Sad News

My Dad has lost his battle and peacefully passed away with his family at his side. It was a hard four months, but very rewarding in providing the caregiving during this time.
I think the best legacy a parent can leave behind is the success of their children. Success not measured by the amount of money we make, but the way we live our lives and the lessons we learned. Both Mom & Dad taught us life’s lessons; honesty, integrity, respect. They never discouraged, but always encouraged anything we ever wanted to do. If we tried something and failed, it was a lesson learned. Dad was a great teacher, not only during our formative years but later in life as well. In his writings we found these words “I have given them with the aid of their mother, a good direction in life” so we know that he knew he brought us up right. The caretaking we all gave him over these four months is really a tribute to the way we were brought up, to put others first. Just the weekend before he passed away, he looked up at Alison & I and said “you’re good kids”. It was his way of giving us his blessing. Perhaps the long journey during these final few months of Dad’s life were to teach us one more of life’s lessons, that of the meaning of true love. – Farmer Sue
His obituary is posted at: http://www.vanemburghsneider.com/_mgxroot/page_10780.php?id=1001997

Catalpa Ridge News Vol 16 No 20–Week of October 24th

Last Delivery of the Season

This season was probably the most difficult in our 16 years. We have had some drought years, some wet years, but none so wet as this year. Frankly, we had some doubts that we could make it to the end, but with planning & a great crew we were able to make it. We have the best crew we have ever had and they always went the extra mile to get the deliveries on course each week. Thanks to our crew; Lisa, Ali, Renee & Dory for a job well done this season.

This situation wasn’t unique to us, as other farmers were in similar circumstances, but with our CSA member support we have a sustainable farm despite incredible hardships during the year. Thanks to all CSA members for your support this season.

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 2012. Some veggies we had big plans for this season just didn’t materialize in large quantities due to the terrible growing conditions such as our usual staples of chard, kale, heirloom tomatoes, Chinese greens, radishes and beets. For some we had to split deliveries between the CSA drop offs, so your site may have gotten chard one week and another site had to wait another week for it. All in the all, it pretty much evens out by the end of the year. You probably have noted we have had a great Sweet Pepper Year! Perhaps we should tag 2011 as the year of the Sweet Pepper! A great idea if you have a stockpile of sweet peppers in addition to what you are receiving tonight is to clean them up, slice them and then freeze portions in small sandwich bags and use during the winter months.

We plan on working extending the round field for next year during the next few months before the snow comes and the ground freezes. We want to get the new field into production next year. This was planned for this year, but it was just too wet and we had a hard enough time maintaining our regular fields. Work will continue in the early spring on these projects as well as a few other projects we have planned.

Weather Report: Believe it or not another 1” of rain fell at the farm during the week. The temperatures have been on the warm side which has helped greatly with these past three weeks with the deliveries. The crops we had transplanted did grow well during this time and made it into the deliveries.

From the Fields: We had our Garlic Planting Trip to the Farm on Sunday. It was a glorious warm day. Unfortunately there was a poor turnout of CSA members so we were not able to get all the garlic planted as we usually do. Many were scared off by the prediction of cold temperatures but the day was just great! Farmer Sue made up a great campfire barbeque and we appreciated those of you who did come & help.

Animal Report – Unusually quite in animal land, but we don’t have to worry about anyone breaking into the fences now that the season is over.

End of Season Potluck Dinner
Is being planned for November 19^th @ the Hoboken Historical Museum

More details will follow via e-mails - Save the Date!!

Thanks to all CSA members for your continued support.

Week of October 24th - 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

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 16 No 19–Week of October 17th

Trip to the Farm – Sunday 10/23 & Next Week – Last Delivery of the Season

We did manage to get the garlic beds ready for planting garlic this Sunday. It was too muddy for most of the month, but Farmers Rich, John & Matt were finally able to work in that field and get the beds tilled, fertilized & wrapped and the beds are now ready for planting. We hope that many of you will be able to join us in planting on Sunday. Please see Trip to the Farm below.

Garlic Beds being wrapped for planting

We are making it to the end of the season & what a season it has been! Never have we never had as much rain in one season as this year. We even had an additional ¾” this past week. We appreciate all the support and feedback we have received during this difficult year. The crew has worked very hard the past several weeks to ensure we have deliveries for this week and next and are sure that you all appreciate their efforts.

From the Fields: The season is winding down with just 1 more delivery. The lettuces, sorrel, microgreens, sunchokes, squash, rosemary are all slated for harvest for the final week. This of course is all subject to a heavy frost, snow, hail storm or 4-legged intruders!

Weather Report: It has been unusually warm for this time of year, aside for a few mornings where we had to turn the heat on the greenhouse to warm up before harvesting.

Fruit Report –The pears are from Soons Orchard in Middletown, NY. The Seckel is thought to be a hybrid of Asian and European pears. It is believed to be a truly American pear and named in honor of a Pennsylvania farmer who discovered it around 1820. It is quite different from any European variety, and it happens to be the smallest of all commercially grown pears and sometimes called a sugar pear.

Animal Report – The Annual Wooly Bear Caterpillar is in! This has become an annual part of the newsletter for the past 16 years and for the most part has been pretty accurate. Weather folklore enthusiasts have long assessed that the woolly bear caterpillar is one insect that is supposed to give us some insight as to how severe the winter will be.

It is said that if the middle stripe is narrower than either of the black stripes, the winter will be severe. Conversely, if the center stripe is wide, we’ll have a mild winter. If all the stripes are the same size, we’ll have an average winter. This year, we have observed very thick center stripes on the Wooly Bear caterpillars seen, so perhaps a mild winter is on the horizon. We can only image is all the rain we received this year was snow – we would be buried right now and not able to compose any newsletters.

Trip to the Farm – SCHEDULED for October 23rd

Help Plant Garlic

· All CSA members are invited to help out planting garlic for the final trip to the farm this year
· Start Time: 11:00 am on October 23rd
· Planting Garlic is a great family activity & very easy!!
· We’ll starting popping the garlic then proceed to the field to plant followed by mulching
· We’ll break for a late lunch (around 2:30 pm) with Farmer Sue’s famous campfire recipes Please RSVP so that we may plan lunch & refreshments

End of Season Potluck Dinner Is being planned for November 19^th @ the Hoboken Historical Museum

More details will follow next week – Save the Date!!

Week of October 17th - 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

Catalpa Ridge News–Vol 16 No 18–Week of October 10th

Summer Returns

We had a week of sunshine and it is amazing how much work can be done when the sun is out. The crew has been cleaning up fields and getting ready for the next two weeks of harvests. It is so nice to be able to really work in better weather! We are not ready to throw in the trowel yet!

The Franklin Greenhouse has been rolled over in a week and a half with Buckwheat microgreens and lemon grass. Sunflower microgreens have also been planted for next week’s delivery. When you have weather patterns like we have had we find creative ways to continue deliveries. Renee has been working very hard in the greenhouse from removing all the beds and re-planting in less than two weeks to have harvests ready for this week.

Franklin Greenhouse filled with greens

We thought that cooler temperatures were around the corner and the greens would be harvested in the cooler temperatures. We were greeted by 80 degree temperatures over the weekend, not typical for October.

From the Fields: We have lettuces and other greens which are coming along quite nicely with the better weather. Three weeks ago we thought it was over, but with a great crew and optimistic outlook it appears we can make it to the end of the season which will be the week of October 24th.

We are getting an area ready for garlic planting – planned for a trip to the farm on October 23rd (see trip to the farm notes). Farmer Rich and John are franticly working on the spot to get it ready, but it is still drying out. We do have other options if this one spot doesn’t dry out by the 23rd.

Garlic field being prepared – still a bit muddy

Weather Report: There were wide swings in temperatures this week with a light frost early in the week to 80 degree temperatures over the weekend. Amazingly very little rain (just ¼”) fell during the week.

Animal Report – The animals continue to be quiet with a few deer peeking through the fence. So far no one has any great desire to break into the fields as apparently there is enough for them to eat on the outside.

Fruit Report –The apples are from Soons Orchard in Middletown, NY. Variety this week is Empire. They are a cross between Red Delicious & McIntosh.

TECH NOTES - We have our OWN Community Toolbar that you can install in your Web Browser! Quick links to all our content: Newsletters, Harvest Identifiers, Facebook, Twitter, search, weather & more. Follow this link and then install http://jerseygrown.ourtoolbar.com/

Trip to the Farm – SCHEDULED for October 23rd

Help Plant Garlic

· All CSA members are invited to help out planting garlic for the final trip to the farm this year
· Start Time: 11:00 am on October 23rd
· Planting Garlic is a great family activity & very easy!!
· We’ll starting popping the garlic then proceed to the field to plant followed by mulching
· We’ll break for a late lunch (around 2:30 pm) with Farmer Sue’s famous campfire recipes
Please RSVP so that we may plan lunch & refreshments

Week of October 10th - 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

Catalpa Ridge News–Vol 16 No 17–Week of October 3rd

A Hint of Sunshine !

We hate to keep moaning about the weather, but we had another 5 ¾” of rain this past week. There were a few times that the clouds parted and the sun did shine, but not on our harvest days. The crew were in the fields harvesting in the rain on Saturday & Sunday morning.

We had our Olde Lafayette Village Garlic Gathering on Saturday & Sunday and in your delivery you will receive some of the garlic varieties that we had available at the event. Unfortunately Saturday was mostly rainy, but on Sunday the sun came out for the better part of the day. It was great to see a few CSA members who stopped by.

Renee took the photo below at the Franklin Greenhouse of the small brook that developed after the rains this week.

The whole greenhouse was flooded. We have set up the greenhouse with raised beds so all the planted crops were safe but Renee had wet feet!

The upper greenhouse on the farm wasn’t much better, but instead of a small brook had about 4” of mud to walk through.

From the Fields: Field work was limited due to the heavy rain during the week. The crew kept busy cleaning & sorting garlic.

At the Franklin Greenhouse, Renee sowed all the beds with Buckwheat, Sunflowers and MicroGreens as we have little time to left for anything else to grow before the end of the season. They are all up and growing well so we anticipate their harvest being within the next week or two.

Some of the late transplanted crops might produce better than anticipated. The Daikon radishes and lettuces are doing well. The tomatoes are winding down. This week might be the end of the tomatoes, but we may be able to squeeze out another delivery next week. We have a nice stock of onions and winter squash, though we are having storage problems with both. The sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichokes) will be delivered, though small, as the stand was blown down during Hurricane Irene. We usually have watercress, which usually does well in the wet weather, but in typical Catalpa style, the stand did get washed away.

Weather Report: Frost is on the horizon, but at this point there is not much left for the frost to kill. The forecast is for the lows being in the high 30’s with a warming trend during the latter part of the week. We are looking at a window of opportunity to prepare beds for planting garlic later in the month (see Trip to the Farm Planned below).

Animal Report – We haven’t been reporting on any animal damage lately and we have finally figured out why – we think they have all drowned!

The Monarch butterflies and Blue Birds were seen in abundance this past week, perhaps on their migratory routes

Fruit Report –The apples are from Soons Orchard in Middletown, NY.

TECH NOTES - We have our OWN Community Toolbar that you can install in your Web Browser! Quick links to all our content: Newsletters, Harvest Identifiers, Facebook, Twitter, search, weather & more. Follow this link and then install http://jerseygrown.ourtoolbar.com/

Trip to the Farm – TENTATIVE date –October 23^rd

· All CSA members are invited to help out planting garlic for the final trip to the farm this year
· Start Time: 11:00 am on October 23^rd (tentative date – we’ll keep you posted each week in the newsletter)
· Planting Garlic is a great family activity
· We’ll starting popping the garlic then proceed to the field to plant followed by mulching
· We’ll break for a late lunch (around 2:30 pm) with Farmer Sue’s famous campfire recipes
· Please RSVP so that we may plan lunch & refreshments

Week of October 3rd - 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

Catalpa Ridge News–Vol 16 No 16–Week of September 26th

Another Soaker

We were greeted by more rain on Friday/Saturday, in which at least another 2 ½” of rain fell at the farm. Apparently everything that couldn’t take the excess rain is dead and we fortunately have some crops that are still surviving these conditions. We are still holding our heads above water (though barely) and the harvest this week was good and it looks like next week will be good as well.

We drove up to Saugerties for the Garlic Festival on Saturday and on the drive up passed through Pine Island (the Black Dirt area) and saw the piles of water logged onions that were caught in the latest rains from last month. Their fields were totally devastated and we could see that many fields by the road were actually small lakes during the heavy rains. They had substantial losses of onions, squash and pumpkins. We also spoke with farmers at the Garlic Fest who were as far north as Schoharie County, NY. They all had devastation to their fields and are in similar position as us for CSA deliveries.

It is touch and go but we will strive to stretch the deliveries as long a possible. We have received many supportive e-mails from our CSA members, which are indeed appreciated. It is always nice to hear from you!

We always try to approach our predicaments with good humor and our “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” header last week brought an equally good humor & supportive response from Martha in Mahwah:

· “I feel compelled to remind you that you are an organic farm, not Shoprite. Those of us who purchase a share of your farm understand that we purchase the risk as well as the rewards. We feel bad for you and the crew, and the losing battle you are fighting. There weren’t enough life boats on the Titanic so we hope you secure space in one of them. We would also recommend locust insurance as there is little else left to befall your farm. We would also recommend throwing in the towel while you are still sane. Food is renewable and will grow again next year, and we will be there to buy another share.”

We fortunately have secured our spot on a lifeboat even with life preservers! We are looking into locust insurance too and probably won’t have to worry about a dust bowl this year!

From the Fields: We still are looking for an area for garlic planting in October. We are working on plan 14 which includes clearing an area in the back, about 3 rows at this point. We did have garlic there last year and do not like to plant it again in the same spot, but at this point we want to get it into the ground and worry about crop rotation another time. We do have a new area ready to go, and if things dry out we will be able to plant there.

We plan on planting buckwheat microgreens in the Franklin greenhouse this week.

Beds in the fields are slated to be cleaned up. We plan on spreading some compost & fertilizer to rejuvenate the fields for next year as long as we have a window of dry weather to work.

The crew will be cleaning garlic and can work in the greenhouse to keep dry.

Weather Report: Shorter days means the crops grow slower. We did have a spurt of warmer temperatures over the last several days and it looks like it will continue during the week. More precipitation is on the horizon, but fortunately the predictions include terms like “chance of thunderstorms” and “chance of rain” which is a welcome change.

Fruit Report –The apples are from Soons Orchard in Middletown, NY.

TECH NOTES - We have our OWN Community Toolbar that you can install in your Web Browser! Quick links to all our content: Newsletters, Harvest Identifiers, Facebook, Twitter, search, weather & more. Follow this link and then install http://jerseygrown.ourtoolbar.com/

Upcoming Events

· October 1st & 2nd 9th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village 10 am - 4 pm Lafayette, NJ (Routes 94/15)

· CANCELLED - October 16th 5th Annual Garlic Fest @ the Hoboken Historical Museum – Hoboken, NJ

Week of September 26th - 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

Catalpa Ridge News–Vol 16–No 15–Week of September 19th

Rearranging the Deck Chairs…..

As Farmer Rich so aptly put it this week, “It’s like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” in regard to the conditions at the farm, post Hurricane, post severe rain the following week and the damages that have occurred along the way.

Crop losses still abound (see photo of just one area below).

Showing the impact of just one small area where the severe wet has caused plants to die back and mud to be ever present

On the positive side, the crew has managed to put together a nice delivery with the help of some other neighboring farmers.

On the negative side, the continued severe wet condition is causing problems with plants dying back and delivery quality. We had picked up some lettuce from a neighboring farm for this week’s delivery on Saturday and by Sunday it was undeliverable. This was probably due to it being too wet when harvested. Needless to say we didn’t deliver it.

Meanwhile at the Franklin Greenhouse, (now known as the shuffle board court on the upper deck of the Titanic) had a severe outbreak of aphids. There were none a week and a-half ago. There were so many, almost overnight, the crew had to throw out the bok choi, radishes and mustard greens as they were undeliverable.

Normally we depend on the Franklin Greenhouse to provide the late deliveries when autumn comes, as the plants usually do much better there then in the fields. Looks like this year it is not going to happen as we only have a handful of crops surviving there now. We’ll try to re-seed it with quick crops for the later deliveries.

There are a number of CSAs that have actually stopped delivering for the season due to massive flooding. While we overplant during the season to offset crop losses and also depend on our trading partner network of farmers close to us, the overplanting is helping but the crop losses have exceeded even our worst expectations and the neighboring farmers are either in the same shape as us or worse.

