Catalpa Ridge News - Vol 16 No 3 - Week of June 27th

Swamps R Us !

We went from reasonable weather last newsletter to a week of off & on rain. Multiple inches of rain fell and Farmer Rich lost track of the actual amount since it rained so much. At least 2” fell since Thursday. The plants in the fields are responding positively, but the conditions to work in are not the best. We have standing water, puddles, mud and the weeds have gone crazy.  We are starting to worry about plant disease when it gets this wet, such as blight. Also root related problems may occur when it gets this wet.

From the Fields: We seeded broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, collard greens, yard-long beans, chicory, endive, and evergreen stem onions in the greenhouse to be transplanted in the field in about 2 weeks.  We are working on another round of micro-green mix in the Franklin greenhouse. We are also planning on planting some tatsoi and other oriental greens.

The seeded lettuces from last newsletter are almost ready to be planted in the fields. The fields just need to dry out a bit.

We tilled up a section of the large greenhouse where the sunflower micro greens were, but the mud was just too deep to go any further.

The crew finished planting in the round field and all the plants are doing well though somewhat water logged at this point.

The fava bean harvest this week is two weeks earlier than in years past. The harvest yields are off from past years and we feel this is due to a change in our growing method this year. We usually plant them much denser and they have always produced well. This year we planted them as they “should” be planted which is about 6” apart as a field crop. We think we’ll go back to the old way for next season. This area will be replanted with beets, turnips and fava greens.

The cucumber plants are close to needing to be trellised and the zucchini plants are doing well. They just need a few warm days to start “zuking” up! The tomato, peppers and tomatillos are finally “catching”. We were a bit late getting them in and are pleased that they are catching up.

The garlic in the back field has gone from looking perfect to being overtaken by weeds in just six days. We’ll be spending some time this week to get it under control.

We are starting to see some crop losses in the super wet spots. Some tomato & pepper plants have succumbed, but overall everything is looking really good.

Weather Report: Overall a rainy week but we were able to work in the greenhouses on the days we couldn’t get into the fields. It was productive work as we really needed to get these crops seeded for transplanting.  We heard about the “flash flooding” in many areas in Bergen, Passaic & Hudson counties on Thursday.

Animal report: The newly seeded beans are being dug up by a field mouse so they need to be re-seeded. If worse comes to worse we’ll reseed them in Franklin. The field mice are not so much a problem in what they eat, but more that they carry away the seeds and all of a sudden there are plants growing where we didn’t plant them. They like to hide the seeds they carry off. Wish they were hiding piles of gold in our fields instead of beans!  The fawns are watching.

Trip to the Farm – Scheduled for Sunday – July 24^th

Want to help out at the Farm?? We like to schedule at least 2 work-days at the farm during the harvest season where CSA members can come up and help us with some projects. The first work-day is scheduled for July 24^th starting at 11:00 am. Some projects planned will be to help with some mulching & transplanting. More details to come over the next few weeks.

Upcoming Events

• August 28^th – 12^th Annual Heirloom Tomato Tasting @ the Hoboken Historical Museum – 1 pm – 5 pm
• October 1st & 2nd 9th Annual Garlic Gathering @ Olde Lafayette Village 10 am - 4 pm Lafayette, NJ (Routes 94/15)
• October 16th 5th Annual Garlic Fest @ the Hoboken Historical Museum 1 pm - 5 pm 1301 Hudson Street – Hoboken, NJ 

Week of June 27th - 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
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery
• United Synagogue of Hoboken

Catalpa Ridge News - Vol 16 No 2 - Week of June 20th

News from the Farm: The weather has been reasonably nice and work in the fields is moving along at a great pace. Though, still a bit behind after the wet spring, the beds are getting filled with plants. We have had two full crews working during the week transplanting.

Our only disaster this week was the walk-in-cooler at Scott’s froze on Tuesday & shut down on Wednesday. Luckily it was during the week when we didn’t need it as it was delivery time. Last year when it broke, it was during the weekend and the lettuces had all frozen before the delivery. Fortunately, had it not been fixed in time, the local volunteer firehouse offered their cooler to store our lettuces & escarole in for delivery.

