Catalpa Ridge News - July 16, 2018

Garlic Harvest is completed

The crew has finished the garlic harvest. All the garlic beds have now been tilled and ready to plant with new crops.

We received about 1 ½” of rain on Saturday night and it was needed. We have been irrigating the fields during the past few weeks but now this “soaking-in” rain has really perked up the crops.

Some local sweet corn is starting to show up and we will probably be delivery some over the next few weeks. Farmer Diane usually has some nice corn over the course the season and we hope this year’s corn will be just a good as in the past.

The crew seeded some kale during the week and it is ready to be transplanted into the field this week. The cucumbers, beans, and tomatoes are really coming

along nicely. We transplanted leeks into the harvested garlic beds.

This week we also plan on seeding additional root crops and winter squash.

Have a great week.

Catalpa Ridge News - July 2, 2018

Hot - Hot - Hot

We had temperatures in the 90’s for the past few days making it difficult to work in the fields. We start early in the am to plant and harvest before it gets too hot with the crew putting in 5 hours. This week looks like another hot week with some rain to come.

The back field is growing nicely. The harvested lettuce was replaced with kale & collards. The garlic is getting close to the full harvest. We did start a harvesting a few rows on Saturday and it is included in this week’s delivery. The nasturtium flowers are in full bloom and are included in the delivery. We put together a nice fresh salad with the flowers for our farm lunch on Saturday – a nice treat!

Another row of cabbage and herbs were planted and the last of the eggplant transplants were planted in both the greenhouse & the field.

The repaired fence is keeping out the deer and with the hot temperatures they like to settle down in the deep woods where it is cooler anyway.

After a late start, the plantings in the field are catching up. We had about 1” of rain during the week though we do continue to irrigate the fields with these hot temperatures.

 Have a great week and a Happy 4^th of July!

Catalpa Ridge News - June 25, 2018

Lettuce Begin!!

We had hoped to start the deliveries last week, but the weather did not cooperate. We have had our fair share of rain, cold temperatures, then periods of too high temps along with some dry periods. The irrigation system had to be hooked up and as of writing this news we are having a downpour!

Farmer Rich and the crew have planted the fields and greenhouses for deliveries over the last few weeks.  Lisa, Dory and Michael have all returned crew and we have added Kathy this year. They all assisted with the transplants in the spring and now transitioned to field work. Some of the fields were just too wet to work in and we were just recently able to get into them.

Lettuce, potatoes, broccoli, chicory, chard, and cauliflower have all been planted from transplants and are doing well. We have also planted three rows of Heirloom tomatoes with varying harvest timeframes from early season to late season (55 - 85 days). We hope to have the start of the tomato harvest by the last week of July.

The greenhouses are all full of greens, eggplants, a row of tomatoes, Shishito peppers. These Shishito peppers have been a very popular item at our transplant sales. About 1 in 10 peppers are hot, though not too hot. We have planted a great variety of both sweet and hot peppers in the field in many different colors; purple, white, green, orange, red and more!

The crew seeded zucchini in the back field and last week they were able to get in the main field and transplanted more tomatoes, peppers, herbs. Additionally, we seeded cucumbers, beans and more zucchini. These are not up yet but anticipate with warmer temperatures coming they should take off. This week we hope to seed Brussel sprouts, cabbage, and winter squash for the autumn harvest.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to a bountiful harvest year.