Pages

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Volume 15 - No 9 - Week of August 2nd

Cooler Temps!

We are glad to see July over, as it sure was hot and humid! The average temperature for July was over 7ºF hotter than last year's average and the rainfall was an average of 3" less than last year. Overall, great for many of the crops that love the hot weather, such as the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, but not so good for the lettuces, arugula and tender greens.

We had some intermittent showers occurring off and on during the week. The sun doesn't come up at the farm until after 5:30 am, so Farmer Rich is getting an extra ½ hour sleep! The early morning harvests are nice & cool and even Farmer Rich has to put on a flannel shirt!


The potatoes were harvested this week at our fields up at Scott's Farm. The potatoes will be mixed between Red Norland, Katadin and Russet. The potato harvest did not yield as much as it should have, mostly due to the dry weather. Estimates are about ½ of what we should have been able to harvest, but we do have plenty of potatoes for the rest of the season.


The leeks & squash that were weeded & mulched by the CSA members who came up to the farm are much happier. The mulch is helping keep the moisture in the soil.


For those of you getting the arugula in your delivery - you may notice some insect holes. What happens is that they bite into the young plant and then the leaf grows and the hole becomes larger. The Arugula tastes REALLY GOOD aside from the cosmetic problem.

What's up & growing:

On July 21st we planted Cilantro, Dill, Sen Posai, Turnips, Tendergreen Mustard, Dicon Radish, and French Breakfast Radishes in the back field and they are growing great. You should start seeing thinnings in upcoming salad mixes.

The July 14th planting of carrots are finally growing! Carrots do take a long time to germinate.

We divided the chives plants, to plant long rows as well as planted some basil.


The eggplant crop is growing very well and each week one or two delivery sites are receiving them on an alternating basis until we have enough for all the sites. The eggplant varieties we have been harvesting consist of Rosa Bianca, Florida High Bush, Ping Tong Long, Black Beauty and Orient Express. We are also encouraged by the production of our sweet peppers plants. We have some great colored varieties, such as ivory, black, chocolate, purple, golden, fryers & some standard greens.

Weather Report: Very little rain fell during the week, most of which came on the 25th during the trip to the farm. There have been some storm fronts moving through the area but have been more of a hit-or-miss at the farm.


Animal report: The rabbits have multiplied, but are not creating a problem. We haven't seen the two fawns this past week either. We have our "natural" pest controllers working in the greenhouse. They are small toads who just love to eat insects!! In the early morning hours at the farm we see a number of bats swirling around and when they go to sleep the birds then wake up! Nature isn't it wonderful!

Fruit Delivery

The variety this week is the Starfire Peach. These peaches from Windy Brow Farm are a nice scarlet orange-red and taste great. This is the first year we have delivered this variety from them. We like to get the peaches on the "hard" side for better transportation and less bruising. They should ripen up in a few days.SFHS Logo.jpg

NJ State Fair - Sussex County Farm & Horse Show

The NJ State Fair in Augusta, NJ starts on Friday and runs to August 15th. Hannah & Lisa are looking forward to entering a few exhibits in the Open Vegetable Show which will be judged on Saturday. For more information you can go online to www.njstatefair.orgto see what events are scheduled for each day.


Week of August 2nd -
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.


No comments: