Pages

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 18 No 17–Sept 30, 2013



October Begins !
As the days continue to get shorter and the temperatures cooler the autumn colors are beginning to show up. We actually thought that the leaves were much prettier at the farm than on our trip up to Saugerties on Saturday. We went up to the Garlic Festival to select some new varieties of garlic to plant for next year.
This week John continued to reclaim the upper field and it is shaping up nicely.

The girls picked the apples for the delivery at Hillcrest Farm on Friday. This was a good break from the farm doing something different. They will be returning again in a few weeks to pick the Yellow Delicious and Macoun varieties for the last deliveries.

Franklin Greenhouse Report:  The ginger will be harvested soon as well as celery. More eggplant are being harvested on a weekly basis but not enough to deliver to all sites, but over the next few weeks everyone should receive some eggplant.

From the Fields:   The winter greens are doing ok despite the dry weather. We have stored squash, potatoes and gourds and the pumpkins will be coming soon. We have Black Spanish Radishes on the horizon for harvest. They have a little longer season and we do hope they are ready for harvest before the end of our harvest year. Michael transplanted the last of the lettuce in the greenhouse and there is a good chance that they will be ready before the end of the season. The transplanted lettuce in the back field needs some irrigation. We hope to have turnips and radishes soon as well.
If you want to go Apple Picking, Hillcrest Farms in Frankford Township has Pick-Your-Own-Apples on Saturdays in Sundays throughout September and October. They are located at the corner of Plains Road & Davis Road. You can also visit their dairy cows, take a scenic hayride and they have great fresh apple cider & cider donuts. For more information call: 973.703.5148.

Animal report:  All quiet in animal land. The only activity has been a few squirrels hiding their hickory nuts in the back field for winter. They do like to take a few tastes of the tomatoes, but are not a huge problem at the moment. On a side-note the wild hickory nuts are huge this year. The squirrels are very happy with their hickory nuts this year.
Weather report: Apparently it has turned out very dry for the past week. We have been running water on the back field and it looks like no rain in site for this week. It looks like we’ll have to hook up the drip tape irrigation system which was disconnected when we planted the garlic. The morning temperatures are on the cold side, but is the best time to harvest the greens.

Fruit Report:
This week we have Cortland Apples from Hillcrest Farm. This great all-purpose apple was developed at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva in 1898. It was named for the nearby Cortland County, New York.

September 30th - 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: