Hot Harvest – Hopefully Cooler Delivery !
We had another grueling few days in the fields with super-hot temperatures during the harvest on Saturday and Sunday. Ali & Lisa have been working really hard starting early in the morning and getting most of the harvest done by noon. It is really too hot to work in the fields after noon-time. John came up to do some field work and brush-hog some of the sections that need replanting. On his agenda was to pull up the plastic where the garlic was, but the heat of the day got to him within 20 minutes. When we brush-hog, we have a special mower on the back of the tractor that chops up left over plant material, weeds, and anything overgrown so it is prepared for rototilling. It gets its name as the attachment is used a lot to clean up brush areas and overgrown fields. We purchased our own brush-hog this year mostly to try to claim back the upper fields to put back into hay production. Currently it has been too wet to work on the upper fields but it is on the agenda.
The Garlic Harvest has begun! We started harvesting the softneck garlic on Sunday and the bulk of the hardneck garlic will be next. For softneck garlic, we harvested Ozark and Italian Purple. We harvested Calabria, Music and German Extra Hardy for the start of the hardneck garlic harvest. Eventually you’ll taste the differences in flavors over the course of the season. The garlic bulbs seem smaller than last years. In checking with some other area farmers, they are finding the same. This may be due to excessive wetness that has been the norm in the area.
Franklin Greenhouse Report: The radishes in Franklin and at the farm at not doing well and may become a crop failure. We seeded more Oriental greens and they are all up. The Tokyo Bekana will produce another harvest next week. We seeded Sen Posi and that should be ready in another two weeks. The ginger after a very slow start is starting to take off. It is really looking great, though the yield with this variety may not be as good as last year. We are also trying Mango Ginger, but it just doesn’t seem to be taking off. We like to try to grow new things and are not sure exactly what the problem is with the Mango Ginger. It may want to actually be in the southern hemisphere!
From the Fields: The zucchini harvest has started as you will see in your deliveries. They should be very productive over the next several weeks. The field cucumbers are coming along well and will be showing up soon. We have about six different varieties of cucumbers from Lemon Cukes to standard green. We lost a bed of escarole due to the wet conditions. We have some beds ready for replanting this week. Michael starts on Thursday and that will be a great project for him to undertake. We also have a huge harvest of Fava Beans slated to harvest this week. The peas look like they are over due to the excessive heat. In your delivery this week are carrots from the field. We did seed some rainbow carrots but they did not germinate. We hope to try seeding them again. They were a big hit last year.
Animal report: We have at least two creatures that have broken into the lower field. One is probably a ground hog and the other is a rabbit. We have not figured out where they are getting in or where they are hiding. Currently they are enjoying on some veggies in the field. On a more comical note, Farmer Rich put a piece of Blueberry cake on top of a table in the greenhouse and a chipmunk was struggling to get to it. He should have taken a few pictures or better yet a video.
Weather report: During the week about 5” of rain fell. Believe it or not some fields may require water soon. It has been extra hot at the farm as it has been at our CSA delivery sites in Mahwah, Franklin and Hoboken. This also creates an extra strain on the deliveries. We are getting the produce into the walk-in-cooler at Scott’s as soon as possible to keep it chilled down for delivery. We do hope the weather will break mid-week so more work can be done.
July 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment