Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 18 No 9–August 5, 2013

NJ State Fair through Sunday !

Congratulations to Michael for exhibiting at the NJ State Fair/Sussex Farm and Horse Show in the Open Vegetable Show. He received 4 Blue Ribbons, 7 Red Ribbons and 2 Yellow Ribbons. The Blue Ribbons were for Sweet Peppers, Yellow Summer Squash, Rosemary and Garlic. The girls decided not to exhibit this year. Farmer Sue is on the Veggie Committee and helps out during the time the exhibitors bring in their exhibits to coding all the entries and results in the computer. The Veggie Show looks great and many varieties of vegetables are on display from over 120 exhibitors from NJ, PA and NY.

The NJ State Fair – Sussex County Farm & Horse Show continues through Sunday. Some of the upcoming events: 4-H Shows: Horse, Beef, Goats and more livestock. You can also see the Demolition Derby, Flower Show Judging, Gingerbread Building Contest, Cupcake Decorating Contest for Kids, Farm Tractor Pull, Grand Prix Horse Show and so much more…. The fair has many wonderful events from livestock shows, outdoor entertainment, tractor pulls, 4-H exhibits, creative arts, photography, wine tasting and of course their famous Horse Show. It makes a great day out. More information can be found at: http://www.newjerseystatefair.org.

Franklin Greenhouse Report: The newly seeded crops are coming up and doing well. We will be getting greens soon from the greenhouse. The ginger is also doing well, though we don’t have as many as last year due to problems early in the season. Some eggplant have already been harvested from the greenhouse and are mixed in with field grown eggplant in the deliveries this week We have a some husk cherry plants there as well as some field planted and we hope to have them within 2 weeks. Chinese greens are slated to be harvested for next week, such as Sen Posi and Tendergreen Mustard. Now that the weather is cooler, more microgreens are slated to be planted.

From the Fields: Almost everything that was seeded is up with the exception of New Zealand Spinach. We will probably replant this on Thursday. The dill appears delayed, but it does take longer than other veggies. The fava greens are very happy and are slated to be harvested in about 2 weeks. The Heirloom tomatoes this year are very slow and we hope that within the next week or two they will be more bountiful for delivery. So far there is no sign of late blight, which has been widely reported in NJ, PA and Long Island. We don’t want to jinx ourselves, though! We have ripped out two zucchini and two cucumber beds as the plants were shutting down and also had some insect population problems. We have two beds left of zukes and cukes which should last for another week or so until the new plantings are ready. Renee planted 500 cauliflower plants on Thursday since our first planting was a disaster. We’ll try again! The plants for transplanting; such as escarole, chicory, lettuce and broccoli are up and will be transplanted in about a week or two.

Our previous planting of lettuce (over 1000 plants) did not germinate as the temperatures were over 100 degrees. The current planting of lettuce has germinated well and will be transplanted in two weeks.

Fruit Report: Blackberries from a neighboring farm were harvested last week for Mahwah.Hoboken West and Hoboken Midtown. This week they have been harvested for USH, Valley & Kraft. We hope to have peaches next week, but it is all up to the peaches!!

Animal report: The woodchuck that was discovered in the fave bean patch has not left the back field. Farmer Rich’s figures it has made a new den in that field and fortunately there is not too much for it to eat in that field as the newly seeded crops are just germinating.

Weather report: We did receive quite a bit of rain this week and some was heavy at times. Saturday’s deluge was the worst and interrupted our harvest. The crew cleaned garlic on Thursday as the rain prevented working the in the fields. They also cleaned up and organized the greenhouse. We couldn’t harvest at all on Saturday so all the harvest was accomplished on Sunday. The crew did an excellent job of getting this harvest done when we thought it was impossible.

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.

 

August 5th  - 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