The spring & early summer deliveries continue to be productive as we had our greenhouses fully planted. Remember that you are eating seasonally and the spring deliveries are always light. It will be about another 3 weeks until the deliveries start going over 6 pounds.
Today’s harvest of baby green bunches were harvested from our Franklin greenhouse and the potatoes from our large middle greenhouse on the farm. Where the potatoes were we are replanting with tomatoes, oriental greens, and yard-long beans. The garlic will be ready for harvesting soon, as we just completed harvesting the garlic curls. We are getting the upper greenhouse ready to dry & cure the garlic. We just reconfigure it with wire benches so the garlic will dry evenly.
There were peas ready to be picked, but not enough for everyone at each delivery site on the same week. As they come available, they are being filtered in to each site. Unfortunately the 500’ of peas that Farmer Rich planted did not produce as planned. About ½ of the crop did not germinate, and part of a row as unfortunately run over by the tractor when it slipped in the mud while laying down plastic after one of those big rains. Oh – the joys of farming!
From the Fields: Our crew continues to mulch in between the rows in the beds to keep moisture in & weeds out. Beds that are harvested are being replanted. So far lettuce, broccoli, oriental greens and herbs. More will be planted this week.
The broccoli continues to look good and the cauliflower is looking better than our last report. The tomato plants in the Franklin greenhouse look like they are going to be very productive for earlier than normal delivery. We are seeing an abundance of green fruits on these plants. Farmer Rich & crew planted about 400 plants in this greenhouse and it looks like it will pay off. As the tomatoes ripen, like the peas, we will be filtering them into the different sites on a staggered basis until there are enough to deliver to everyone.
As the buzz continues about the tomato contamination in the country, we are trying to understand just how it is occurring. It is perplexing that the FDA is finding that it is only found in plum-type & round red tomatoes grown in certain states and all other varieties seem unaffected. They are performing their traceback process to identify the source, whether it is on the farm or post-harvest handling. One of the greatest reasons for supporting a farm is that you KNOW where your food is coming from and these types of problems are hopefully avoided.
Weather Report: We had a week with nice cool temperatures and intermittent rain which has been great for the non-irrigated beds.
Animal report: We still have a rabbit in the field eating just a few lettuces once in a while, unlike the groundhog which will go down an entire row and eat everything. There also is a whole family of bunnies which patrol the outside of the fence just peeking in.
Farming Quote of the Week:
If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science. Samuel Johnson ("The Great Cham of Literature")
<« a look at part of one field that has kale, collards, cabbage, cauliflower & potatoes
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. This time of year we may have some crops ready 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. This week Hoboken South & Hoboken West will be receiving tomatoes. Next week we will start with our other locations. A nice early taste!
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