Our Micro-Green project is working out well as we are able to harvest weekly the micro-greens from the Franklin greenhouse. The differences between micro-greens, sprouts and baby greens are:

·   Sprouts: first stage of seed development and are consumed shortly after germination and usually are grown in jars with water.

·   MicroGreens: 2nd stage of seed development with roots & first leaves called cotyledons

·   Baby Greens: grown a week or two longer than micro-greens and they resemble salad greens

Our micro-greens are grown in soil and not at all similar to sprouts. The micro-green mixes we are harvesting may be just one variety one week, or may be a combination of two to six different greens, such as a radish & buckwheat. We are working on a mix of kale, broccoli, kohlrabi & mustard greens for future deliveries.

From the Fields: More herbs were planted as well as hot peppers, sweet peppers and tomatoes. The newly seeded lettuce in the top greenhouse is half-up. It will be awhile until it is ready to transplant.

The round field has been planted with tomatoes & sweet peppers and is about ¾ full at this point. We plan on putting in more pepper plants in this field as well.

In our back field the garlic is looking extra nice, but the fava bean plants are looking a little weaker than usual.  We hope the yields will allow everyone to get them.

Our main field is showing a great looking zucchini crop. The plants are thriving and the newly planted tomatoes & peppers are doing well. It has only been a few weeks since the planting started and they have taken hold with few losses.

At our Franklin greenhouse: The carrots this week were harvested from this greenhouse and those beds will now be replaced with micro-greens and salad mixes over the course of the season.

Weather Report: We had a lot of rain this past week which has been good for the crops. The back field did have to be irrigated as it had gotten quite dry. The temperatures have been on the cool side which is just perfect for field work.

Animal report: A few rabbits are in the main field, but as of yet have not decided to eat the crops. The “Tasmanian devil” has returned and is tossing the sunflower patch.  For those of you who have been members for awhile may remember our reports from a few years back of getting to the farm and noticing that plants had been tossed during the night shortly after they were planted in the field. There didn’t seem any rhyme or reason, just tossed here & there and we nicknamed the culprit the “Tasmanian devil”. It appears that it is back or perhaps and offspring as taken over tormenting Farmer Rich.

A few fawns are peaking through the fence at the crew probably wondering what’s going on.  They are so cute and we hope to get a few pictures of them, but more importantly hope they remain on the outside of fence.

Remember these Resources for your web access to CSA news, recipes and our Harvest Identifier:

· http://catalparidge.blogspot.com

· http://catalparidge-recipes.blogspot.com

· PDF version of newsletters: http://www.jerseygrown.net/CSFNewsletters.htm

· Harvest Identifier: http://www.jerseygrown.net/HarvestIdentifier.htm

· Twitter: http://twitter.com/catalparidge

· Facebook: http://facebook.com/catalparidge

Week of June 20th - 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
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery
• United Synagogue of Hoboken

Volume 16 No 1 - Week of June 13th

Believe it or Not!!

We have had a very difficult early season and we were under untold stress to get the deliveries in order. First, there was continued rain most of April & May, week after week with little to no sun. This caused the fields to be too muddy and little if anything could be planted. Then our tractor’s clutch went while tilling a field. In order to fix it, the tractor had to be broken in half. Fortunately, John our mechanic was able to get it fixed in record time (within the week). If we had to go the usual route by bringing it to a tractor repair shop, there was a 30 day backlog on fixing tractors! It also would have been impossible to borrow one, as this is the busy planting season. No matter where Farmer Rich went there were broken tractors in fields everywhere over Sussex County. Then Farmer Rich got pneumonia and is still recovering.  We have a great crew this year and they all picked up the slack and amazingly the delivery finally came together for this week – believe it or not!

Tractor Before (broken in half)

Tractor After (much happier)

 Meet the Crew – Lisa returns for her 3^rd year and Ali returned from being away for a year in California. Renee who manages our greenhouse in Franklin is back for her 2^nd year and we have a new employee Dory. We can’t forget John, who keeps all our machines running and helps with tilling and wrapping the beds with plastic and was instrumental in setting up the irrigation system. They are all doing an amazing job in getting together the delivery and trying to catch up on the season for future weeks.

Ali

Lisa

Dory & Renee

Thank you for supporting our farm. It is only through the continued support of our members that our farm continues to be sustainable and we continue the practice of farming. We welcome back many of you who have been supporting us for most of our 16 years of CSA deliveries as well as welcome many new members this year. It is also important to acknowledge the efforts of the coordinators at all our drop-off locations. Without drop-off locations that are fully supported the CSA concept is lost. We should all participate in the sense of “community” by helping out, sharing recipes and giving support to each other.

We welcome back our sites at Beth Haverim Shir Shalom in Mahwah, Hoboken Midtown on Willow Terrace, Hoboken West on Grand, the United Synagogue of Hoboken on Park Avenue and Jersey City Hamilton Park on 8^th Street. We are also pleased to continue for a second year, delivering to the Food Services at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ . They have purchased shares to be used directly in the employee cafeteria at Valley Hospital and their Dorothy B Kraft Center.

A great resource for those of you new to the concept CSA is from one of our former coordinators in Hoboken, Carolyn Cope. The article is titled: 10 Secrets for Making the Most of your CSA. The link is here: http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/05/10-secrets-tips-for-making-the-most-of-your-csa.html. We like to grow many interesting veggies, some of which you may have never tried before. We encourage you to try-it, you’ll like it!! We always provide you with recipes and have our Harvest Identified online as well.

The early deliveries in the spring will be lighter and will not have as many types of veggies, as you are eating seasonally. As the weeks progress, there will also be more variety and the deliveries will become heavier. In the newsletter each week I include recipes for the items that are being delivered. If you have some recipes you would like to share, we can post them on the blog for others to try.

Community supported farm members soon become connected to each other as the weeks go by. We welcome you all and look forward to working with all of you.

News from the Farm: Since we are behind we are eagerly trying  to fill up all the beds that were laid last week. This week we planted tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, New Zealand spinach, eggplant & peppers. Hopefully next week we’ll do as well.

From the Fields: Our back field has the following all up & growing: garlic greens, fava beans, garlic, sunchokes and snow peas.

The round field (which was un-plantable last year) has been tilled, fertilized and is ready for: tomatoes and peppers.

Our main field has all of the following already planted; garlic, eggplant, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, cabbage, escarole, kale, kohlrabi, Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, sweet peppers, sorrel, lettuce, tomatillos, chard,  and husk cherries, There are a few beds left to plant which we plan on planting basil, Brussels sprouts and mixed herbs. We seeded 700 lettuces in the greenhouse to be transplanted into the fields when spots open up.

At our Franklin greenhouse, we have harvested for this week’s delivery the Texas super sweet onions with edible greens as well as some micro-greens. Our micro-green project has a few problems, but Farmer Rich is working on it. The onions this year are on the small side as there was little sun while they were growing April/May. They were planted in March and usually are bigger by this time. We have a nice carrot crop in this greenhouse and they probably will be delivered either next week or the week after. More onions were harvested and are drying for future deliveries. We plan on planting more micro-green mix and Oriental greens.

Weather Report: This year has presented a unique set of problems. The early season was non-stop rain and little sun with very cool temperatures. Now we have had little rain and have had to use irrigation on some fields. Though it appears to rain every day, it is not. Almost no rain for the past week.

Animal report: The crew spent an entire week during the rainy season shoring up all the fences that even a field mouse couldn’t get through! Low and behold when Farmer Rich was harvesting the lettuce a rabbit was noshing at few yards away. So far the one rabbit is our only break-in. A entire family of deer is outside looking in and so far have not attempted to jump the fence.

Week of June 13th - 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
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery
• United Synagogue of Hoboken

Volume 15 - No 21 - Week of October 25th

Last Delivery of the Season

The season has come to an end. We hope you were pleased with the seasonal produce and we thank you all for your support of our small farm.

The year was difficult being a drought year, but more manageable than last year which was too wet. Many crops did much better than prior years such as the peppers & eggplant. Conversely some crops did not so well such as broccoli and other brassicas. There were crop failures as well.

If you have any ideas for different veggies you would like to see next year, just send us an e-mail and we will look through our seed catalogs in January as we prepare our large seed order for 2011.

We had a great trip to the farm on Sunday and CSA members & families helped plant garlic. It was a nice warm day, with partly sunny skies. We started by "popping" the garlic cloves from the blub, and then went into the back field to plant & mulch. We followed this by Farmer Sue's famous lunch which included: Red Cabbage & Sunchoke Coleslaw, Roasted Blue Potatoes & Onions, Veggie Medley & Rice Bake, Spaghetti Squash, Lasagna, Hot Dogs, Roasted Zucchini, Fresh picked salad & Roasted garlic.

We do hope we have a better garlic year for the 2011 season. Thank you to all who came to help and hope that you enjoyed the day at the farm.

Some news that never made prior newsletters was Farmer Rich helping with starting a garden at The Hoboken Dual Language Charter School on Jefferson. We started some lettuce, rosemary & thyme plants and they seeded some radishes and all was going well for the budding farmers until they received a hail storm. A future project for the school is to have the students make birdhouses and paint them anyway that they want. We would then put up the birdhouses on the farm as you can never have enough birds around to help with insect control. We do plan on assisting them again in the spring. We also are going to the Bethlehem Early Learning Center in Ridgewood to talk with the preschoolers about what grows on the farm.

From the Fields:The fields are all shut down now that the season is over and are being cleaned up for next year. The greenhouse in Franklin has also been fully harvested and will be closed up until March. The greenhouses on the farm are in need of some repair which will keep Farmer Rich busy during the off-season.

Weather Report: Another frost hit the fields on Friday which was the heaviest one to date and it was surely a COLD morning. Fortunately, the greens in the greenhouse were not affected. The weekend was gorgeous and a great way to end the harvest year harvesting on a bright sunny day on Saturday and then Hannah & Lisa finished the harvest before our Trip to the Farm started on Sunday.

Animal report: No problems in animal land this past week. We do hear the geese overhead heading south for the winter and Farmer Rich has seen the robins in flocks as well. Though not as noisy as the geese, they too must be migrating to a warmer climate.

Fruit Delivery:Tonight's delivery we have some late season apples from Windy Brow Farm. Depending on your delivery site, you will be receiving either Greenings or Melrose apples.

Thanks to all CSA members for your continued support.

End of Season Potluck Dinner

Hosted by the Hoboken Midtown CSA group, but All CSA members are invited. November 6^th @ 7:30 pm

The Yankee Clipper Boat - owned by Victoria & Richard MacKenzie-Childs anchored in the Hudson River off Sinatra Drive, Hoboken

Directions:From the Hoboken Historical Museum (1301 Hudson Street), walk toward the Hudson River, thru Shipyard Park, onto Sinatra Drive sidewalk. Enter and exit through the Iron Gate in the railing to Shipyard dog run Walk through the Shipyard dog run. Close dog run gates behind you and if a dog is present, check with the owner before entering. Step onto Pier and walk to end to go on board. NOTE:Unfortunately, the boat is not child-friendly and not set up for the safety of children under under12. Only Children 12 years and older will be able to attend.

ALSO - NO LIQUOR is ALLOWED on the Yankee Clipper Boat. Please do not bring any wine, beer or liquor the evening of the Pot Luck dinner. Thank you!!!

Please RSVP by October 25^th to Valerie D'Antonio (see your weekly newsletter for contact info)

She will be coordinating three categories of dishes: -appetizers -main dishes -desserts

If possible, please contact her as soon as you can with the dish you will be bringing so that there will be a good variety. It is great to get together at the end of the season and to meet many of you who enjoy the harvests each week that we don't get to see on delivery day. We hope that many of you can make it.

Week of October 25th - 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
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery
• United Synagogue of Hoboken

Volume 15 - No 20 - Week of October 18th

Next Week - Last Delivery of the Season

What a way to lead into the end of the season with a heavy frost & high winds. Fortunately there is only 1 week to go!

The force of the high winds on Saturday caught a small hole in the middle greenhouse and turned the small hole into a huge one, ripping about 1/3 of the plastic off the greenhouse. It was overdue for replacement, so this will prompt us to replace it during the off season.

