Catalpa Ridge News–August 28, 2017

Cooler Temperatures

Cooler Temperatures and low humidity was the weather of the week. We had much nicer working conditions and alot of field work was accomplished. We harvested the potatoes (red, white & blue varieties). Blue potatoes will be in this week’s delivery. We did loose 2 rows due to excessive rain over the past month.

The greenhouse work progressed, with Michael tackling the repairs. We wanted to cover the greenhouse with new plastic over the weekend but new structural problems arose so we hope to get it accomplished by next weekend. Since the repaired greenhouse is on the list to recover we thought as we might as well cover the other upper greenhouse.

Our recent squash planting is coming along really well and in about 2 weeks we should have a bumper crop of zucchini. The winter squash and pumpkins have not bounced back with all the rain, though we should be able to harvest some.

About 2 months ago during a period of excessive rain, we lost a major part of the main field due to erosion (a min-grand canyon!). We finally were able to put this field back together again. Using our tractor we back filled the area with wood chips and was able to move the soil around to remediate the field. The way the weather looks we hope to have this field primed up for next year’s plantings.

Catalpa Ridge News–August 21, 2017

More Rain ……

It was another rainy week at the farm. We received 2 1/2” over the course of the week. Farmer Rich thinks this may have been the rainiest season yet. Impact on the crops are as follows:

• The pumpkins, winter squash, potatoes & and the cucumbers in the wetter fields are suffering by being too water logged.

From the Fields

The zucchini, which have done fairly well this year, are coming close to the end of the harvest season. We did another planting a few weeks and they are coming along nicely. The second planting of cucumbers, in a better spot, are also doing well.

The potatoes plan to be harvested in the next week or two. We have red, whites & blue varieties in the mix. Our peppers continue to produce nice fruit, though the hot peppers seem to have slowed down. The really hot ones (such as Ghost and Habanero) are taking really long. Unfortunately the Carolina Reapers never survived transplanting.

The tomatoes right now are producing great, perhaps a bumper crop year. We have problems in some of the fields. The cooler nights along with the plants being too wet yields some diseases that can just collapse the plants overnight. These conditions put a lot of pressure on the plants (and on Farmer Rich too!!).

The cabbage plants are starting the head up (slowly). We seeded some radishes and Oriental greens this week.

Greenhouse Construction: Our heated greenhouse is about 20 years old at this point and was in desperate need of repair. All the joints at the soil line were decayed and starting to break apart. Actually we were surprised that it didn’t collapse over the winter. The only thing holding it together was the plastic. The crew started the repair on Thursdays and continued through Saturday. We hope to complete it next weekend as the crew will be harvesting on Sunday.

Catalpa Ridge News–August 14, 2017

Rain – Rain – Rain

After an incredibly rainy season we received another 2 1/2” of rain on Friday evening. This could impact future harvesting as many of the plants are water logged. The pumpkin plants are compromised at this point though the winter squash plants are OK. The cucumbers are suffering abit, although we hope that they will bounce back for another few weeks. The peppers & tomatoes continue to produce nicely. The chard, kale & cabbages are happy!

The main planting of zucchini are almost at the end, but the 2nd planting is doing incredibly well. The oriental greens planted in the greenhouse are harvested for delivery and that area will be replanted with greens for autumn deliveries.

The crew picked apples from our on-farm apple trees during the week. These are Red Free variety. This variety was developed by Developed by: PRI (Purdue, Rutgers, Illinois Co Op). They are small but tasty!.

With the lushness outside the fences, due to the rainy season, the animals have not been too much of a problem breaking into the fields. We have had just some minor problems with the occasional deer and a ground hog. There is a large crop of rabbits running around the outside the fences and we are happy that they haven’t decided the break in and eat your crops.

We did find a deer resting among the tractors, apparently finding a nice area to lie down.