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Monday, September 17, 2012

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 17 No 15–Week of September 17th

First day of autumn starts Saturday!

Shorter days & cooler nights abound as we transition to the autumn. Our start time at the farm is moved to 7:00 am instead of 6:00. Now we have the usual problem during this time of year, we have to pull out the falling leaves from the greens. The first day of Autumn starts on Saturday.

John has tilled up some areas to plant rye grass as a cover crop for the winter. It is too late to plant anything in these areas so we thought it best to start the cover crop early. Sunchoke Flower

This week we did a lot of week whacking to get some control of the beds. This hopefully will improve some production. The tomatoes plants are still producing, though winding down. The fall crops that were seeded are coming in nicely. There may be some leeks in the upcoming deliveries by the end of the month, though the whole crop was a disaster.  The sunchokes are in full flower and they will be ready for delivery in a few weeks.

Franklin Greenhouse Report: Everything continues to do well in Franklin. The arugula looks like it will be a nice harvest. We probably will be planting some buckwheat for sprouts for deliveries toward the beginning of October. We were hoping to deliver the salad burnet but we have cilantro in this week’s delivery as it was readier for harvest.

From the Fields: The crew has been pulling the plastic off the fields for the crops that are now over. The seeded greens that Michael had completed before going back to school are really doing well and are starting to show up in the deliveries. As the plastic is pulled up we are tilling up the beds and planting the cover crop for the winter months. The cover crop protects the soil over the winter and then is tilled into the soil in the spring thus adding nutrients early in the season. Cover crops of choice are usually rye or oats for this late in the season. We are using rye this year, as Farmer Matt has rye seed from his farm as we truly like to keep everything as local as possible. grapes

Fruit Report – As we have noted in the past, it has been difficult to get fruit this year due to the late freeze in the spring. We have been able to partner up with a local farmer for grapes, Marjorie’s View Vineyard. Grapes bloom in June so they were not affected by that freeze that destroyed the plums, apples and peaches. We have two to three deliveries of grapes lined up with them. Also for apples, Farmer Matt has some extra apples for future deliveries.

Trip to the Farm – October 20th
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 20th 
•    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

Weather Report: Despite the heavy rains earlier, we are back on the dry side. We did receive about ¼” of rain the other day but we found ourselves having to run our irrigation for the back field.

Animal report: There are hawks over the farm and roosting in the trees on watch for small animals to swoop upon.

Upcoming Events
garlic bulbsGarlic Gathering – Olde Lafayette Village – Route 94/15, Lafayette, NJ 11 am – 4 pm October 6th & 7th

Annual Garlic Fest – Hoboken Historical Museum – 1301 Hudson Street October 14th 1-5 pm

Week of September 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.

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