As we were driving to Hoboken on Sunday morning for the Garlic Fest, the crew called in to report a heavy frost which affected a few of the fields. They were ready to harvest some of the greens, but had to wait until it warmed up as the mustards were almost frozen. The late greens actually like it cold and are considered "cold hardy" plants.

It was great to see many CSA members at the Garlic Fest in Hoboken on Sunday. What a beautiful Sunday afternoon it was and everyone enjoyed the tasting. We also brought some of Shawna's jarred goodies to taste as well and everyone loved her zucchini bread, apple breads, jams, chutneys and especially a red pepper garlic spread.

The garlic in tonight's delivery is Spanish Roja and it perhaps the most popular garlic at our tastings and on Sunday it was as well. It was actually voted the "People's Choice" of garlic at our Olde Lafayette Village tasting 2 weeks ago. We'll have to remember to have a vote for your favorite garlic next year in Hoboken to see which of the varieties people really like!

The Spanish Roja Garlic is a very potent variety to most. It also makes an excellent roaster which will tone down the "fire". If you eat it raw, the flavor is quite sharp and "spicy", so be prepared!!!

What's up & growing:The season is winding down with just 1 more delivery. We harvested the potatoes that were planted by CSA member help during the trip to the farm in July. They will be filtered into the delivery sites next week. The interesting thing about them is that the potato plants never flowered; they just produced the potatoes, unlike spring planted potatoes which do flower. They actually did rather well for being planted so late!

Weather Report: About 1/2" of rain fell during the week, but the high winds were the story of the week. Temperatures are remaining seasonal to warm for this time of year. Actually the first frost of the season was later than last year.

Animal report: A deer broke into the middle field and decided to eat the tips of the remaining tomato plants. Either the same or another deer broke into the field in the same spot about 2 weeks ago. We have since fixed that section of fencing and hope it is secure for next year.

TRIP to the FARM-Help Plant Garlic

Sunday October 24^th. 11 am - ??

Want to spend a day in the country and help us on the farm? We are scheduling our next work day at the farm to be a garlic planting day. Help us plant garlic for the 2011 season. We picked up some new varieties for other local farmers to plant over the weekend at the Garlic Gathering in Olde Lafayette Village. Some of them include: Porcelain, Romanian Red and German Red

· Who - CSA members, families, friends

· What - Plant Garlic !!

· Where - @ Catalpa Ridge Farm in Wantage

· When - October 24^th, starting at 11 am

· Why - visit the farm to help out

Just RSVP via e-mailso we can send you directions, as well as plan on refreshments & lunch.

Fruit Delivery:Tonight's delivery we have some late season apples from Windy Brow Farm. Depending on your delivery site, you will be receiving either Melrose or Mutsu apples. Melrose, (the official apple of Ohio) looks like a vintage apple, but surprisingly, it only dates back to WWII. It's a cross between a Jonathan and a Red Delicious. Good in the kitchen since it stays firm with cooking and it doesn't need much sweetener. Mutso (also known as Crispin), is a cross between the Golden Delicious & the Indo, and arrived in the USA in the late 1940's. Its generous size & appealing color attract you to what lies within...a crisp, white, juicy flesh, with just a touch of tartness.

Last Delivery of the Season will be: The Week of October 25^th

End of Season Potluck Dinner

Hosted by the Hoboken Midtown CSA group, but All CSA members are invited. November 6^th @ 7:30 pm

The Yankee Clipper Boat - owned by Victoria & Richard MacKenzie-Childs anchored in the Hudson River off Sinatra Drive, Hoboken

Directions:From the Hoboken Historical Museum (1301 Hudson Street), walk toward the Hudson River, thru Shipyard Park, onto Sinatra Drive sidewalk. Enter and exit through the Iron Gate in the railing to Shipyard dog run Walk through the Shipyard dog run. Close dog run gates behind you and if a dog is present, check with the owner before entering. Step onto Pier and walk to end to go on board. NOTE:Unfortunately, the boat is not child-friendly and not set up for the safety of children under under12. Only Children 12 years and older will be able to attend.

ALSO - NO LIQUOR is ALLOWED on the Yankee Clipper Boat. Please do not bring any wine, beer or liquor the evening of the Pot Luck dinner. Thank you!!!

