Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 19 No 6–July 28, 2014

We enjoyed a great day at the farm on Saturday with the CSA members and friends helping out with the exciting job of weeding. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. It was cool and overcast with a nice breeze and no humidity. Farmer Sue cooked up some red, white and blue potatoes which were just harvested as well as onions and peppers.

Thanks to all who made the trip to help out, we really appreciated it.

 

The Sussex Farm & Horse Show (The NJ State Fair) starts on Friday. The Open Vegetable Show judging is on Saturday at 12 noon and Farmer Rich was asked to be a judge this year. If you visit the fairgrounds, stop by the greenhouse and you will be able to see the veggie exhibits. 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: www.newjerseystatefair.org.

Franklin Greenhouse Report:  Dory, Michael and Farmer Rich staked up the eggplant and pepper plants as the plants are quite large this year. Weeding was also done to get the celery, peppers and eggplant under control. We planted most of the eggplant in the Franklin greenhouse as there is less problems with insects. We had to pull out the husk cherries as they weren’t doing well, though we do have a nice section of them in a field at Art’s farm.

From the Fields:   All the potatoes are not harvested and we have started to deliver to each of the drop-off sites. We will need to replow and disc the fields for replanting. What normally happens this time of year is that about ½ of the fields are now fallow and will need to be planted for the fall crops. Dory has been seeding in the greenhouse for transplanting; Sen Posi, Maruba, Red Streak Mustard (Oriental Greens) and about four different varieties of lettuce. Some of the plants were planted in the rows which were wrapped in plastic and luckily did not succumb to the hot since as most of the week was cooler.

The fruit deliveries will be starting soon. We hope that next week we will have some peaches. The orchards, like us are delayed in their harvests. We started the veggie deliveries about two weeks later than normal and the orchards are on about the same time frame.

Lettuce, escarole and radicchio will need to be transplanted before they go into the field. These plants need to be more mature before field planting.

Weather Report:

It has gone from too wet to a bit too dry over the past week. The irrigation system is working well on the front fields. We will need to get some water on the leeks and herbs in the back field. We enjoyed great temperatures and low humidity all week.

Animal report:

A few rabbits decided to investigate what was going on in the greenhouse and smiled as Farmer Rich & crew stopped by to retrieve some supplies for the field. Since the nights are getting cooler we can only image they are enjoying the heat of the greenhouse. The greenhouse they are in doesn’t have anything in it for them to eat!

Upcoming Events
	NJ State Fair – Sussex County Farm & Horse Show – August 1st to August 10th. More info: http://www.njstatefair.com/
	Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting – Hoboken Historical Museum – 1301 Hudson Street August 24th 1-5 pm Farm Fresh Seasonal Produce for sale as well.

July 28th  - 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

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

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 19 No 4–Week of July 14th

Garlic Harvest !

Our ½ mile of garlic was harvested by the crew and is now in greenhouse curing. The curing process is when the flavors and richness of the variety sets in. There is about 1/3 of a row remaining which will be harvested on Wednesday. Probably over 20 different varieties had been planted in the fall, some with CSA member participation during the trip to the farm last year. This was planted earlier than normal but seems to have worked out well.

One of many bins filled with garlic on the back of the truck

Franklin Greenhouse Report: The eggplant should be showing up in the deliveries over the next few weeks. The white icicle radishes are starting to show up at the delivery sites this week, though not enough for everyone this week they will eventually filter in to all the sites. The hot pepper selection is really impressive with at least 12 different varieties to be harvested. Some baby celery will be ready soon. We are about 95% replanted in the greenhouse. Unfortunately the ginger is not doing well this year despite several years of great production. Farmer Rich feels that this is due to the late start (which was close to one month late). It was difficult to force tropical plants into our climate this year. It was minus 4°F at the time we usually plant.

