Soaking In Rain!
As we write the newsletter on Sunday after dinner, we have received about an inch of rain today. It was a great soaking in rain as it fell off & on all day long. The pond didn't fill up, which is a concern, but the crops are much happier today! It has been the third time this year that we have been low on our irrigation water. We were only watering critical areas so some of cucumber and squash fields were suffering, but now they should bounce back.
We irrigated the Brussels sprouts, eggplant and tomato plants with the drip irrigation tape. The soil they are in is sandier so even after a rainy day they needed water.
The rain did hamper harvesting some greens for delivery.
Farmer Rich, John & Gary worked on an interesting project this week. Rich was contacted about a month ago by The Delaware Water Gap National Park Service in Montague to fertilize perhaps the oldest orchard in the National Park Service in the United States. It was truly an interesting project as we have always been interested in heirloom varieties and to be able to work on a project that included some of the oldest fruit trees in the United States was something he couldn't pass up. It has been estimated that some of the trees in the park are over 200 years old. This area of the Park is known as the Roberts Farm Orchard. According to the National Park Service they are reestablishing and maintaining historic fruit trees throughout the NPS. A spokesperson states that "It represents an historic milestone in the preservation of the cultural heritage of the United States." Other historic orchards have had pruning & maintenance project as well, the most recent being at the historic orchards in Gettysburg National Military Park and the adjacent Eisenhower National Historic Site; additional pruning is also planned for trees at Adams National Historic Park.
A recent article about the "Living History" project in the National Park Service notes the following:
· Coordination and funding for preservation of the historic orchards as come from the Service's Frederick Law Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation in Brookline, Massachusetts. The Center's staff notes,
· "The National Park Service is one of the principal stewards of historic orchards in the United States. Many of these orchards date from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries and reflect important social trends of the country such as the migration and settlement patterns of immigrants, the development of commercial agriculture, and the growth of rural and urban economies."
· "Many of the orchards at national parks have direct associations with important people or events that shaped the history of our country, such as the Peach Orchard at Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. Additionally, historic orchards in national parks often contain rare or unusual fruit varieties that may be the only surviving examples of their type." (reference www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2010/02/living-history-project-delaware-water-gap-national-recreation-area-required-some-very-sharp-instrume5428)
So our participation in just one small segment of the project took place on Thursday afternoon. Farmer Rich, John & Gary brought up the tractor & spreader and Fertrell supplied the organic fertilizer. Unfortunately, the orchard is in the process of being rejuvenated so there are no apples to deliver now, but we hope in the future that they will have some available.
What's up & growing:We are having a great pepper & egplant year this year, probably the best ever. The seeded crops for October are probably are going to come in early. They consist of turnips, sen posai, dill, cilantro, tendergreen mustard, Dicon radishes and French Breakfast radishes. Newly seeded crops include, red mustard, arugula, lettuce and white icicle radishes. With this rain they should really start cruising along.
The cherry tomatoes in the Franklin greenhouse are not setting fruit. Farmer Rich spent Sunday morning investigating and fertilizing them in the hopes that fruit will be set soon. The plants themselves look great.
We have been delivering basil on an ongoing basis, but there seems to be a shortage of basil among other farmers due to a blight condition.
Weather Report: The week was dry, but much need rain finally arrived on Sunday. The forecast for this week looks like more rain early in the week and about average temperatures.
Animal report: The two fawns visited the plum tree again. We haven't seen them in weeks. They were looking for some plums to eat, but all the plums from the tree had already dropped. We hope they won't want to jump the fence to check out the crops in the field.
Fruit Delivery: Tonight starts some great apple varieties from Windy Brow Farm. The variety this week is the Red Free Apple. 
11th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting - Hoboken Historical Museum
• Sunday August 29th 1 pm - 5 pm at the Hoboken Historical Museum
• 1301 Hudson Street
We'll have many varieties of tomatoes for tasting as well as farm fresh produce for sale from local farmers. Also dips, pestos, salsas will be made from farm fresh produce. We hope to see many CSA members there!
Week of August 23rd - 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 at anytime during the season. 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.
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