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.

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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