From the Fields:

The garlic is almost all harvested and it appears the crop is above average. Next week we will probably deliver the Elephant Garlic rounds and then start to deliver the different varieties that we grow. The fava beans are all harvested and we will start to remove the plastic from the garlic beds and brush hog both of those fields and start to plant some fall crops. The round field plantings are doing well, and they include broccoli, squash and kale. The chard, basil, kale, and collards in the main field are all doing great. Dory seeded lettuce, escarole, Chinese cabbage, and radicchio during the week for transplanting in a few weeks for the fall crops. More potatoes, Adirondack Blue, Adirondack Red and Yellow Fingerlings from Farmer Less are yet to be harvested from the main field. It appears that the plants have been very productive.

Weather Report:

After the 5+” of rain fell during/after hurricane Arthur, another 1” of rain fell early in the week which destroyed a few plantings. Spinach, turnips, beets and red radishes are among the casualties. The week turned out to be the typical hot/humid summertime weather.

Animal report:

The rabbits are all over the place and fortunately are not eating very much. A new crop of baby deer was sighted and a groundhog decided to move under the deck of our “little rock house” across the street. Farmer Rich sighted a hummingbird hovering over the elephant garlic flowers but it took off by the time he was ready to shoot a photo.

Trip to the Farm – Saturday – July 26th – we are planning on having a trip to the farm to those CSA members who would like to drive up and help with a few projects. More details will follow over the next few weeks.
Save the date!

 

 

July 14th  - 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

Catalpa Ridge News Volume 19 No 3–July 7, 2014

Thunderstorms !

The thunderstorms came well before Hurricane Arthur, then the remnants of Arthur came and went. We were lucky not to receive any hail as the cold fronts moved in on Thursday evening. The crew was only able to work a few hours in the fields on Friday due to the torrential downpours. We were also ankle deep in mud! Fortunately we were able to get some work down in the greenhouses and stay out of harm’s way. Farmer Rich was convinced that the storm was going to miss us, but he was wrong.

Franklin Greenhouse Report: The eggplants were staked to encourage increased production and make it easier to harvest. The hot peppers are coming along great though the Cubanelle peppers that we planted turned out to be Hungarian Hot Wax (a very mild hot pepper). We guess the seed was wrong or we tagged them wrong. The White Icicle Radishes will probably be harvested for next week’s delivery. The Adirondack Blue Potatoes were harvested from the greenhouse for tonight’s delivery and Farmer Rich seeded another planting of radishes.
 

Starting the harvest @ dawn

From the Fields: 
French Breakfast radishes (a nice red radish) are almost ready for harvest. The fava greens in tonight’s delivery came from the front field. They will stir-fry up well or simply use in your salad, though remove the stalks. Scheduled soon will be the fava bean harvest. The garlic harvest started, but was interrupted by the ugly weather we had over the end of the week. It looks like over a ½ mile of garlic will be harvested. The bulb size look on the medium to large size so far and we are hoping for some jumbos to appear. The cucumbers in the back field are doing well and the field planted heirloom tomatoes are also coming along nicely. The greens; kale, collards, chard, and cabbages are probably the best field greens we have had. More blue potatoes as well as some Adirondack Reds will be harvested over the next few weeks. These were interplanted between the garlic rows with the thought that they would be ready to harvest just after the garlic and then this entire field can be planted for fall crops.

Weather Report: 
We really needed some rain, but not that much at one time. We received about 5 ½” over two days. Some erosion occurred on our roadways and fortunately the fields held up well. Farmer Diane did have a flood in one of her barns and her farmstand was under about 18” of standing water. A reported tornado touched down close to Lisa’s house and missed doing damage to her and Matt’s farm. There was major hail in the area and Farmer Art’s zucchini were damaged.

Animal report:
The rabbits continue to blossom at the farm. They enjoy watching Farmer Rich and the crew with one eye! After we planted the round field we never checked the fence in the back which was blown down over the winter. The deer simply walked in and decided to eat the broccoli. Farmer Rich fixed the fence during the early part of the week.
 
Trip to the Farm – Saturday –  July 26th – we are planning on having a trip to the farm to those CSA members who would like to drive up and help with a few projects. More details will follow over the next few weeks.
Save the date!

 

July 7th  - 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