at the Hoboken Historical Museum on October 12th – 1301 Hudson Street
Date to be announced – Garlic Planting at the Farm Sometime in October – help us plant garlic for the 2009 season.

Farming Quote of the Week: Life on a farm is a school of patience; you can't hurry the crops or make an ox in two days....by Henri Alain

Recipe Links Beth Haverim Shir Shalom Delivery Hamburg Delivery Hoboken Midtown Delivery Hoboken South Delivery Hoboken West Delivery Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery

Monday, August 25, 2008

Vol 13 No 12 - Week of August 25th

Salsa Time!

We had a great day at the annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting on Sunday and got to meet many of our Hoboken members there. It was non-stop 4 hours of fun for tomato lovers who were able to taste both heirloom & hybrid tomatoes. Needless to say this will be what we call our “salsa” delivery week as you will have in your delivery everything needed to make salsa. Farmer Rich had to harvest your tomatoes and put them aside before the event, as we never know if there will be any tomatoes left! We were away from farming to get ready for the event & the event day, so your lettuces were harvested a day earlier than normal but were stored in the cooler. We avoided a huge disaster this week! Rich noticed some oil dripping from the back of the delivery van at drop-off in Mahwah last Monday. Since this was a similar problem that we had one year ago he decided to get over to a favorite mechanic Joe, in Ridgewood. It was a seal on the read-end that needed to be replaced again (soon we’ll need to have the whole read-end replaced as the seals will continue to falter). But in putting the van up on the lift, Joe noticed that the inside walls of the tires had serious gash-like defects that could have blown at any time, especially with a heavy load going at high speed on the highway. The tires all had great tread and no defects on the outside walls, so no-one would have ever known that the tires were this faulty. Needless to say that Joe’s pick-up of this probably saved Farmer’s Rich life! Of course all the Hoboken/Jersey City Tuesday delivery was on the van and needed to be off-loaded. As I teach on Monday nights I was unable to pickup Rich to get him back to the farm to pick-up his old S-10 pickup, but my Dad came to the rescue. What started out to be an inconvenience turned into a blessing. Fruit – This week is we have picked up Flaming Fury Peach from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. Since peaches were still available (& won’t be for long) we decided to include peaches again this week. You’ll soon be getting apples. From the Fields: Tuesday, Leslie removed the “stumps” left by the groundhog feast in the Franklin greenhouse & prepared the bed to be transplanted with Oriental greens. She transplanted in the fields some mixed lettuces & bok choi for fall deliveries. The turnips did not germinate well and will be plowed up & replaced by radishes. The dicon radishes, beets, red mustard & cilantro all are doing well. Farmer Rich hopes to be able to get into the back field this week to pick rocks & till it up for an expanded field for next year. Weather Report: We had drier weather this past week and Farmer Rich had to start up the irrigation system. It continues to be cool at night, with a low of 44ºF. It really has been great working weather, but not great to tomatoes to ripen up. Farmer Rich even had to put gloves on in the early morning hours. Pick of the Week: click on the links below or to the right to bring you to the delivery specific to your pick-up location. Deliveries will be of similar variety & poundage, but may contain different items. Occasionally, some crops are ready to harvest but not enough to deliver to all our drop-off locations. What we do is start to filter them in each week to a different drop-off until there is enough to delivery to everyone.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Vol 13 No 11 - Week of August 18th

Heirloom Tomato Tasting Sunday

Stop by the Hoboken Historical Museum on Sunday for the 9th Annual Tomato Tasting between 1 – 5 pm. We hope to meet many of our local Hoboken & Jersey City members there. Always a great event! We were short of help this week as Leslie was out sick most of the week. The pick-of-the-week is a little lighter than normal as we did not have enough help or time to harvest. Saturday we had a beautiful day for the trip-to-the-farm and with the help was able to get up the failed cauliflower and weed the sorrel bed. The cauliflower bed is being replaced by lettuce and Chinese cabbage. Fruit – This week is we have picked up Allstar Peach from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. From the Fields: The New Zealand spinach is still doing well and unfortunately we couldn’t pick it this week, but it should be more coming in the next week or two. More oriental greens & lettuce are planned on being trans-planted into the fields this week. Our squash has really slowed down, but a new planting is coming along. The tomatoes are looking good, but the cooler temps have stalled their ripening. The back field has been plowed but we haven’t been able to get back there to get it ready for next year, such as putting up fencing. In Franklin, Leslie plans on cleaning up the beds & get them ready for some fall greens. Our fields at Scott’s are doing well, with tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, & eggplant coming along ok. We just hope for a little warmer temperature, especially for the tomatoes & eggplant. Weather Report: Scattered thunderstorms have been passing through & fortunately they are helping our newly seeded mustard, radishes & turnips. Farmer Rich thought he might have to replant the red mustard but it is coming along quite nicely. We have having very cool temperatures for August. It is nice to work in, but not good for many of the field crops. The August full moon came on Saturday and is known as the Green Corn Moon or the Grain Moon, but the August full moon did not affect the crops very much at the farm! 9th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting –Hoboken Historical Museum Sunday – August 26th 1 – 5 pm. We plan on having a great selection of heirloom tomatoes as well as farm fresh produce for sale. The Hoboken Historical Museum is located at: 1301 Hudson Street Farming Quote of the Week: Man - despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments - owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains. Unknown author Work Day @ the Farm

Weeding the sorrel patch with Farmer Rich.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Vol 13 No 10 - Week of August 11th

Animal Attack

This week has been tough as we had both a field attack at the farm & a greenhouse attack in Franklin by groundhogs. In the greenhouse attack the groundhog ate rows of oriental greens including the almost ready to be harvest yukana savoy (which he apparently loved). It also decided to eat alot of cherry tomatoes as well as the Japanese Truffle tomato variety. We have a rabbit still munching in the fields. It has been enjoying your lettuce, not quite like the groundhog that will devour everything in its path. Fruit – This week is we have picked up Redhaven Peach from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. “The Redhaven Peach is the peach by which all others are measured.” Next week, Farmer Jim says that apples will be starting. He offers quite a variety of heirloom apples during the season. From the Fields: All the potatoes have been harvested. Our field at Farmer Scott’s has some real nice tomatoes coming along. There are just starting to ripen so then will be in the deliveries over the next couple of weeks. We have lots of heirloom varieties on the horizon. The rototiller attachment for the tractor has been fixed. It was the clutch and has been put all back together. Weather Report: We have been getting some nice rain and that is helping with the transplants in the field. More rain is in the forecast for week. Farmer Rich has not had to irrigate at all this week, but the newly seeded field does need rain, so if it doesn’t come in the next day or two, Rich will have to turn on the irrigation system. Trip to the Farm – August 16th 11 am to ? Some members from our original CSA drop-off in NYC want to come up to the farm and help, so we are putting together another work-day. Projects for the work day will include helping with weeding, mulching and help with some field work. Please RVSP if you plan to attend so that we can plan on refreshments. 9th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting –Hoboken Historical Museum Sunday – August 26th 1 – 5 pm. We plan on having a great selection of heirloom tomatoes as well as farm fresh produce for sale. The Hoboken Historical Museum is located at: 1301 Hudson Street Farming Quote of the Week: There is virtue yet in the hoe and the spade, for learned as well as for unlearned hands. And labor is everywhere welcome; always we are invited to work. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Monday, August 04, 2008

Vol 13 No 9 - Week of August 4th

Fall Crops Finally In

On Thursday, Leslie tilled up the vacant areas in the fields to prepare for fall plantings. Upon completion the rototiller died. Apparently it seized up and we are not fully sure what is wrong as Farmer Rich is not really mechanical. Farmer Adam & friend Bill investigated the problem and gave us some insight. It is all dismantled at this point and we hope to have it fixed by next week. Luckily it died after the tilling was done. Friday, Farmer Rich was able to plant beets, cilantro, radishes, mustards and turnips in the open field. Saturday we received some much needed rain which will bring these crops along quite nicely.

NJ State Fair – Sussex Farm & Horse Show continues to August 10th. Sussex Fair Grounds are located @ 37 Plains Road Augusta, NJ 07822, just off of Route 15 & 206.

Fruit – This week is we have picked up Shiro from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. Shiro is another Japanese variety plum with medium sized yellow (sometimes with a pinkish blush) fruit. It is pleasantly sweet and juicy.

From the Fields: Farmer Adam is going to be plowing up our two new fields this week. We’ll also have to fence them in, but that can wait until we have them ready for planting next year. The New Zealand spinach is going just great. We are delivering it this week and next week as well. This field was mulched heavily in the spring and has not needed water, which is a plus due to the dry periods we have had. We received a lot of e-mails from members just loving the NZ spinach, so look forward to more. The zucchini have started to slow down. Leslie transplanted lettuce, celeriac and squash in the field this week. We have some great looking cauliflower plants in the field, but they do not appear to be making any cauliflower! We don’t know the cause. More potatoes need to be harvested. Potato varieties include “all-blue”, Rote Ersling, “all-red”, Yukon gold and red norland. More red onions need to be harvested too, and we need to get these soon or they will be lost.

Weather Report: Cooler temperatures and rain were the norm for this week, though on Friday the excess heat & humidity almost caused Farmer Rich to pass out while he was planting in the new beds. Luckily a cold front moved through with rain storms on Saturday and we did not get the predicted hail.

Animal report: So far the “thousands” of rabbits are staying clear of the fields as well as no groundhogs sighted this week. Our thistle plants are attracting the gold finches and we have a neighborhood woodpecker making it’s rounds in the woods. Our resident great blue heron has not arrived at the pond this year. Perhaps he is on a vacation.

Trip to the Farm – August 16th 11 am to ? Some members from our original CSA drop-off in NYC want to come up to the farm and help, so we are putting together another work-day. Projects for the work day will be posted in upcoming newsletters.

Farming Quote of the Week: The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn't still be a farmer. Will Rogers

Monday, July 28, 2008

Vol 13 No 8 - Week of July 28th

Rain Finally!

This was our first week without our full-crew and it was difficult adapting. We still have not rolled over the fields for the fall crops. The delivery is taking more time to put together, but is getting done in a timely fashion as Leslie is our veteran and putting in extra time to get the job done right. We hope to get the fall crops in this week. Meanwhile, Leslie has been rolling over the beds in the Franklin greenhouse. The beds have been planted with oriental greens and yard-long beans. A few field beds have been cleaned up and are ready for planting of fall crops. Farmer Rich has to starting seeding as well then transplant into the fields. NJ State Fair – Sussex Farm & Horse Show starts on Friday and runs to August 10th. This year we are having Leslie submit some entries from the farm as she did so well last year winning a few blue ribbons. Fruit – This week is we have picked up Red Heart Plums from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. Red Heart is a Japanese variety plum. From the Fields: Farmer Adam brush-hogged two new fields at the farm for us and we hope to get them into production. He also cut our hay above the pond which we will use for mulch next year. The potato harvest started on Sunday, but more to go. The New Zealand spinach as well as the collards, chard and kale look like they will be ready to be harvested within the next week of two. The greenhouse tomato plants are shutting down with just one bed remaining. There will be a gap in the tomato deliveries until the field tomatoes are ready for harvest. This was our earliest delivery of tomatoes ever and we hope that you have enjoyed them thus far. There are many different heirloom varieties planted in the fields, and the plants are doing well with many green fruits on the vine. Weather Report: Rain finally fell last week with more to come this week. That has improved the water level in the pond, which is our irrigation source. We received over 2” of rain in all and most came within about a 20 minute stretch on Thursday. Farmer Rich was working in the greenhouse and noticed “catalpa brook” running through the greenhouse. A tree had also fallen on the fence during the storm. This was a major problem as it created a breech in a 20’ section. Farmer Rich had to perform some quick repairs so our resident animals didn’t find the gap and just wander in for free eats! It looks like the repair is holding up thus far. Animal report: Still another intruder is sneaking into the fields and this week decided to eat some of the collards. Also noted was a bear that decided to trash around our storage barn. Looks like he was looking for something, threw around some of our supplies and left. Trip to the Farm – August 16th 11 am to ? Some members from our original CSA drop-off in NYC want to come up to the farm and help, so we are putting together another work-day. Projects for the work day will be posted in upcoming newsletters. Farming Quote of the Week: Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield. - Dwight David Eisenhower Pick of the Week: click on the links below or to the right to bring you to the delivery specific to your pick-up location. Deliveries will be of similar variety & poundage, but may contain different items. Occasionally, some crops are ready to harvest but not enough to deliver to all our drop-off locations. What we do is start to filter them in each week to a different drop-off until there is enough to delivery to everyone.

Recipe Links Beth Haverim Shir Shalom Delivery Hamburg Delivery Hoboken Midtown Delivery Hoboken South Delivery Hoboken West Delivery Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery

Monday, July 21, 2008

Vol 13 No 7 - Week of July 21st

Fruit deliveries begin

The garlic harvest continued through the week, but the yields are poor, as we mentioned last week. The tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, garlic, summer & winter squash that we planted at Farmer Scott’s farm are doing well. We have about 1 acre of crops planted there and they have bounced back from the deer damage earlier in the season. The harvested fava bean & pea patches have been mowed down, but the ground needs to be tilled for planting another crop. We plan on planting mustards, oriental greens, radishes & turnips in this area. We do need to ready the beds in the lower greenhouse for planting too. Fruit update – This week is the first of the fruit deliveries from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton, NJ. We have been delivering fruit from Farmer Jim for many years now and they grow many varieties of peaches, plums and apples. The variety of peaches this week are Flaming Fury, a great freestone peach with yellow flesh. These are great for eating or for your favorite peach recipes. From the Fields: This week, we are behind. We lost 2 of our crew members, who decided to start working locally in a factory. That leaves us quite short with farm help, but fortunately the bulk of the planting has been done. Our Farm Manager Leslie remains and is a true asset to us. The potato harvest started, but will have to wait until this week to harvest the rest. Neighboring Farmer Adam (who has the large farm machines) has cut our upper fields of hay, and this hay we use for mulching. He will also be brush-hogging the back field where the garlic was and help with preparing a new field for us. Weather Report: There has been little rain during the week, just enough on Monday last week to help, but the fields are still in need of our irrigation system. Fortunately the system has been working great. We have a problem with the pump for some of the overhead irrigation, but we’ll be talking with our neighborhood “wizard” to help us with the mechanical issues. We are using water when necessary, which is practically every day and our water supply, the pond, is beginning to drop. We are down about 4” as of Sunday. Hopefully rain will be on the way this week. Animal report: Another groundhog has broken into the fence, apparently looking for a new home among the veggies. Leslie saw him and chased him out of the fields and he was seen heading for the woods. Hopefully he won’t be able to find his way back. We find that in times of very dry conditions, we have the most problems with the wild animals breaking into the fields. Perhaps it is because they are not finding sufficient forage elsewhere and they peek in through the fences and see quite a smorgasbord! From the Wild Side this week! Periodically we get requests from members desiring some wild edibles. This week’s we had enough Amaranth to bunch up for everyone. Many wild edibles are quite nutritious and amaranth is high in protein, lysine, calcium, iron & fiber. More below & on the harvest identifier as well. Amaranth greens can be served as a good substitute for spinach. Great for stir-fry, steamed, and put into soups. More on the Harvest Identifier! Farming Quote of the Week: There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me. Thomas Jefferson Pick of the Week: click on the links below or to the right to bring you to the delivery specific to your pick-up location. Deliveries will be of similar variety & poundage, but may contain different items. Occasionally, some crops are ready to harvest but not enough to deliver to all our drop-off locations. What we do is start to filter them in each week to a different drop-off until there is enough to delivery to everyone.

Recipe Links Beth Haverim Shir Shalom Delivery Hamburg Delivery Hoboken Midtown Delivery Hoboken South Delivery Hoboken West Delivery Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Vol 13 No 6 - Week of July 14th

Garlic Harvest begins....

We began harvesting the garlic on Friday. The crop unfortunately looks poor; with about 50% losses and the bulb heads are small. We do have garlic at Farmer Scotts which also has small heads, but better yields. It appears that most farmers we are talking with are all experiencing similar problems; small heads and larger than normal losses. What happened was with no snow cover over the winter, the ground froze, then thawed, froze then thawed repeatedly which actually heaved the garlic out of the ground. This exposed the cloves to the elements thereby causing their demise. Farmer Rich did cover the fields with greater than normal amounts of mulch during the winter, but this did not save the entire crop. The garlic is now on wire racks for its drying & curing stage. It is during this time that the flavors set in. Fruit update – we hope to start the fruit deliveries next week from Windy Brow Farm. We will be getting an update from Farmer Jim during the week as to availability, but usually the first deliveries of fruit include peach varieties. TRIP to the FARM – scheduled for Sunday, July 20, 2008 starting at 12:00 noon. Want to help with a few projects at the farm? Come up to the farm and spend an

afternoon in the country. Projects we need help with include: · mulching · install fencing around the back field (provided all the garlic has been harvested) please RSVP so we can plan on refreshments also send out directions. From the Fields: Another crop of potatoes will be harvested soon. This week the crew replanted the Franklin greenhouse with yard-long beans and got beds ready for Chinese cabbage to transplant this week. Other beds were planted with lettuce & celeriac. More herbs were also planted this week, including rosemary and lemon basil. Additionally, tomato plants were planted in the big greenhouse for late deliveries. Weather Report: The fields still remain dry, and harvesting the garlic is like pulling them from cement. Even Farmer Rich was surprised at how dry the back field of garlic was. This field is not irrigated, but it probably wouldn’t have mattered much as most of the garlic crop was lost during the winter. Our irrigation system is working well with drip lines through the beds. The water source is our pond and gravity feeds to the main hoses that the drip lines are attached to. Farmer Rich turns it on and the beds get irrigated for about 1 ½ days, then the filter gets clogged and has to be cleared. This set up is a simple yet effective use of our water without having to use pumps. Animal report: The rabbit in-side the fence decided not to eat the remaining transplanted lettuce, but has shown an appetite for kale this week. On Saturday Farmer Rich saw a baby groundhog scaling the fence pole and it appeared it didn’t quite know what to do if it did get to the top of the fence. Fortunately Farmer Rich persuaded it to not continue its break-in attempt, but we are sure that it tried again later in the day. Field Pix: our middle field Farming Quote of the Week: No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. - Booker T. Washington Pick of the Week: click on the links below or to the right to bring you to the delivery specific to your pick-up location. Deliveries will be of similar variety & poundage, but may contain different items. Occasionally, some crops are ready to harvest but not enough to deliver to all our drop-off locations. What we do is start to filter them in each week to a different drop-off until there is enough to delivery to everyone.

Catalpa Ridge News

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