We are fortunate in one respect that the farm is high up on the mountain and we physically don’t get flooded from major rivers or streams. We didn’t have to worry like the farmers in the Hudson Valley, Pine Island and Great Meadows areas who were flooded by rivers and streams that were also contaminated. Our soil structure is very good for the dry times, but not so good for wet. We have never had 24” of rain in 2 ½ weeks in our 16 years. Hopefully it will be another 16 years before a season like this happens again.

From the Fields: We still need to prepare an area for garlic planting. Remember the photo from last week where we showed you the mini grand canyon! We hope things dry out in time for planting garlic in late October. We are ready to go – we have the compost, the garlic and the plastic – we just need a nice dry spot or two! Unfortunately, more rain is in the forecast for Thursday, Friday & Saturday.

Harvested potatoes were water logged and their storage life is about 16 hours. These you can add to the crop loss column.

The crew was able to plant the last of the lettuce transplants and hopefully they will produce before the season is over.

Weather Report: The temperatures are getting cooler and the low temperature so far this week was 39°F. Most of the field tomatoes are already shot, so it really doesn’t matter if we get an early frost! An early frost may kill the peppers. We have had a great pepper year and you probably don’t want any more peppers at this point!

Fruit Report –The Ginger Crisp apples are from Soons Orchard in Middletown, NY.

TECH NOTES - We have our OWN Community Toolbar that you can install in your Web Browser! Quick links to all our content: Newsletters, Harvest Identifiers, Facebook, Twitter, search, weather & more. Follow this link and then install http://jerseygrown.ourtoolbar.com/

Upcoming Events

· October 1st & 2nd 9th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village 10 am - 4 pm Lafayette, NJ (Routes 94/15)

· CANCELLED - October 16th 5th Annual Garlic Fest @ the Hoboken Historical Museum – Hoboken, NJ

Week of September 19th - 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

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 16–No 14: Week of September 12th

Deliveries Continue Despite Gloomy Conditions 

Last week we reported on the Whirlwind of Disasters post Hurricane Irene. One thing we forgot to mention as part of that whirlwind was that the tractor's hydraulic hose broke while John was tilling a field mid-week. This was the area we planned on planting the garlic, but as you can see from the photo we now have a mini-Grand Canyon in that field. On a positive note, it was a good thing that we didn't get to prepare it as it would have all been washed away.  Farmer Rich is still looking for where all the soil went from the wash-out. 

Mini Grand Canyon

We had another 9" of rain that fell last week which brings our total for the  2 1/2 weeks to about 24" of rain. Needless to say we do have crop losses in all fields. Most farmers we talk with are all in the same boat!

We will continue to deliver as long a possible. A lot hinges on the newly seeded crops that didn't wash away. They are mostly in the back field which is in better shape than our front fields.

From the Fields: It has been too wet to do much field work. The crew did manage to plant a few hundred lettuce plants this past week. The Franklin Greenhouse is basically in good shape despite the problems we had in the greenhouse post Hurricane. There was some "burning" from some beds drying out as we were without power to get water into the greenhouse for over one week.  The plants surprisingly look as though they are coming back!!

The tomato plants have suffered greatly, but we should be able to continue with tomatoes in the delivery for the next several weeks as we do over-plant to off-set crop losses. This year the over-planting has worked out by at least being able to provide a harvest instead of saying that everything is dead.

Weather Report: As noted above, more unwanted rain fell during last week. This week it looks like we have a good forecast with little to no rain to fall. Cooler temperatures and shorter days are on the horizon.

Fruit Report – The apples are from Soons Orchard in Middletown, NY.

TECH NOTES - We have our OWN Community Toolbar that you can install in your Web Browser! Quick links to all our content: Newsletters, Harvest Identifiers, Facebook, Twitter, search, weather & more. Follow this link and then install http://jerseygrown.ourtoolbar.com/

Upcoming Events

· October 1st & 2nd 9th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village 10 am - 4 pm Lafayette, NJ (Routes 94/15)

· CANCELLED - October 16th 5th Annual Garlic Fest @ the Hoboken Historical Museum 1 pm - 5 pm 1301 Hudson Street – Hoboken, NJ

Week of September 12th  - 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

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 16 No 13–Week of September 6th

Whirlwind of Disasters

Post hurricane Irene brought us a whole whirlwind of disasters to deal with after the hurricane itself. At least 9” of rain fell during the deluge of the hurricane with 5” of rain falling the week before. The upper greenhouse was lost and Farmer Rich and the crew recovered it on Thursday. The Franklin was without power until just this Monday a.m. (the 5^th) so this meant we were without the fans & water. Lack of the fans lead to the temperatures in the greenhouse to exceed what we normally desire and there was no pump to get water onto the crops. Fortunately Jim hooked up a generator on Thursday so Renee was able to water everything to keep it from totally dying. We do have significant crop losses needless to say in the Franklin greenhouse itself.

Meanwhile back at the farm almost nothing is doing well. Our farm is low lying which is great during dry years, but not so great during wet years. There are significant crop losses due to the excessive rains, but all is not loss. Almost all farmers we partner with are all in the same boat, so produce is getting harder to find.

 

Post Hurricane Irene – Upper Greenhouse plastic ripped away	Greenhouse Recovered on Thursday

From the Fields: The crew pulled up four rows of plastic on the fields and we tilled the area to get it ready for garlic planting next month. Needless to say it was too wet to proceed. The weeds had gotten out of control so two days were spent weed whacking the remaining fields to promote better crop production on what remains. The crew was able to do some transplanting but the wet conditions are hampering everything.

Forty flats of mixed lettuce were transplanted into cells in the greenhouse. These will then be planted into the field over the next two weeks. The seeded cilantro, dill, mustard and arugula are all doing well for now. We seeded new chard, beets and they are up & growing.

Weather Report: More rain is in the forecast this week which is not needed! The post hurricane week was quite nice all in all with cooler temperatures and nice cool breezes at the farm. Too bad the winds didn’t dry everything out.

Fruit Report – The peaches are from Soons Orchard in Middletown, NY.

TECH NOTES - We have our OWN Community Toolbar that you can install in your Web Browser! Quick links to all our content: Newsletters, Harvest Identifiers, Facebook, Twitter, search, weather & more. Follow this link and then install http://jerseygrown.ourtoolbar.com/

Upcoming Events

· October 1st & 2nd 9th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village 10 am - 4 pm Lafayette, NJ (Routes 94/15)

· October 16th 5th Annual Garlic Fest @ the Hoboken Historical Museum 1 pm - 5 pm 1301 Hudson Street – Hoboken, NJ

Week of September 6th  - 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

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 16 No 12–Week of August 29th

Hurricane Irene

Needless to say, Hurricane Irene has created havoc all the way up to the farm in Sussex County. We hope that all of our CSA members are safe with minimal damage, but listening to the reports in the area know that there is a great deal of damage and flooding.

We lost our upper greenhouse (the heated greenhouse) due to the high winds which came after the heavy rains. Farmer Rich will get it recovered toward the end of the week. Also two in our crew have had serious damage to their homes and were unable to work on Monday having to clean up at their homes. Everyone is safe and no one got hurt.

I am still staying with my Mom & Dad in Ramsey due to my Dad's illness as we have been without the hospice aides due to the weather so are managing on our own. Things are status quo and we continue to keep my Dad comfortable.

Unfortunately, the Heirloom Tomato Tasting had to be cancelled. We look forward to the Garlic Fest at the Hoboken Historical Museum in October. Fortunately all the garlic was already harvested and drying in the middle greenhouse which did not get damaged. Had it been in the upper greenhouse the whole crop would have been lost and probably scattered out over Sussex County by the high winds.

From the Fields: Ongoing projects with planting and transplanting continued during the week. When the news hit about the impending hurricane, Farmer Rich switched his focus to get a plan together to harvest early as Sunday was going to be a “wash out”. The crew worked diligently all day Friday & Saturday to get the CSA deliveries harvested and separated by delivery site as the forecast keep looking grimmer each passing hour. Monday was a challenge to even get to the farm as many areas were flooded or had downed trees & wires. Once to the farm, Rich took about 1 ½ hours to get to Scotts where the delivery was stored in the cooler. This is normally a 10-15 minute ride. He then had the challenge to start heading south to Bergen County to make the first delivery to Mahwah. Though a challenge he did make is safely, abit late, but safe. Our next challenge is to make it into Hudson County for the Jersey City & Hoboken deliveries. Everyone was e-mailed regarding delivery time changes at Holly’s Midtown dropoff and Jennifer/Kristen’s West drop off.

Weather Report: We had reported last week as week of rain – NOW we got hit with the hurricane which we didn’t need. Excessive rain is causing crop damage.

Fruit Report – The apples (Red Free variety) are from Windy Brow Farm.

TECH NOTES - We have our OWN Community Toolbar that you can install in your Web Browser! Quick links to all our content: Newsletters, Harvest Identifiers, Facebook, Twitter, search, weather & more. Follow this link and then install http://jerseygrown.ourtoolbar.com/

 Upcoming Events

· October 1st & 2nd 9th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village 10 am - 4 pm Lafayette, NJ (Routes 94/15)

· October 16th 5th Annual Garlic Fest @ the Hoboken Historical Museum 1 pm - 5 pm 1301 Hudson Street – Hoboken, NJ

Week of August 29th  - 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

CSA Delivery Update for Post-Hurricane Irene

We do plan on delivering on Tuesday, but the Time-Frame for pickup may change as our area like yours has many road closures due to flooding and/or downed wires & trees.

Needless to say, Hurricane Irene has created havoc all the way up to the farm in Sussex county. Hope that all of our CSA members are safe with minimal damage, but listening to the reports in the area know that there is a great deal of damage and flooding. We lost our upper greenhouse (the heated greenhouse) due to the high winds which came after the heavy rains. Two in our crew have had serious damage to their homes. I am still staying with my Mom & Dad in Ramsey due to my Dad’s illness as we have been without the hospice aides due to the weather so are managing on our own.

The delivery is harvested and ready to go but will probably have to change drop-off & pick-up times at each of our delivery sites. We’ll keep you posted. Look for e-mail updates during the day on Monday and Tuesday a.m.

Stay safe & dry and hopefully our plan for Tuesday delivery will work out.
--Sue

Catalpa Ridge News–Vol 16 No 11–Week of August 22nd

Abbreviated News this week…

My Dad (Farmer Sue) continues to decline and I apologize for no newsletter last week but know you understand the circumstances. I appreciated the e-mails I received from many of you.

I am staying with my Mom & Dad in Ramsey and we have him on Hospice. At this point, I continue to be the primary care giver and I haven’t been home to see Farmer Rich for over a week but check in with him several times a day. I look forward to seeing him today after the CSA delivery to Mahwah. My sister is recovering from her heart attack and is looking better each day. The “double wammy” of both my Dad & sister was quite a shock, but we are a close family with a lot of love to go around!

Needless to say, Farmer Rich is upset as well as he has being part of my family for over 31 years and truly loves my Dad.

From the Fields: The news of the week from the farm starts out with that we received a lot of rain during the week along with some severe thunderstorms, high winds but fortunately no damaging hail. There were crop losses due to the excess rain but the new plantings are doing well.

The crew transplanted and seeded for the fall crops. The seeded Daikon radishes, turnips, beets, and Chinese greens from last week are all up. A new area where the fava greens were is now tilled up and ready to plant. We plan on planting beets, radishes and broccoli raab in this new area.

The late planting of cucumbers is excellent, which is probably the only positive thing that has happen in the last week and a half. The late planting of zucchini is doing ok despite the crows damaging ¾ of it. They just love to pull the plants up out of the ground to see what is underneath. Fortunately we overplant to off-set some crop losses. Farmer Rich mentioned that the transplanted broccoli is doing well.

The Chinese Cabbage that was transplanted last Monday by the crew has been totally demolished due to the heavy (5”) rain that we have received during the past week.

Weather Report: Rain-Rain-Rain… the heaviest was last Monday. It continued off & on during the week with another heavy storm (a deluge) Sunday night the 21^st. Oh, the joys of farming – ugh!!

Animal report: All quiet except for the crows. Not only did they devastate the zucchini planting, they are eating the husk cherries and picking here and there on the tomatoes.

Fruit Report – The peaches are from Soon’s Orchard in Middletown, NY.

TECH NOTES - We have our OWN Community Toolbar that you can install in your Web Browser! Quick links to all our content: Newsletters, Harvest Identifiers, Facebook, Twitter, search, weather & more. Follow this link and then install http://jerseygrown.ourtoolbar.com/

Upcoming Events

· CANCELLED - August 28^th – 12^th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting @ the Hoboken Historical Museum – unfortunately due to Sue’s Dad illness, we have to cancel the Tomato Tasting

· October 1st & 2nd 9th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village 10 am - 4 pm Lafayette, NJ (Routes 94/15)

· October 16th 5th Annual Garlic Fest @ the Hoboken Historical Museum 1 pm - 5 pm 1301 Hudson Street – Hoboken, NJ

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 16 No 9 - Week of August 8th

Blue Ribbons for the Crew

A total of 67 Blue Ribbons were awarded to the entries in the Open Vegetable Show by Ali, Lisa, Renee & Dory. Ali placed 2^nd and Lisa 5^th in the Vegetable show and 4^th & 5^th

respectively for their herb entries. Ali also won Best in Show for the Featured Vegetable Basket (Tomatoes) and Dinosaur Kale and Lisa won Best in Show for her entry of Cisneros Tomatillos.

Overall, the Blue Ribbons won: Ali 30, Lisa 24, Dory 9 and Renee 4.

The fair goes to Sunday the 14^th. If you want to visit go to www.njstatefair.org to see a schedule for the daily events. If you do attend the fair, make sure you stop by the greenhouse to see the Vegetable Show and see the girls’ blue ribbon winners.

From the Fields: The seeded dill, cilantro, fava greens and Chinese mustard from last week are all up and growing. We got behind weed whacking the beds and worked all day Thursday to get them under control. Now we can see the plants. Also, the weeds got way ahead of us in the large greenhouse & round field to a point we were going to write-off the round field, but the crew realized it was our best looking tomato crop so they worked most of the day Saturday to get it cleaned up and back into production. Dora and Renee spent Sunday cleaning up the Chinese greens by thinning the beds, as they were planted a little too close. All the beds in the back field are now planted. Collards, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumbers and squash were planted as well as Brussels sprouts. All beds were filled for the remainder of the season.

Weather Report: Major rain fell on Saturday night with a total of 3” falling at the farm. It has been warm but not brutal so our work in the fields has been going on later in the day. One a good note, the pond is all filled up which gives us plenty of water for irrigation for the rest of the season if we need it. Another thunderstorm came through on Sunday evening which brought more rain, which was heavy at times.

Animal report: This week was all quiet for animal sightings, probably due in most part to the rain. As we have mentioned in previous newsletters when it gets dry is when we have problems with break-ins. Fortunately we have nothing to report for any animal troubles this week.

Corn Report – we have some great Locally Grown sweet corn (non-GMO) from Ideal Farms. It is a conventionally grown hybrid sweet corn variety. Best eaten TONIGHT as it will be its sweetest!

Fruit Report – The peaches are from Slate Hill again. They enjoy working with us for the fruit. We heard from Jim @ Windy Brow that they will have plums and nectarines available soon.

TECH NOTES - We have our OWN Community Toolbar that you can install in your Web Browser! Quick links to all our content: Newsletters, Harvest Identifiers, Facebook, Twitter, search, weather & more. Follow this link and then install http://jerseygrown.ourtoolbar.com/

Upcoming Events

• August 28^th – 12^th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting @ the Hoboken Historical Museum – 1 pm – 5 pm
• October 1st & 2nd 9th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village 10 am - 4 pm Lafayette, NJ (Routes 94/15)
• October 16th 5th Annual Garlic Fest @ the Hoboken Historical Museum 1 pm - 5 pm 1301 Hudson Street – Hoboken, NJ

Week of August 8th  - 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

Catalpa Ridge News–Vol 16 No 8–Week of August 1st

NJ State Fair – Sussex Farm & Horse Show Starts Friday!

The New Jersey State Fair – Sussex Farm & Horse Show starts on Friday, August 5^th and runs to Sunday, August 14^th. We are on the Vegetable Committee for the fair and have exhibited in the past, but now it’s the crews’ turn to exhibit. Last year Hannah & Lisa both exhibited and this year it looks like all four girls will exhibit some veggies & herbs.

The fair is great to visit if you want to see farm animals, crafts, agricultural events, horse shows and lots more. Go online at: www.njstatefair.org to see a schedule so you can see what day you might want to visit. If you do attend the fair, make sure you go by the greenhouse to see the Vegetable Show to see how the girls did on their exhibits. Last year Lisa was the Grand Champion and Hannah placed 3^rd for the vegetable exhibits and they also won a few Best in Shows!

