Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 18 No 7–July 22, 2013

Believe it or Not !

Believe it or not after 5” of rain the week before we received none during this past week. With the superhot temperatures the fields were drying out quickly. Some of the crops were getting stressed as was the crew. We start early, usually by 6:00 am and on some days the crew had to quit by 9:30 am and other days they were able to work through the heat and stop around 1:00 pm. Friday was an extra special bad day with the heat and humidity taking its toll. With Gatorade in hand the crew was only able to start the zucchini harvest.

We were able to perform some long overdue maintenance tasks during the week. Michael and Farmer Rich did some weed waking.

The zukes on the farm are almost ready to shut down, but the plants we planted in Art’s field are doing well. More plants will be ready to plant soon for a fall crop.

Franklin Greenhouse Report: Renee seeded Tora Zorah and Bok Choi in the Franklin Greenhouse. The Chinese greens seem to be doing extra well there. We will have some Tokyo Bekana harvested for next week’s delivery and the bed will be rolled over into Tatsoi. We were very happy with the Tokyo Bekana production as we were able to get three deliveries from the beds that we planted; from baby to adolescent to mature. It made such nice salads with great flavor. Renee staked up the eggplant and she was able to plant some late hot pepper plants as well. We will probably try some microgreens again in a few weeks.

From the Fields: We harvested the lettuce and that bed was transplanted with Fava Greens, New Zealand Spinach and Cilantro. Next week we plan on attacking the back field and replant where the fava beans and peas were harvested. We hope to plant a lot autumn crops. Two out of three beds have been re-tilled and re-planted.

 

 

 

 

Tilling the harvested lettuce bed                         This will be a new bed for Fava Greens

Animal report: Some crows decided to start tasting our tomatoes and the rabbit has not shown up all week. Perhaps the heat has gotten to it as well as us. Upon arriving at the farm early in the morning deer are everywhere, though none have attempted to break into the fields (yet). The thistles are in full bloom which brings the goldfinch (our State Bird).

Weather report: A brutally hot week finally came to an end on Sunday with temperatures dropping into the mid 80’s instead of being in the high 90’s and low 100’s. The threat of severe thunderstorms never seemed to come, at least over the farm. Now at this point we need some rain as we are irrigating the fields.

Upcoming Events
	NJ State Fair – Sussex County Farm & Horse Show – starts August 2nd. More info: http://www.njstatefair.com/
	Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting – Hoboken Historical Museum – 1301 Hudson Street August 25th 1-5 pm Farm Fresh Seasonal Produce for sale as well.

July 22nd- 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
• United Synagogue of Hoboken