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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 18 No 3–June 24, 2013

Better Weather!

We had better weather this past week so we were able to work in the fields. We are replanting beds that we had stopped planting due to them being too wet. The lettuce bed from last week was completely turned over and planted with tomatoes and onions. We still have trouble with the round field as the bottom half is still too wet. We may just have to plant the top half this year and work on troubleshooting the reason for this later. Farmer Rich hasn’t had a chance to use the new brush hog as it has been too wet, but hopefully this week we can work on the upper fields. Ali and Farmer Rich spent all day on Thursday working on the back field, weeding the beds of garlic, peas, stem onions and sorrel. This will improve overall production. The stem onions like to flower, and we waited too long to cut them back. They do come back quickly and will be in the deliveries over the next two weeks. Same with the sorrel in the back field, it really just needed to be thinned out and weeded.

The kale in tonight’s delivery will be either Red Russian or Dinosaur Kale (Lacinato). Kale is known as one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet! It contains vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and so much more. It is great as a salad or as a main dish. You can even make kale chips!Escarole-Brocolli

<<<<<Far left is bed of Kale that the lower leaves were harvested, left of center Is bed where escarole was harvested & delivered tonight, center bed is more escarole and far right is broccoli bed.

The Super-Duper Moon came on Sunday, being the closest full moon of the year (perigee full moon). For farming, the full-moon to last quarter phases is the best time for planting the below-ground crops, and for thinning and weeding.

Franklin Greenhouse Report: The beds from the harvested greens in last week’s delivery (turnip greens and Tokyo Bekana) have been turned over. We planted radishes, Chinese greens, buckwheat sprouts and we planted a bed of eggplant and some hot peppers. On Tuesday we plan on turning over the buckwheat bed and plant tendergreen mustard. Another planting of buckwheat should be ready for next week. We are on schedule with our crop rotations. All the radishes that Renee planted are all up & growing!

 

 

 

From the Fields:  This week we planted tomatoes, celery, lettuce, green onions, radicchio and cucumbers. The papaya pear squash are starting to “squash up”. The purple cauliflower continues to look great. Each field has its own signature crop, those that do best.Newly seeded

Newly Seeded beds where you can see small plants just sprouting. Also notice how dry it looks! Farmer Rich had to start irrigating after all the rain that we had>>:

Animal report:  It was actually quiet at the farm this week. No animal problems at all.

Weather report: It finally dried out at the farm. Overall the rain gauge is showing about 1” over normal for the month. Believe it or not Farmer Rich has to start running water on some fields. The irrigation system is ready to go, thanks to John. The weekly forecast looks good, but it is going to be hot. June will probably go on record as being the wettest June over many parts of New Jersey. Interestingly on weather.com statistically the maximum average precipitation occurs in June for Sussex County.

June 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.

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