Dry conditions continue !
The drought continues for another week which makes our job harder to keep up with irrigating and trying to offset crop losses. We did receive ¼" of rain and fortunately did not receive the hail storm that many farmers in the area did. It all occurred last week during the severe weather that impacted the NYC area the most. We haven't seen much publicity regarding the drought conditions, but in driving in Wanaque recently by the Monksville Reservoir, I noticed that there was practically no water in it!! It is a huge reservoir and I have never seen it as low as it was on Saturday.
The fruit trees are suffering as well. In talking with Jim @ Windy Brow it appears that the pear trees suffered greatly during the drought & didn't produce at all. This means no pears this season L. He also mentioned that the apple harvest will be winding up next week, which is way ahead of normal. He will however, be able to provide apples for our CSA deliveries until the end of the season.
The "Harvest Moon" appears on Thursday the 23rd. The full moon that appears closest to the autumnal equinox is known as the harvest moon. Though folklore has the harvest moon as gathering up the crops for the season, we have our harvests going to the end of October, though it may be a struggle.
What's up & growing:We are just planting for the end of the harvest season to help off-set some crop losses. Some arugula was planted in the greenhouse this week. In the fields the recently planted lettuce & arugula are doing well. The red mustard plants were thinned and are in tonight's delivery, which will make the remaining plants get bigger when grown to maturity. The next crop is expected to be harvested in October.
We are going to be preparing and area for garlic planting in October. Currently there are daikon radishes, turnips and cilantro in that field and as they are harvested we'll be getting that area ready. We hope to schedule another work-day at the farm for Sunday October 24th and our project will be planting garlic. More info will be forthcoming in upcoming newsletters.
Weather Report: There is a just a chance of some thunderstorms this week on Wednesday and Friday, but nothing of any consequence to help with the continued drought conditions. Temperatures will remain comfortable in the high 70's and low 80's which makes it nice to work in the fields.
Animal report: No major problems in the fields this past week. There were a few deer grazing in an area we plan to have a new field for next year. Hopefully they won't get too used to it! Also the toads abound in the greenhouse, which is a good thing as they like to feast on insects!
Fruit Delivery: Tonight's delivery we have some Greenings Apples from Windy Brow Farm. The first orchard in Massachusetts was planted around 1625 by a clergyman named William Blaxton who owned a farm on Beacon Hill in Boston. He later moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island and planted the first Rhode Island orchard in 1635. Blaxton is credited for having grown the first named apple in America. This variety is sometimes referred to as Rhode Island Greening.
UPCOMING EVENTS
9th Annual Garlic Gathering- Olde Lafayette Village - Lafayette, NJ
• Saturday / Sunday October 2nd & 3rd
11 am - 4 pm
4th Annual Garlic Fest- Hoboken Historical Museum - 1301 Hudson Street
· Sunday October 17th 1 pm - 5 pm
END of SEASON POTLUCK hosted by the Hoboken Midtown group - but all CSA members are welcome - Tentative date is November 6th. More details to come…..
Week of September 20th - 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.
- Recipe Links
- Beth Haverim Shir Shalom Delivery
- Hoboken Midtown Delivery
- Hoboken West Delivery
- Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery
- United Synagogue of Hoboken
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