Catalpa Ridge News: 2009

Monday, November 02, 2009

Volume 14 No 22 - Week of November 2nd

Last Delivery of the Season

At least the season is ending on a sunny day and they are predicting sun all week. What a change from the harvest season this year, as you know in reading the newsletter we had perhaps the worst year of weather ever, with rain, rain & more rain practically each week.

We always hope for the perfect season, but it never seems to come. Each year presents a set or two of new challenges and this one was no different. Some years it is too dry and we report about drought, but this year was a year of excessive rain and cooler than normal temperatures. This did impact our deliveries, but we worked hard to provide a good variety each week.

Our plans for the off-season include working in the fields (weather permitting). This will include pulling up the plastic from the beds, repairing fences and moving the lower greenhouse to a new location. The back field is in good shape with its fencing so we only need to remove the plastic and irrigation strips. General clean-up of our greenhouses to prepare them for spring transplants is in the works as well.

If you have any ideas for different veggies you would like to see next year, just send us an e-mail and we will look through our seed catalogs in January as we prepare our large seed order for 2010.

From the Fields: The weekend crew of Lisa & Erin prepared a new area for planting more garlic. The next round of garlic planting should be accomplished this week. The Franklin greenhouse has been totally cleaned out & will be readied for the spring.

Weather Report: Believe it or not, more rain fell at the farm last week. Rich keeps a rain gauge and between last week's & this week's delivery about 6" of rain did fall. Though we had warmer temperatures, the rain hampered work in the fields. Most of the greens were in the greenhouses so harvesting was easier this week.

Last Delivery of the Season

Thanks to all CSA members for your continued support. We hope you enjoyed the variety offered throughout this difficult season. Every year presents new challenges and this year was no different.

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

Monday, October 26, 2009

Volume 14 No 21 - Week of October 26th

The Week of the Ugly Vegetables

As Farmer Rich was giving me the list of veggies in the delivery, it reminded me of a headline I put together years ago for a weekly delivery of greens "The Week of the Bitter Greens". Now, in this delivery we had sunchokes & celeriac, so it seemed a perfect fit "The Week of the Ugly Vegetables"!

Sunchokes, are native to North America and Native Americans called them "sun roots". They are in the sunflower family and are also referred to as Jerusalem artichokes. They have a potato like texture but contain no starch and their carbohydrates are not converted to sugar so they are a perfect potato substitute for diabetics. They have a slight sweet, nutlike flavor and may be eaten raw or cooked like potatoes.

We had a large patch of sunchokes years ago, but it died back and just this season started to come back. We hope to reestablish the sunchoke patch for next year so that we may delivery more of these native roots.

Celeriac - www.celeriac.comdescribes it as "An elusive root vegetable, burdened by an ugly, gnarly, disorderly, somewhat frightening appearance, and underutilized due to general uncertainty over its real potential. Yet, once one goes beyond the unglamorous shell, challenges of cleaning and peeling it, it is serendipity: an extraordinary flavor, almost non-existent calories and a rich nutritious texture are the rewards." Like the sunchoke you can use them raw or cooked. It has a celery flavor and there are recipes for soups, casseroles, gratins and the hollow stalk is sometimes cut to straw length for serving tomato-based drinks such as Bloody Marys!

We had a full crew working on Sunday to harvest & bunch up the greens for delivery this week. Lisa, Erin & Jessie worked 5 straight hours harvesting & bunching the chard, kale, sorrel & parsley. We were a bunch of bunchers!

From the Fields: The greenhouses are starting to be cleaned up as the season winds down to prepare for next year. Any plant debris is removed as well as fixing and repairing the structures. The field plastic is being removed from the beds and we plan on taking down the small greenhouse & moving it up top to better improve productivity. This allows for larger growing area in the lower field where we can manage it better with the tractor. The heated greenhouse will be reconfigured to start transplants in March.

Weather Report: Warmer weather finally arrived this week, after the unseasonably cold weather on the 17^th & 18^th. Saturday brought another 2" of rain, which seems to fit with the rest of the season.

Last deliveries of the Season for our Hoboken & Jersey City Sites - Thank you for your support.

One more delivery to Mahwah @ Beth Haverim Shir Shalom : November 2nd / 3rd (to make up for missed week during Yom Kippur)

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, October 19, 2009

Volume 14 No 20 - Week of October 19th

COLD, snowy, rainy, ugly

It was a super cold weekend for October and we didn't enjoy harvesting in the snow on Saturday. We also were loading the van for the Garlic Festival on Sunday and we had a combination of snow, sleet & rain most of the day. It just seems appropriate for the final weeks of the season to continue with more precipitation!!! Not our best season needless to say, as the cool temperatures and rain just seemed to continue from June through October. We think one week of summer actually did sneak in there somewhere!!

Sunday, we had Lisa and a new part-time worker Erin; harvest the greens as Farmer Rich & I headed to Hoboken for the annual Garlic Festival. I am still trying to thaw out!! A cold, rainy morning turned into just a cold, windy day and we were pleased at the turnout at the festival on such an ugly day. We also got to meet many CSA members, which we always enjoy. In addition to garlic varieties, we brought 15 varieties of apples from Windy Brow Farm for people to sample. Many are heritage varieties and seldom seen at the grocery stores. Also, Shawna a neighboring farmer, made up a great selection of season jarred goodies and her Cinnamon Apples with raisins, jams, jellies and chutney's were a big hit.

Monday morning the weather report has a low in Sussex County of 26ºF, so Farmer Rich is anticipating icicles hanging from the field greens when he gets to the farm.

From the Fields: Provided they all don't freeze and we are able to harvest in the fields during the week, we have a really nice variety for next week's delivery. A combination of radishes, celeriac, and many greens should be on the docket. The long range forecast has next weekend similar to this one, but at least not as cold. The crew will start the harvest early and get bunches into the cooler.

Weather Report: On Friday, we received 3" of snow at the farm though Farmer Rich didn't get to see it. Friday morning's first stop was to our Franklin greenhouse to harvest the rosemary. By the time he got up to the farm, the snow had mostly melted, but some pockets were still evident. This weather is definitely hampering the delivery.

We usually post our Annual Wooly Bear Caterpillar report in this issue, but apparently it is too cold for the wooly bear's to be out! The last one we saw had a wide center brown stripe which predicts a milder winter - but of course that remains to be seen.

Animal Report: The two farm cats continue to roam around at the farm. They were checking us out as we loaded the van on Saturday, probably wondering why we were out in such a cold, rainy day.

SCHEDULED LAST DELIVERIES OF THE SEASON:

Hoboken & Jersey City dropoffs - October 27th
Franklin - October 28th
On-Farm Pickup - October 30/31
Mahwah @ Beth Haverim Shir Shalom - November 2/3(due to skipped week during Yom Kippur)

Monday, October 12, 2009

Volume 14 No 19 - Week of October 12th

Jack Frost is Knocking!

For the last two nights we have been receiving "freeze" and/or frost warnings in Sussex County. Saturday morning we had our crew harvest all the peppers & other tender crops to prevent any damage if the freeze did indeed come. Fortunately at the farm, we did not receive the predicted freeze or even a frost. Some surrounding areas did. Farmer Rich's hypothesis is that the dew point was at 34º, so all the moisture came out of the air & fell on the plants, then the temperature proceeded to drop to 31º, which he noticed while going to the Franklin greenhouse. When water starts to freeze it lets off heat, so we were able to avert the freeze. The principle is similar to when the Florida citrus growers turn on sprinklers when a freeze warning is issued. mulching 2009.jpg
What happens with a freeze is that not all crops are destroyed, only the warm weather crops such as tomatoes peppers, eggplant, basil and squash. Meanwhile the kale, collards, Oriental greens, mustards and radishes are all in their prime. If temperatures get much below 25º they too will succumb to the weather. The crops in the hoop houses can take an additional 5º lower due to the extra protection.

We had a great garlic planting day and had over 20 people come up to help us plant garlic for the 2010 season. We got to meet some of our CSA members and their families. Though a cool day when the sun was behind the clouds, it was great when the sun popped out a few minutes here and there. We proceeded to pop, plant & mulch the garlic in less than 2 hours. After planting we had a great lunch and a good-bye to Ali who was leaving for California.

From the Fields: The autumn crops continue to do well. With the cool weather we have bok choi & radishes in the delivery this week. In the weeks to come we will be delivering some different varieties of mustard greens. The replanted lettuce may be a bit small, but we hope to have it for the end of season deliveries. You will start to see some chard, kale, celeriac and celery in the next few weeks.

The cover crop will be oats this year and we also plan to use oats over the planted garlic. The plan is that the oats will sprout & grow to December then will die over the winter and become mulch by the spring. This will help keep the weeds down over the garlic beds.

We are adjusting our work-day now that Ali is gone. Farmer Rich & Lisa worked on the last bunching of herbs & bok choi on Sunday. They are trying to get into a new rhythm for next week, as being one worker down they felt they were just not in the right tempo.

Weather Report: Friday we had another ½" of rain. Fortunately the beds were ready for the garlic planting and most of the beds drained well before Saturday morning. We lined the furrows with hay to keep everyone's knees from getting too muddy as they planted.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Volume 14 No 18 - Week of October 5th

Work Day at the Farm - Saturday!

We have scheduled the work-day at the farm on Saturday and in preparation in getting the beds ready for garlic planting we encountered a series of disasters. First the plastic laying machine (which wraps the beds) broke down. Once fixed, the beds just didn't seem to wrap properly, probably they being a bit too wet. Then we ran out of drip tape which is laid under the plastic to irrigate when needed during the season. We do however anticipate having the beds ready to go for Saturday!

This past week, Ali joined Rich on the Tuesday delivery run to Hoboken & Jersey City and was able to meet Carolyn, Kristen & Lynn at three of the drop-off sites. It was good experience for her, as it showed her how the CSA distribution system works.

WORK DAY @ the FARM: October 10th 11 am - ??
Want to spend a day in the country and help us on the farm? We are scheduling our next work day at the farm to be a garlic planting day. Help us plant garlic for the 2010 season. It is a great for families, as garlic is very easy to plant. Just a few extra hands and we plant plenty of garlic in just a few hours. If we had to do it ourselves it would take the better part of a week. We first start by "popping" the garlic, which is separating the individual cloves from the bulb, then we plant each clove and finally apply mulch over it. We also plan on having a good-bye lunch for our Farm Operations Leader, Ali, who will be leaving for California. She will be sorely missed. Lisa & Jessie will be working the rest of the season. Please RSVP so that we may plan on lunch and send you directions.

From the Fields: The cold weather crops are really doing well in the field. The radishes, kale, Oriental greens (red & green mustard, Tokyo Bekana), turnips, Shanghai Cabbage. The potatoes should be in the next delivery and you will be receiving winter squash over the next few weeks as well. The winter squash varieties will be mixed week to week with acorn, delicata, butternut, spaghetti, and carnival. Most all the squash and potatoes have already been harvested.

We have basil, rosemary, cucumbers (which are on their last leg), more Oriental greens, arugula and more Shanghai cabbage growing well in the Franklin Greenhouse. We anticipate shutting down the Franklin greenhouse once everything is harvested at the end of the season. It was great to have the greenhouses this year, as the cold, wet weather really impacted the field crops.

HERB of the WEEK: Stevia - We have tried growing stevia in the past for many years and each year was not successful. This year, at least we have some that survived so can give you a sample of this interesting herb. Territorial Seed describes it as: "the Sweet Herb of Paraguay, Stevia is probably the sweetest plant in the world. It contains steviaside, which is 300 times sweeter than sugar without the calories! Add a fresh bruised leaf to iced tea, or harvest the leaves, dry, and grind to a powder for use in drinks and cooking. This vigorous tender perennial is used in many parts of the world in place of artificial sweeteners." It is best to start by tasting just a leaf to test its sweetness then you can adapt how you will use it.

Weather Report: It was a cool week followed by warmer temperatures over the week. Fortunately no frost was in the forecast. The lowest temperature for the week was 36º F.

Animal Report: A few weeks ago we mentioned we had a "farm cat" sneaking into the fields. Well now there are two!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Volumne 14 No 17 - Week of September 28th

The Empire Strikes Back!

Our Veggies & a Movie is back but this month it is fruit & a movie. You will be getting Empire Apples this week. They are a cross between Red Delicious & McIntosh. What better way to celebrate Apple Month with an Apple & a movie!! (PS it was also Johnny Appleseed Day on the 26th).

Farmer Rich & I went up to Saugerties, NY to their annual Garlic Festival to seek new varieties of garlic to plant. We can only hope the 2010 growing season is better than this year, as our garlic had to be harvested early due to the excessive wetness. This caused it to be on the small side.

The leaves are starting to turn, so within the next few weeks the autumn colors will be at their peak. It may even be during our Work Day at the farm!

WORK DAY @ the FARM: October 10th 11 am - 2/3pm
Want to spend a day in the country and help us on the farm? We are scheduling our next work day at the farm to be a garlic planting day. Help us plant garlic for the 2010 season. It is a great for families, as garlic is very easy to plant. Just a few extra hands and we plant plenty of garlic in just a few hours. If we had to do it ourselves it would take the better part of a week. We first start by "popping" the garlic, which is separating the individual cloves from the bulb, then we plant each clove and finally apply mulch over it. We also plan on having a good-bye lunch for our Farm Operations Leader, Ali, who will be leaving for California. She will be sorely missed and we hope she returns for the 2010 season. For the remaining weeks of the season we will still have Lisa & Jessie working. They all have been a GREAT crew this year. Please RSVP so we can plan on lunch & refreshments and send you directions.

From the Fields: The fall crops continue to do very well and the greens deliveries over the past few weeks are thinnings from our very productive beds. The Oriental greens, radishes and turnips and are cruising right along. It is nice to finally report that some crops are doing well. The sweet peppers continue to produce and probably will do well until we get a freeze. The eggplant continues to bear fruit and is in this week's delivery and should be in next week's delivery as well. Our tomato plants are all shut down and the tomatoes we are delivering are from our local farm trading partners.

Weather Report: The overnight rain Saturday into Sunday somewhat dampened our Sunday morning harvest but there was a break in the weather so we could complete our harvest before the day temperatures got too warm. Fortunately we have greenhouses and it is so much better to harvest greens from the greenhouse & not get wet!

Animal report: Though not really an animal, an insect at best, the Annual Wooly Bear Caterpillar report will be coming up soon. So far we have found 2 and both had wide center stripes which indicate a mild winter. We do however; need more than 2 to make a more statistical analysis!!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Volume 14 No 16 - Week of September 21st

If a tree grows in Brooklyn....

If a tree grows in Brooklyn why not peanuts in NJ. That's right! Since we have to supplement the deliveries, as the season has been so terrible, Farmer Diane called us that she found a local farmer with peanuts and we said sure why not!! These of course are raw or "green" peanuts and can be boiled or roasted (see recipes on the back). You can simple eat them raw and add them to salads whole or chop them and sprinkle the bits over your salads, raw soups, and even raw desserts. The flavor of raw peanuts is quite delicate compared to the more familiar taste of roasted peanuts.

When we bought the farm back in 1985, Farmer Rich planted 100 apple trees. The deer proceeded to eat all but 9 of these trees in the course of the first few years. The remaining 9 trees have intermittently produced fruit over the years and this year when Ali & Lisa check them out, they had about 200 pounds of our "wild" apples to pick. Though they are a bit on the wild side, they taste great, more of a tart taste, but have not been sprayed ever (and they look it). You also will be getting Yellow Delicious apples from Windy Brow Farm this week.

From the Fields: With the better growing weather the seeded crops are doing very well. In this week's delivery you will be getting a mix of baby greens which are thinnings from the rows of mustards, oriental greens and radishes. We hope to get another batch of thinnings for another delivery. Some spinach is on the horizon. It too is doing well in the field.

The final bed in the Franklin greenhouse has been rolled over and seeded with arugula. The Sweet Peppers continue to do extremely well (as you have noticed) and until a frost should continue to do so. The winter squash harvest has started. This week you will be receiving butternut squash. More varieties are coming, such as delicata, carnival and acorn.

The established crops in the field look the best they have all year, though 16 weeks into the season. We hope that this increases our deliveries for the remaining weeks yet to come. Farmer Rich considers this the worst season in our 14 years of CSA deliveries. We have tried hard to keep the deliveries consistent and hope that you all understand the risks involved when there is season where the weather has severely impacted the outcomes of the crops.

The crew continues to pull up the plastic on the beds in the field as the season is winding down. We plan on tilling it and plant a cover crop of oats for the winter.

Weather Report: Some rain did fall on Thursday and it helped the newly seeded crops which are all field planted and depend on rain and/or irrigation. The night temperatures are in the high 30's. There was a frost warning for the area, but fortunately it did not hit the farm, though the week ahead looks like some frost may hit.

Animal Report: The Farm Cat continues to become a part of the farm family making it's rounds and keeping the voles & field mice at bay.

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 14, 2009

Volume 14 No 15 - Week of September 14th

Believe it or not!

Believe it or not we needed rain and it came on Friday & Saturday. So far with all the rainy days we have had this season we haven't missed out on any work at the farm nor have had to send the crew home early. Between working in the greenhouses & finding other important tasks that need to be done our crew has worked through those rainy days and more positively have not had a sick day either. FuzzySquash in the Field.jpg

If you want to have a good laugh you must read an article by our Hoboken South CSA coordinator Carolyn in her "The Crisper Whisperer" article for Serious Eats. Farmer Rich and I were laughing hysterically and it is a great read. We even went so far as to post a photo of the "fuzzy squash, hairy gourd or Mo Qua" growing on the vine for all to see. Click here for a link to the article. Actually both Lisa and Ali like these fuzzy squash better than zucchini or other summer squash that are more traditional. Seems like many are turned off by their appearance, but they taste great!

This week you will be receiving both Apples & Asian Pears. The Gravenstein Apples are from Windy Brow Farm and the Asian Pears are from a local grower whom Rich met recently. The Gravenstein Apple is perhaps one of the most versatile apples and great for baking & cooking with its sweet/tart flavor. The Asian Pear actually looks more like an apple than it does a pear and it too has crispy & juicy fruit. There are two varieties, one being mostly yellow and the other mostly russet. They both taste delicious, actually we like the russet one better.

From the Fields: Our late plantings are actually coming along quite nicely. We received some rain that we needed after a week of dry weather. Farmer Rich is still rounding up tomatoes from neighboring farmers and they are getting more and more difficult to find. We know tomatoes are important to the deliveries and we try will to keep them in the deliveries as long as we can. We should start having some winter squash in the deliveries by next week. Farmer Scott was spending Sunday harvesting more potatoes. The Sweet Peppers continue to do well and hopefully we won't get an early frost.

The crew pulled up plastic on some of the beds that were not producing in anticipation of preparing those beds for garlic planting. The remaining beds that aren't producing as going to be cover cropped with oats for the winter in preparation of next year. Many of the local farmers are already getting ready for next year and planting rye in their fields. It is hard to believe that after virtually no summer it is already time to starting thinking about next year.

Weather Report: Rain on Friday & Saturday, but it was needed for the crops that have been planted recently over the past few weeks. During the rainy days we cleaned up some garlic so the days weren't wasted.

Animal Report: We have a cat sneaking into the fields, which is keeping any field voles & mice away. The crew hasn't nicknamed it yet so we'll just refer to it as the "farm cat" for now.

Monday, September 07, 2009

Volume 14 No 14 - Week of September 7th

Dry Weather, finally!

Farmer Rich, Ali & Lisa were able to accomplish a lot of field work this week, and it may have been the first full week of dry weather. Farmer Rich said it was great to finally feel like a farmer! The crew was able to plant many crops for the October deliveries and if the weather continues on the positive side, we anticipate a great end of the season. They even had to turn on the irrigation system for the first time this season.

As you know, we like to grow many "different" varieties of vegetables which give you an opportunity to try new things that you normally could not find at the grocery store. This week you will be getting a Golden Celery, which at first glance it looks like there is something wrong with it, as you are looking for traditional green celery. This variety is Golden Self-Blanching celery from Jordan Seed. They are great tasting and free of strings. Another unusual veggie this week are the Asparagus Beans, often referred to as Yard-Long beans. They tasted like a cross between asparagus and green beans. Great anyway you cook them, stir-fry, soups and salads, stewing, braising, sautéing or frying. Actually, cooking, the long beans intensify their flavor.

From the Fields : With the stretch of nice weather we were able to catch up on field maintenance and weed control. We planted Yukana Savoy (oriental green), red frilly mustard, large leaf mustard, dicon radishes, while hailstone radishes, golden ball turnips, pak choi, peas for sprouts, lettuce and spinach. Though the planting is a little on the late side (should have been planted the end of August), we have irrigated and almost everything is up & growing. After our last sorrel delivery the weeds had gotten out of control so we mowed down the whole field and the sorrel is about 6" already, so there will be another harvest of sorrel. Ali & Lisa transplanted collards and kale and with good weather they should be ready for the end of the season deliveries. The garlic planting season is rapidly approaching so we will be planning a work-day at the farm either on September 19^th or October 10^th. We'll keep you posted by next newsletter.

Weather Report: Finally!!! A full week of dry weather. The cooler temperatures continue at night, but the day time temperatures are hot. Everything seemed to perk up this week.

Animal Report: Still quiet with no break-ins in the greenhouses or the fields. We guess there is enough for our neighboring groundhogs to find outside the fence to eat so they are leaving the crops alone.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Volume 14 No 13 - Week of August 31st

Cooler Temps!

We anticipated more field work early this past week, as the weather had improved. We were going to plow up the potato field and plant some fall greens but the tractor would not start. Just another trial and tribulation to add to the dreadful season we have been having. A neighboring farmer came to our rescue on Sunday to repair the tractor. This delayed our field work, but we were able to get some transplanting done with endive & collards. One main field was tilled up on Sunday and we were able to seed arugula. The rest of the day was spent getting the deliveries ready so we can work early on Monday before Farmer Rich heads south for the deliveries.

We do hope to get the whole field seeded on Monday morning with Chinese greens, lettuce and spinach for the later season deliveries. This all should have been done weeks ago, but with the dreadful weather we could not get this accomplished. We do hope that the weather will continue to cooperate and these crops will be able to grow and be harvested before the end of the season.

The tomatoes at ours as well at all the neighboring farms continue to have problems with the blight. The production of any of our tomatoes is not nearly what it should be. Our sources for more good local tomatoes are running thin, but we keep trying.

Our gorgeous cucumber plants decided to shut down on or about Thursday. Farmer Rich and the girls harvested what they could. The same thing happened at our fields at Scott's in Unionville. At least half of the potatoes in Scott's fields have been harvested and will continue to be delivered over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile in our Franklin greenhouse we cleared a bed for planting Oriental greens. The basil today's delivery was harvested from the greenhouse.

From the Fields: The wet conditions have impacted most of the field crops, from broccoli to cabbage. The chard & kale are doing ok, but not great. We haven't been able to deliver much chard/kale yet. The sweet pepper plants continue to be one of our best producers. The winter squash plants that were planted at the work-day at the farm on the 16^th are doing great. We can only hope that they bear fruit before the end of October.

Weather Report: Cooler overnight temperatures have arrived. This has been nice to harvest the crops in the early morning hours. The cooler temperatures do however start to shut down the warm weather crops. Saturday night brought more rain (which we certainly don't need).

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 24, 2009

Volume 14 No 12 - Week of August 24th

Heirlooms at Last!

As you know from the last newsletter as well as in the news, the tomatoes are scarce this year. We have been doing the Heirloom Tomato Tasting at the Hoboken Historical Museum for the past 10 years, and even if Rich had to go to Peru to get tomatoes he would. Fortunately, we have a network of farmers who were able to get us tomatoes for the event as well as supplement any of our harvest for the CSA delivery, so there are finally some heirlooms!!! Farmer Rich notes that our on-farm Heirlooms are not in great shape. The field in the back was lost due to the blight. The other field is just too wet to get any good production, but we hope to be able to harvest some more over the next week or two.