Last week’s Trip to the farm – Harvesting Beans

From the Fields: Where the garlic was harvested, John & Matt laid plastic with irrigation lines for a total of 5 beds. The Crew transplanted a late planting of zucchini & cucumbers into three of the beds. Two beds are awaiting planting as of the end of this week. We hope to get broccoli in at least one of them.

In another field the crew planted cilantro, dill, Chinese mustard & more fava greens. The heavy rain we received on Friday evening may have washed out the dill, but we’ll wait & see.

The beets planted in the back field are doing well, but we got behind on planting more turnips.

Next week we hope to get some conventional sweet corn (non-GMO) from Ideal Farm. We have been eating it ourselves for a while and it is really good!

Weather Report: It was cooler, but not my much over this past week. By 1:00 pm the crew was pretty much shot on most days, but they are starting early so plenty of work is getting done.

We did have two severe thunderstorms go through the area on Monday and then again on Friday. Both brought some much needed rain, as many crops were suffering from lack of water. Even though we are irrigating, we still need that “soaking in” kind of rain. At least 1” fell on both days. Fortunately, we didn’t get the hail or the high winds that came on Friday, but some sections in Sussex County did get hail and there were some reports of a possible tornado. Farmer Rich was predicting “cannon ball” sized hail in tune with the over exaggeration that the local weather was predicting, but the front passed without incident over the farm.

Animal report: As usual when it gets dry the animals make attempts to break through the fences to feast on the crops. This week brought a few ground hogs which were immediately relocated.

They sampled some squash, zucchini, tomatoes probably making a shopping list for the following day but we were able to prevent any further nibbling. The resident rabbit that is inside the fence is eating the weeds and not the crops, which continues to be a bit embarrassing.

Fruit Report – We finally were able to find peaches to deliver. For several years now we have gotten the peaches from Windy Brow Farm, but he advised us that he wouldn’t be able to provide them this year as there is a shortage. Come to find out Diane down the street from us was also having a problem finding peaches from her local orchard, so we know there is definitely a peach shortage going on. We reached out to a few local orchards and one was not able to provide any fruit, but the other one, Slate Hill was. They are just about 15 minutes from the farm and on the way to our large walk-in-cooler @ Scotts, so they immediately go put into the cooler for this delivery. We love to be able to provide local fruit as part of the CSA share over the years, and fortunately have been able to find another orchard this year.

Upcoming Events

• August 28^th – 12^th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting @ the Hoboken Historical Museum – 1 pm – 5 pm
• October 1st & 2nd 9th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village 10 am - 4 pm Lafayette, NJ (Routes 94/15)
• October 16th 5th Annual Garlic Fest @ the Hoboken Historical Museum 1 pm - 5 pm 1301 Hudson Street – Hoboken, NJ

Week of August 1st  - 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

Catalpa Ridge News–Vol 16 No 6–Week of July 25th

Great Day @ the Farm !

It was great to see so many CSA members come up to the farm & help with a few projects. Though hot, we did get a lot done. A project we were able to do in the shade was to harvest some green beans and that was the project that we started first. The plants were harvested from the fields and then brought over to our picnic area where it was cooler to pick the beans. We then proceeded into the field for some mulching & weeding of the tomato, tomatillo & leek beds. Next was lunch followed by a tour of the farm.

Of course we had a great late lunch with freshly picked salad, cucumbers, campfire pizzas, garlic bread, bruschetta, grilled onions & peppers as well as grilled potatoes & onions. Fresh picked corn on the cob was grilled with the husk on and we also had some homemade salads as well.

Overall a great day at the farm and thanks to all that came up to help & hope that you enjoyed the day. The next trip to the farm will be scheduled in October and will be the garlic planting day!

From the Fields: All of the garlic has been harvested and that field has been mowed & tilled and is now ready for planting of another crop. This field probably will be planted with turnips, radishes & more beets and Oriental greens. A few beds of broccoli & cauliflower are slated to go in as well.

The drip irrigation that John fixed last week has been working great. The only set back this week was when Farmer Rich decided to cut the grass and ran over one of the main pipes which prompted an emergency visit to Tractor Supply. He got some parts to fix the geyser that developed! With our gravity flow system there is now way to turn it off

Field maintenance such as trellising the tomatoes and weeding was performed as any strenuous labor was put on the back burner due to the severe heat. We don’t want to burn out the crew.

Weather Report: It has gotten dry again and we are irrigating all fields. The severe heat during the week prompted super early start times for the crew. This way we could get most of the farm work done early in the morning and send the crew home during the high heat of the day. On consecutive days it was well over 100ºF and we were going through Gatorade and water by the gallons.

Animal report: As it is getting dryer, we have seen our first ground hog prowling outside the fence. As the meadows dry out, they look for “greener” pastures for food and do like to break into the fields for our lush crops. We are vigilantly keeping an eye out to make sure that the fences do not have any breaches to allow them into the fields. The crows are still being pesky and pecking the tomatoes, eggplant, peppers & zucchini. The deer have been absent probably keeping cooler in the woods.

	Upcoming Events · August 28th – 12th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting @ the Hoboken Historical Museum – 1 pm – 5 pm · October 1st & 2nd 9th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village 10 am - 4 pm Lafayette, NJ (Routes 94/15) · October 16th 5th Annual Garlic Fest @ the Hoboken Historical Museum 1 pm - 5 pm 1301 Hudson Street – Hoboken, NJ
Ali in the pile of Green Beans

Week of July 25th - 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 

Catalpa Ridge News–Vol 16 No 6–Week of July 18th

Garlic Harvest Begins !

We have started the garlic harvest and about 2/3 is pulled. All of the soft neck varieties have been harvested and are in the greenhouse for drying and curing. We started on the hard neck varieties and hope to finish by the middle of the week. The garlic looks better than in years past, where it was on the small side. We tried something new this year called corn gluten meal (organically approved) as a weed suppressant and it work very well until we received the deluges of rain over the season. Then the crew hand weeded the rows. The corn gluten meal actually does two things, it suppresses new weed growth, then it breaks down into nitrogen to feed the plants and garlic loves nitrogen early in the season.

From the Fields: We seeded six varieties of cucumbers, more zucchini and four varieties of lettuce. We transplanted lettuce which will be ready to be planted in the field in a week or so. The lettuce we had just planted into the field beds is coming really nice despite the super hot weather we have been having. We have a row of husk cherries which are growing great which is a welcome change as the last few years we have tried them they haven’t done well. The tomato plants are coming along rather well despite the losses we had due to the heavy rains from a few weeks ago. The same with the pepper plants and eggplant.

We almost lost control of the small round field on Friday (tomatoes and peppers) due to weeds, but our crew came to the rescue and revived this field. Though it is a bit dry the plants are much happier.

Weather Report: After the heavy rains over a week ago, we are now into a dry period. We are running sprinklers on the beets, fava greens, squash and yard-long beans. Our drip irrigation that we set up in the spring was not working and John came to the rescue to get it back on track. It was tested on Sunday and is working great and we hope that we won’t have any more setbacks.

Animal report: We have a small rabbit in one of our fields and as embarrassing at it sounds it isn’t eating any of the crops! The crows are being pesky in that they like to peck here and there on the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. The groundhogs are interestingly absent over the past few weeks, which is a good thing.

Some sparrows are enjoying flying into the greenhouses and are naturally taking care of the bugs that get caught against the plastic. They all seem to find their way out safely. A dove flew into the Franklin greenhouse while Renee was planting sunflower seeds for more microgreens. They just love sunflower seeds!

Trip to the Farm – Scheduled for Sunday – July 24^th Want to help out at the Farm?? We like to schedule at least 2 work-days at the farm during the harvest season where CSA members can come up and help us with some projects. The first work-day is scheduled for July 24^th starting at 11:00 am. Some projects planned will be to help with some mulching & transplanting. More details to come over the next few weeks. Please RSVP (by July 22^nd ) so we can plan on lunch, refreshments & get you directions. Give us your contact # via phone or e-mail just in case the weather is iffy (it can be a whole different world at the farm) so we can give you a call if it will be a rainy day.

Upcoming Events
· August 28^th – 12^th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting @ the Hoboken Historical Museum – 1 pm – 5 pm
· October 1st & 2nd 9th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village 10 am - 4 pm Lafayette, NJ (Routes 94/15)
· October 16th 5th Annual Garlic Fest @ the Hoboken Historical Museum 1 pm - 5 pm 1301 Hudson Street – Hoboken, NJ

Week of July 18th - 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

Catalpa Ridge News–Vol 16 No 5–Week of July 11th

Severe Weather Skips the Farm !

Twice during the week there were severe weather warnings for our area and fortunately we only received rain at the farm. Down the highway, Farmer Diane’s stand was partially blown over and in Franklin there was a big hail storm and another farmer lost most of his tomato plants. This was not too far from our Franklin greenhouse.

We have a few weeks before our tomato crop is ready, so the tomatoes this week are from Hilltop Farms and are greenhouse grown. We have always partnered with other farmers to get additional variety into the weekly deliveries especially when we have set backs or problems.

Farmer Rich has talked to Farmer Jim from Windy Brow Farm and the weekly deliveries of fruit will be starting soon. Last year the fruit was early, but this year is running a bit on the late side. The first delivery of fruit probably will be some delicious peaches. Some of the early fruit that we will be delivering from Windy Brow will include peaches, plums & nectarines.

From the Fields: Plantings in the field this week included two varieties of yard-long beans and fava greens. We also transplanted into the field: lettuce, more kale and eggplant which was a bit behind schedule, but better late than never. In the greenhouse lettuce, endive, chicory were planted for their next round and will be ready to go into the field in a few weeks. We will be seeding more crops this week to keep the crop rotations on schedule.

Weather Report: Due to the heavy rain on Friday evening, the broccoli crop was wiped out. The heavy rains have also affected certain sections of tomatoes. All in all, most of the fields are doing well. It was extra hot during the week so we schedule early-early morning starts so that the crew can leave earlier in the day and still be able to get the work done.

Animal report: The great blue heron has been seen “fishing” in our pond. If it is the same one, it has been around for years and is often seen soaring around the upper fields.

Since it has been so hot, the fawns are probably staying cool in the woods instead of patrolling the fields.

We seldom have break-ins into the fields when the weather is this wet as the wild animals have plenty to eat on the outside of the fences. It is only when we have drought conditions that they try to break in to feast on our lush rows of crops.

Trip to the Farm – Scheduled for Sunday – July 24^th Want to help out at the Farm?? We like to schedule at least 2 work-days at the farm during the harvest season where CSA members can come up and help us with some projects. The first work-day is scheduled for July 24^th starting at 11:00 am. Some projects planned will be to help with some mulching & transplanting. More details to come over the next few weeks. Please RSVP (by July 22^nd ) so we can plan on lunch, refreshments & get you directions. Give us your contact # via phone or e-mail just in case the weather is iffy (it can be a whole different world at the farm) so we can give you a call if it will be a rainy day.

Upcoming Events -

• August 28^th – 12^th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting @ the Hoboken Historical Museum – 1 pm – 5 pm
• October 1st & 2nd 9th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village 10 am - 4 pm Lafayette, NJ (Routes 94/15)
• October 16th 5th Annual Garlic Fest @ the Hoboken Historical Museum 1 pm - 5 pm 1301 Hudson Street – Hoboken, NJ

Week of July 11th - 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