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.
1 comment:
Hello! Does Catalpa Ridge Farm have an apprenticeship program? If so, I would be very interested in talking with you about it. My email is becca.newman@gmail.com
Thank you,
Rebecca
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