Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 19 No 5–July 21, 2014

Trip to the Farm !

We have planned a trip to the farm on Saturday, July 26^th starting at 11:00 am. We hope that many of our CSA members will be able to join us to help with a few on farm projects and get a tour of the farm, our new “little rock house” and enjoy a late afternoon barbeque. Details below.
So far we are having a good year with little crop loss. One of our more productive crops to date are the cucumbers and there will be an abundance in your delivery. We have grown about six different varieties from the long thin oriental to the traditional field cucumber. A nice planting of lemon cucumbers is yet to come. They are just not ready to harvest yet. Right now all the plants look good but you never know when the plants just shut down for one reason or another.
We are pleased to announce that it looks like we will have an on-farm walk-in cooler. Matt & John assisted with getting it put together on Saturday and we now await our electrician and refrigeration service to get it up and running. This will be a great addition so we will no longer have to travel to Scott’s cooler about 15 minutes away to store our veggies after harvest.
Franklin Greenhouse Report: Eggplant is being harvested for the deliveries and will start to filter in to the delivery sites. There may not be enough for all sites this week but over the next few weeks everyone will get eggplant. The celery is doing well along with the hot peppers. The newly seeded radishes are up. They were planted where the potatoes were harvested. Once the Chinese cabbage is harvested, Farmer Rich plans on replanting the bed with Oriental greens. We will be seeding the on-farm greenhouse with carrots for the fall deliveries.
From the Fields:  The garlic harvest is complete and the garlic is now in the greenhouse curing. It is probably one of the best harvests we have had in years. The inter-planting of the potatoes between the garlic rows worked out really well as the potato harvest has shown better production than in years past. They are on the small side as we did plant a bit late. They will probably be harvested this week and that field will be planted with the seeded transplants for the fall.

For the garlic to cure we had to make more racks in the greenhouses as we ran out of room.
This past week Dory seeded in the greenhouse for transplanting in a few weeks: Oriental greens (4 varieties), lettuce (2 varieties) and transplanted in the field some herbs, kale and some odds & ends. Additional green onions were also planted
Weather Report: About ¾” of rain fell early in the week which was need especially in the back field. It has been cool in the mornings for the crew to work and overall the week wasn’t too hot for working in the fields and greenhouses. Our drainage project for the round field has worked out well as the heavy rains earlier in the month didn’t wash out our plantings. The main field on the other hand will still need some improvement due to the recent crop losses mentioned last week.
Animal report:  Every time we turn around another rabbit appears. So far none are eating anything in the fields. Some fawns have been sighted along the low lying brush at the edge of the woods. They always seem to have been left in place by their mom and told not to move until she gets back. A skunk was seen in the back after he/she decided to disturb the mulch looking for insects to eat. Luckily they aren’t apt to eat any veggies.

Trip to the Farm – Saturday – · July 26^th – for CSA members, family & friends who would like to drive up and help with a few projects.
Start Time: 11:00 am on July 26^th
· Get a tour of the farm as well and we will break for a late lunch (around 2:30 pm
· Please RSVP so that we may plan lunch & refreshments

July 21st  - 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