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Monday, August 26, 2013

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 18 No 12–Week of August 26, 2013

Great Day in Hoboken

We had a great day in Hoboken on Sunday at the 14th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting. The event is a fundraiser for the Hoboken Historical Museum and we also get to meet clip_image001many of our Hoboken area CSA members and there were many new prospective members who stopped by as well.

The volunteers from the Museum did an incredible job at the tasting table, helping with setup, checkout and breakdown. They even had a Vote for your Favorite Tomato at the tasting table. This year’s winner was Cherokee Purple.

Michael’s last day will be on Friday as he heads off to college. His has been an extremely valuable member to our already incredible team with Ali & Lisa.

Franklin Greenhouse Report: We have one bed that is scheduled to roll over and it will be planted with Oriental Greens for the fall deliveries. The celery should be ready to harvest for next week or the week after. The Oriental Eggplant continues to produce well and they are being harvested to filter into each of our drop-off sites on a rotating basis.

From the Fields: Since some of the fields are a bit on the dry side some of the newly seeded crops are not up yet; namely the spinach and lettuce. The remaining seedings are doing ok. This week we transplanted some chicory, escarole, lettuce and broccoli. The prior plantings of zucchini and cucumbers are doing well. Our field planted eggplant seems to be in the one part of the field that is too wet so they are behind in their production. We also lost one row of tomatoes due to the same problem. All of the other rows of tomatoes continue to produce well especially with the warmer temperatures returning.
We had some crop losses with the red cabbage splitting from the earlier rain storms that we had but do hope another crop is ready by the end of the season.
A great variety of arugula is on the horizon to be harvested within a week or two. 

Fruit Report: We are pleased to offer again this year grapes from Marjorie View Vineyard. This week's variety is Vanessa Seedless; it is great looking blushing red with equally tasty too! Marjorie View Vineyard is a new vineyard in northern NJ and is about 5 miles away from the farm. We enjoy working with Paul and look forward to a few more weeks of grapes from him.

Animal report: The day before we started to get ready for the Hoboken Heirloom Tomato Tasting we noticed that a rabbit had found its way in the middle field and basically ate a full planting of cilantro. Since that wasn't enough to fill its belly he started to nibble on the radicchio. We will have to see if there is any major chance of a crop loss but are hoping that just a few plants and not a whole row were damaged. This week we had no problems with the deer.

Weather report: Though we have had excessive rain this month, many of the fields are quite dry. The temperatures have warmed up which is especially good conditions to ripen the tomatoes on the vine. The early mornings are quite cool and our field work does require jackets and gloves, though it gets almost too hot by noon. Oh the joys of farming!

August 26th  - 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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