It was great to meet many CSA members at the Tasting on Sunday and we want to thank the Hoboken Historical Museum for hosting the event as well as their network of volunteers who worked throughout the day from set-up to take-down. It was a brisk day of non-stop lines of tomato lovers basking the glory of finally being able to taste about 20 different varieties of tomatoes.

One of our local farmers is Shawna who we have been getting some of her glorious tomatoes over the years. She just became a Certified Food Processor and brought over some of her goodies for us to bring to the Tomato Tasting. Everyone who tried her products loved them and what we want to do is offer them to you on a pre-order basis. She likes to harvest and process on the SAME day, so you can't get much fresher than that. Currently she has the following items:
• Watermelon Pickles
• Peach Jam
• Peach Chutney
• Homegrown Plum Jam
• Blueberry Jam
• Sweet Pickle Relish
• Pat's Crispy Sweet Pickle Chips
• Dilly Beans
Shawna anticipates expanding her offerings and will include some more seasonal goodies. We also want to work with her to prepare some garlic goods over the next month. I will be sending out an e-mail to everyone so you can pre-order and we can make a delivery once a month of her goodies.

From the Fields: During the week Farmer Rich and the crew managed to re-seed the beds that were washed out from one of our many storms. It was just in time for another 2 ½" of rain and hopefully they are not washed out as well. It is getting very late in the season for direct seeding, but we keep trying!! Some greens will be planted from transplants this week.

Weather Report: An interesting week in that some more severe thundershowers passed through. We even had a hail storm on Friday afternoon as we were rounding up the tomatoes, etc from our local network of farmers. At least the hail did not damage any of the field crops, as Farmer Rich was able to assess for any damage rather quickly. Not that we could do anything about it, but he likes to get a pulse from the fields each and every day.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Volume 14 No 11 - Week of August 17th

Finally, some tomatoes!

As you have been reading, the tomato blight has hit NJ farms especially hard this season. The tomato blight that is hitting this year is the "late" variety which is also known as Phytophthora infestans and is what caused the Irish potato famine. It can infect and destroy the leaves, stems, fruits, and tubers of potato and tomato plants. Probably the main reason it is so bad this year than in any year in the recent past is that it is most active during conditions of high moisture and moderate temperatures, which of course has been our entire season!

We network with other local farmers, and have been fortunate that we can get some tomatoes from them to supplement the deliveries as our tomatoes are way behind. In another newsletter a few weeks ago we did mention we lost our back field which was about 1/3 of our planting. Though the variety and quantity is not what we wanted to deliver, there will be some tomatoes coming in weekly.

We hope to meet many of you at the 10^th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting this Sunday at the Hoboken Historical Museum. We will have what varieties we can offer as well as some fresh produce from ours as well as our local farmer friends.

From the Fields: Our cucumbers & squash that were planted in the garlic beds are doing well.

Farmer Rich hopes to plant some Dicon radishes, beets and lettuces this week. We harvested the remainder of our potato crop. We did have some crop losses (at least half) due to the blight affecting the potatoes as well.

During the week Farmer Rich and the crew fixed out our main on-farm road which had been washed out from the excessive storms we have had.

About 14 people joined us on Saturday for our summer Work-Day at the farm and we planted two long rows of winter squash. Thanks to all who assisted. It was a hot day, but at least a cool breeze was blowing and we all at quite a great lunch, with Farmer Sue cooking up fresh picked potatoes & onions, fresh picked salad, fresh bruschetta made by Farmer Rich and a wealth of other goodies that everyone brought up.

Weather Report: Nice weather for most of the week, though hot & humid. The plants needed some sun & the heat was great for the tomato, eggplant & pepper plants.

Animal report: Our animal attack of the week involved Farmer Rich encountering a ground hog in our squash fields at Scott's who was a bit dazed after eating two rows of summer squash. He especially like the yellow zucchini. The ground hog probably ate so much that it really didn't want to run when it saw Farmer Rich. The crew usually harvests every day, so missing out on harvesting Saturday due to the work-day at the farm invited the ground hog to have free rain for at least a day.

Upcoming Events: 10^th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting -

August 23^rd - 1- 5 pm Hoboken Historical Museum 1301 Hudson Street Hoboken, NJ

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 10, 2009

Volume 14 No 10 - Week of August 10th

Trip to the Farm - Saturday - August 15th

It looks like a season of two steps forward and then three steps back. We seem to get ahead a little and then get set back by the weather. We appreciate the encouraging comments many of you have sent along realizing that we are having a difficult season. You have appreciated our hard work to get you the deliveries and with the help of our trading partners we are able to supplement our harvests. As Susan from our Beth Haverim Shir Shalom pickup location has put it "I'm astounded (and very grateful) for what you do deliver week by week despite our antideluvian weather conditions. It is hugely fun to come to the synagogue/school on Mondays to pick up our part of your harvest and to know others are sharing in it as well. So...if some things get eaten by various 4-footeds, we know you work hard to keep them away from our dinners! And if the rain washes things away, we enjoy what remains. Thank you for keeping farming alive in our state. With best wishes and my thanks..."

From the Fields: We tilled up the Dikon radishes, beets & lettuces as they got washed away during some of the heavy rain a week ago Sunday. We will be replanting this week. The crew started to dig our main potato field in the back and unfortunately most of the potatoes are not deliverable due to them rotting in the ground. This is due to the wetness of the fields from the season on rain. We were able to get some lettuces transplanted from seedlings as well as kale, collards and endive. They should be transplanted in the fields within two weeks.

Weather Report: Well, we had a better than average week this past week! There was more sun than rain except for last Sunday when several inches fell during some violent thunderstorms. More were due yesterday, but looks like they tracked more south of us.

Animal report: The great blue heron has returned to the pond. It is probably looking for a pollywog or two. We also noticed that the groundhog decided to pull an empty coffee can over its hole (that it dug to break into the greenhouse), probably to keep the rain out!

Work Day at the Farm - Scheduled for Saturday August 15th Want to help with a few projects at the farm? Come up to the farm and spend an afternoon in the country. We usually get started around 11 am.

Projects we need help with might include:
· mulching
· transplanting
· various other tasks as the weekly weather permits

pleaseRSVP so we can plan on refreshments and also send out directions. IF it is Raining - we'll have to CANCEL. We'll send out an e-mail to everyone who RSVP's.
We usually start late morning and give you a tour of the farm, start working on a project then break for an on-farm barbeque and hopefully go back to work after!

Ali & Lisa placed 2nd & 5th place overall at the Open Vegetable Show at the New Jersey State Fair- Sussex Farm & Horse Show:


Ali - 2nd Place Overall	Lisa - 5th Place Overall

Monday, August 03, 2009

Volume 14 - No 9 Week of August 3rd

Toto, We're Not in Kansas Anymore!

On Wednesday evening a category EF2 tornado hit Wantage, just 2 miles south of the farm. You probably saw some TV coverage of the event. One of the local dairy farmers got hit especially hard, with severe damage to his barn and the silo tumbled over. We were fortunate not to be in the path of the tornado, but the excessive rain washed away many of our on-farm roads and the fields we have at Scott's Farm on the other side of Wantage was almost in the direct path, it just missed those fields by about ¼ mile. We have many of the squash plants in those fields and production decreased this past week. Perhaps the plants were traumatized!

The NJ State Fair - Sussex Farm & Horse Show started on Friday. Ali & Lisa who both work at the farm entered some veggies into the Open Vegetable Show. It was their first year exhibiting and Ali placed 2^nd overall with 15 blue ribbons and Lisa placed 5^th with 9 blue ribbons. This was quite an accomplishment being their first time exhibiting. Ali also received three Best-in-Show placements for:

Sebring Yellow Summer Squash
Isikura Stem Onions
Silver Fir Tree Tomato

From the Fields: The rain is not helping, but at this point there is not much we can do. We do have to harvest some potatoes soon and it is hard to judge just how our recently planted crops are doing. It appears we have lost about 1/3 of our tomato plants in the back field to the late blight that has been heavily reported in the news and is widespread throughout the state. The impact on the commercial tomato growers is devastating not to mention small growers like us. We even saw the impact at the NJ State Fair where the entries from local home gardeners dropped about 60% for the tomato entries. The tomato entries are usually the biggest part of the Vegetable Show and this year there were hardly any entries and most of the exhibitors were complaining about getting hit by the blight. It was just on Friday the 24^th that Farmer Rich noticed the signs (blackening of the stems)and showed Ali & Lisa what to look for. They proceeded to remove the diseased parts in the hopes of saving the plants. It rained 2" that Sunday evening and by Monday morning the plants just "melted" away and can no longer be saved.

Weather Report: We hate to mention it again, but we have had non-stop rain most of the week. Over 6 inches of rain fell during the last week and the field crops are getting more & more water logged.

Animal report: A ground hog broke into the main field and ate some lettuce and another one decided to burrow underground to get into the greenhouse. Since that greenhouse had recently been harvested, there wasn't much for him to eat. A rabbit also broke in and just snacked on a few different veggies.

Fruit Deliveries - Since Farm Jim from Windy Brow Farm will not have the full poundage for one variety of fruit, we will be delivering plums one week to one site, then peaches the next. We will probably be swapping this off each week until there is sufficient harvest to stick with one variety. If you received plums last week you will be getting peaches this week (we hope we coordinated this correctly!!).

Work Day at the Farm - Scheduled for August 15^th- the weather hasn't been cooperating for us to schedule a trip any earlier, so we are planning ahead in the hopes that we'll have great weather and be able to have CSA members come up to the farm & help with a few projects. More details to follow as we get closer to the 15^th. We usually start late morning and give you a tour of the farm, start working on a project then break for an on-farm barbeque and hopefully go back to work after!

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, July 27, 2009

Volume 14 No 8 - Week of July 27th

Delivery Van Fixed!

First we needed to get the refrigerated cooler fixed during the week of the 13th and this past week it was the delivery van. Sorry to have to make the delivery a day late and we really appreciated the words of support that many members sent us. The van started to act up on the way to Jersey City and Farmer Rich was able to get it back to Bergen County where our great mechanic Joe performs his "magic". According to Joe we were lucky to get it back to him as soon as we did, as if Rich had tried to make it to Jersey City & Hoboken we would be stuck in the middle of the deliveries, totally broken down and far away from our usual mechanic. Joe had it fixed by 9:30 am on Wednesday and off Rich went to deliver, though 24 hours late!

From the Fields: Finally we were able to plant some beds that the potatoes, favas & peas had been harvested with fava greens, dill, cilantro, beets, lettuce and dicon radishes. Ali & Lisa seeded some fall crops such as more lettuces, broccoli and winter squash. The tomatoes and eggplants are growing very slow, but all the tomato plants are trellised and we just need better weather. The rest of the potatoes at the farm and at Scott's are ready to be harvested. The harvested beds in the Franklin Greenhouse will be replanted on Wednesday with oriental greens (red & green choi's).

Weather Report: We had dry weather during most of the week with some intermittent scattered thunderstorms. Saturday night though we had a severe thunderstorm and another 3 ¼" of rain fell.

Animal report: Almost immediately after seeding the squash a field mouse decided to start stealing the seeds and planting them where he wanted. There have been no major break-ins by deer or groundhogs in the fields.

Fruit Deliveries - The fruit deliveries start this week and all the fruit is from Windy Brow Farm located in Newton. They offer pick-your-own days at the farm, especially during apple season. Farmer Jim Hunt participates in Rutger's IPM program (integrated pest management).

Work Day at the Farm - Scheduled for August 15th- the weather hasn't been cooperating for us to schedule a trip any earlier, so we are planning ahead in the hopes that we'll have great weather and be able to have CSA members come up to the farm & help with a few projects. More details to follow as we get closer to the 15th. We usually start late morning and give you a tour of the farm, start working on a project then break for an on-farm barbeque and hopefully go back to work after!

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, July 20, 2009

Volume 14 No 7 - Week of July 20th

Refrigerated Cooler Fixed

A service engineer was called upon to get the refrigerated cooler back on track after it froze up last week. It was a relay which was replaced and it has been working great all week as we have been checking it daily to ensure it worked great for the harvest during the weekend. We are setting up with Scott an alarm that will trigger when it goes below 35ºF so someone can get there quickly to avert an overnight freeze. The cooler is about 20' x 10' and is a necessity to keep the produce chilled down between harvest & delivery.

The Franklin Greenhouse has come to our rescue more than once this season. For this week's delivery some of the greens & basil were harvested from the greenhouse. We have been reporting to you the problems in the fields with the weather, being too wet to plant, washouts and crop losses. But Farmer Rich is determined to pull a few rabbits out of a few hats as the season progresses.

From the Fields: The field where the fava beans were is now tilled. We plan on seeding it with cilantro, dill, beets & beans as well as Oriental greens & dicon radishes. The rain we did receive set back our planting schedule. Seeding for more transplants will be done this week.

We were pleasantly surprised that the field at Scotts that the deer broke into earlier in the season actually had a terrific harvest of squash. Meanwhile the tomato plants in that field have started to come back but will be delayed in bearing fruit.

We have been checking in the Farmer Jim @ Windy Brow Farm for the beginning of the fruit deliveries. There has been damage to some of the fruit crop but fortunately no major problems. According to Farmer Jim the fruit should start in the next week or two.

Weather Report: A week's worth of sunshine with some intermittent rain at the farm. We received about 1" of rain on Friday night which delayed our planned planting in the fields on Saturday.

Animal report: Looks like a bear decided to check out our back field. The fence was torn in one section. Farmer Rich believes that if deer were trying to break in the fence posts would have been bent in while the deer were trying to break through it. In this case the posts are still intact, but the fencing actually torn. Fortunately, nothing was disturbed in the fields. We do have some crows picking away at new transplants of tomatoes.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Volume 14 No 6 - Week of July 13th

Abundant Sunshine - for a change!

Well almost a full week of abundant sunshine! The fields were finally drying out and we were able to work in them for a change. Unfortunately on Tuesday night a hail storm followed a track right through the farm and the sorrel which was growing so nicely was turned into shredded sorrel. Needless to say we have to wait for it to regrow and just add it to the crop loss list. The other field crops were damaged somewhat, but the losses were not as severe.

Thank goodness we have our network of “trading partners” which involves partnering with local farmers to supplement the deliveries. We have been doing this for years and it works out well if we have too much of an item we can trade it for another item that they have too much of. We budget for this throughout the season, and this season being especially troublesome with the weather problems it has been saving our weekly deliveries.

We have been struggling to keeps the weeds at bay so in addition to trying to get into the fields to plant we also have to keep the beds free from the weeds so the crops grow better.

Our second planting of fava beans was not as productive as the first so this week’s delivery of fava beans will be less.

From the Fields: Finally some planting in the fields was accomplished this week. The garlic beds were vacant after the garlic harvest, so they were the first to be replanted. On Wednesday, we were finally able to plant. The cucumbers & squash were the first plants in and then on Friday we planted chard & thyme. On Saturday we were able to plant New Zealand spinach and more is slated for this week. Farmer Adam’s tractor was tied up so we couldn’t use his planter, but with our great crew we accomplished this all by hand.

Weather Report: All in all we had a week with mostly sunshine and the fields are starting to dry out. We had a hail storm on Tuesday night which did some damage to some of the field crops which we outlined in the intro. We did receive about ½” of rain on Saturday night which made Sunday’s harvest a bit muddy. The outlook for the week ahead appears that another nice week is in the forecast with generally cooler than normal temperatures for July. A few scattered thunderstorms are predicted and hopefully they will scatter away from the farm.

Animal report: The animals continue to behave by staying outside the fences.

While harvesting the fava beans a baby bird was disrupted from its nest and was found hopping about among the fallen fava plants.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Volume 14 No 5 - Week of July 6th

48 Hours - NO Rain!

We hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July and celebrated being Food Patriots! As Cathy at www.farmtoconsumer.org so aptly put it: "Food Patriots! How will you celebrate Food Independence (from factory farms) Day? Hug a farmer? Broil a grassfed burger?" Farmer Rich & I ate all local at Ali's house (Ali is our Farm Operations Leader) with many of our local farmer friends and Ali made a great salad fresh from our farm for all to enjoy. Greenhouse 7-4-09.jpg

We started the fava bean harvest and they are in your delivery this week. Though quite labor intensive everyone looks forward to our yearly delivery of fava beans. If you have never cooked fresh fava beans before, make sure you check out the harvest identifier to tips on how to prepare them. We do have another planting, but they don't look like they will be as productive as this planting.

Since the rain has been so consistent over the last several weeks, we have been taking advantage of our greenhouses to try to ensure consistent deliveries. Despite some severe losses in the fields, our greenhouse crops are doing well and some of the field crops are rebounding. We planted New Zealand Spinach in the Franklin greenhouse as all the spinach in the field was lost due to the weather.

From the Fields: The rain kept us out of the field most of the week. The lettuce plants in the greenhouse that were to be transplanted into the field bolted (turn to seed), so they went into the compost pile. We couldn't plant them any earlier as it was too wet. We are planning on re-seeding this week more lettuce and various greens. To be transplanted in the fields are Chinese cabbage, cucurbits (cukes, zukes & squash) and stevia. We are running behind but we also plan on seeding some winter squash up in Scott's fields. These will take the place of the garlic that was just harvested. All in all, it appears that the garlic harvest this year is far better than last year's crop. Your first delivery of garlic is tonight. The garlic is not cured yet, as that occurs over the next few months. When the garlic is fully cured it will have the intense flavors, but many like the milder early garlic to start using in your favorite recipes.

Weather Report: Wow - no rain for 48 hours between July 4th & 5th!! Another few days like these splendid days and we'll be able to plant in the fields again. We did have rain most of the week off & on from a trace to 1" each day. The temperature at the farm fell to 49º F over night between the 4th & 5th of July. No danger to the crops, but worth noting it was the coldest night since May.

Animal report: We guess that the poor weather has kept the animals at bay. They probably don't like getting wet like Farmer Rich. No problems with deer, groundhogs or bugs this week! Even the deer at Scott's farm seems to have given up on eating any more plants. The squash plants are looking really good and you are getting your first summer squash delivery this week.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Vol 14 No 4 - Week of June 29th

Emergency Garlic Harvest

With another week fully of rainy days, we did more maintenance than planting this week. The fields are just too wet to work in.

Despite the rain, the tomato plants are doing well, but the eggplant & peppers seemed to have stopped growing. This is probably due in part to the lack of sun, excessive wetness and the cooler night temperatures that we have been experiencing at the farm. The fava beans are almost ready to be harvested and we should have them in next week's delivery.

This week we started the potato harvest on our first planting of the Pontiac variety. There were a lot of cracked potatoes and the yield was low. We have an additional 10 plantings of potatoes which include blue & red gold varieties. We can only hope that these additional planting will fare better than the first.

In the greenhouse, the seeded Brussel sprouts, chard, spinach, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, cukes & zukes are ready to be transplanted. The raised beds are saving us somewhat, but the furrows are just filled with water and in some places it is ankle deep.

We received the stevia transplants, but have not planted them yet due to the weather. We hope to get them planted this week. Stevia is an herb that many people use as a natural sweetener.

Farm-Spring 2009 033.jpg

From the Fields: As mentioned earlier we were not able to do any planting this week. We were able to cultivate the beds to keep the weeds in check. The garlic harvest was started, as the sheaths that surround the garlic bulbs were being compromised by the rain and we thought it best to start the harvest. Better to have small garlic than no garlic due to the possibility of the bulbs rotting the wet beds. At least half of the garlic has been harvested as of Sunday afternoon. We plan on transplanting the lettuce, Chinese cabbage & spinach into some of these beds. The garlic is now lying out on the racks to start the drying & curing. We are pleased to mention that the garlic harvest this year is far better than last year's harvest!

Weather Report: It rained almost every night this week, from a trace to about 1" each day. We did manage to get a few hours of sunlight on a few days! We narrowly missed a hail storm which would have been devastating to the field crops. The storm passed just north of us into NY. The forecast for the week shows periods of more rain & thunderstorms during mid-week. We can only hope that they will be "scattered" and not over the farm.

Animal report: The deer just love the tomato plants in our fields at Scott's farm! The plants they forgot to eat the first round, they found the second time around. Scott is aggressively working on the problem with the fence and we hope to report all is well by next week. We have had a quiet week at the farm and all our fences are doing well and we haven't had any animal break-ins. Many of the tomato plants eaten at Scott's have started to re-sprout. This will delay them bearing fruit, but we are fortunate they all were not lost.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Vol 14 No 3 - Week of June 22nd

Record Rain for June?

Needless to say we had a trying week (see additional comments under the animal report). The rain just kept coming and coming & coming. Last week we reported well over 5" of rain fell, so add another 4-5" on top of that. The field crops are not happy. The excessive rain with the lack of sun is causing some crop failures. About 30-40% of our broccoli, cauliflower and shallot crop has been lost as well as 50% of the kohlrabi. We do overplant to offset losses, but don't plan on having the losses this severe. Picking Daisies.jpg

Friday was our only nice sunny day at the farm, in which we were able to cultivate and weedwack trying to get the fields under control. Saturday with the forecast of rain all day, we worked in the Franklin greenhouse (Farmer Rich hates to work in the rain) and were able to totally turn-it-over. This involved harvesting all the remaining onions and set them out the dry on our wire racks (we just need some sun for them to dry). We weeded the beds, fertilized and planted oriental greens. We also transplanted cucumbers. Having both our on-farm greenhouses and the Franklin greenhouse allows us to adapt during the season. Without these greenhouses we would be very behind at this point in the season. Many field crop farmers are finding it extremely difficult with the excessive rains. We have a few more beds in the fields open for cucumbers and squash but have not been able to plant them. Fortunately the plants we had ready were sent over the Scotts to plant in our fields there. Our new seedlings (the cucurbits) are almost ready to be planted in the fields and we hope we have better weather this week to accomplish it.

We have to check in with Farmer Jim at Windy Brow Farm to check on the status of his fruit crop that we hope to start delivering in mid-July. These heavy rains may be affecting the fruit crop as well. We hope to have an updated report for the next newsletter.

We have decided to deliver the onions again this week, as we have to start the garlic harvest early and need the room on the drying racks for the garlic. Also with this high humidity with all the rain, we are unsure that the onions will dry correctly, so it is best to deliver them while they are good instead of losing them. The garlic looks like is may start to rot in the ground, so the main objective this week will be to harvest it as the sheaths are starting to rot away and exposing the cloves. We would rather have small garlic than no garlic at all!

From the Fields: Ali planted about 150 pounds of potatoes on Tuesday while Farmer Rich was making his deliveries and another 100 pounds on Wednesday. We hope that they don't get washed out. The furrows are like brooks between the rows. Since we have raised beds, our losses aren't as large as if we didn't have raised beds. We received the Stevia transplants from Richter's nursery (2 months late) and hope to get them in the fields this week, but the weather forecast is looking gloomy.

Weather Report: More rain, no sun! The impact of this weather is more than just soggy fields. It interrupts our planting schedule in the beds we had already prepared and we are unable to prepare new beds. It also contributes to fungal diseases such as roots rotting. The week ahead is not looking any better with more rain in the forecast, but a lot can change during the week. We'll hope for the best!

Animal report: Last Saturday we brought about 1200 tomato plants, 600 pepper plants, 200 eggplant and 600 squash plants up to our fields on Scott's farm and he & his crew promptly planted. The field is surrounded by an electric fence, but by Monday night one deer ate all the tomato plants. They are just stumps at this point and may come back. Fortunately the deer did not eat any of the pepper, eggplant or squash plants. More transplants are slated to be brought up to Scotts to be planted this week.

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