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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.

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.

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! 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 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!

  • 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 announcedGarlic 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 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 beds. 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

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.