Please RSVP by October 25^th to Valerie D'Antonio (see your weekly newsletter for contact info)

She will be coordinating three categories of dishes: -appetizers -main dishes -desserts

If possible, please contact her as soon as you can with the dish you will be bringing so that there will be a good variety. It is great to get together at the end of the season and to meet many of you who enjoy the harvests each week that we don't get to see on delivery day. We hope that many of you can make it.

Week of October 18th - 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
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery
• United Synagogue of Hoboken

Volume 15 - No 19 - Week of October 11th

Abundant Sunshine !

The weather was gorgeous the later part of the week with a stunning Saturday/Sunday to harvest the deliveries. There was a frost warning on Sunday morning for Sussex County. There was a heavy frost from Franklin (where we have 1 greenhouse) to Farmer Diane's, but fortunately NO frost at the farm!! The warm weather crops are winding down anyway, so it would not have been the end of the world if we did get frosted.

The crew has removed all the stakes from the fields and is diligently working on getting all the plastic up from the beds. Most of the beds where we plan on planting the garlic have been fully harvested, so we need to till it for the October 24^th trip to the farm.

What's up & growing: We have two more weeks for the deliveries, as long as we don't get a freeze or a snowstorm. Lettuce, leeks, red mustard, chard, potatoes, onions, carrots and herbs are all slated to be harvested for the last 2 weeks.

Weather Report: The temperatures have been cooler since the big rain, more like autumn. We need our jackets and gloves in the am then can unlayer in the afternoon. More rain is in the forecast for the middle of the week. Just about 1/2" of rain fell last week. Just enough to keep everything perked up.

Animal report: The Wooly Bear Caterpillar is in!

This has become an annual part of the newsletter for the past 14 years and for the most part has been pretty accurate. Weather folklore enthusiatasts have long assessed that the woolly bear caterpillar is one insect that is supposed to give us some insight as to how severe the winter will be. It is said that if the middle stripe is narrower than either of the black stripes, the winter will be severe. Conversely, if the center stripe is wide, we'll have a mild winter. If all the stripes are the same size, we'll have an average winter. This year, 3 out of 3 Wooly Bear caterpillars seen have wild center stripes, so perhaps a mild winter?


TRIP to the FARM-Help Plant Garlic

Sunday October 24^th. 11 am - ??

Want to spend a day in the country and help us on the farm? We are scheduling our next work day at the farm to be a garlic planting day. Help us plant garlic for the 2011 season. We picked up some new varieties for other local farmers to plant over the weekend at the Garlic Gathering in Olde Lafayette Village. Some of them include: Porcelain, Romanian Red and German Red

• Who - CSA members, families, friends
• What - Plant Garlic !!
• Where - @ Catalpa Ridge Farm in Wantage
• When - October 24^th, starting at 11 am
• Why - visit the farm to help out

Just RSVP via e-mailso we can send you directions, as well as plan on refreshments & lunch.

Fruit Delivery:Tonight's delivery we have some late season apples from Windy Brow Farm. Depending on your delivery site, you will be receiving either Jonathan, Empire or Fortune Apples. The Jonathan was first discovered in Ulster County, NY in the early 1800's. Its popularity has grown due to its use in several well-known crosses (Jonagold, Jonamac, Jonalicious). It has a somewhat spicy tang, crisp, juicy flesh under a thin skin. It is great for fresh eating and making applesauce. The Fortune is a product of Cornell's Agriculture Department and was first introduced in 1996. This apple is a hybrid cross between a Schoharie Spy and the Empire. It is great for fresh eating, applesauce or pie. Stores well too!

Last Delivery of the Season will be: The Week of October 25^th

End of Season Potluck Dinner

Hosted by the Hoboken Midtown CSA group, but All CSA members are invited. November 6^th @ 7:30 pm

The Yankee Clipper Boat - owned by Victoria & Richard MacKenzie-Childs anchored in the Hudson River off Sinatra Drive, Hoboken

Directions:From the Hoboken Historical Museum (1301 Hudson Street), walk toward the Hudson River, thru Shipyard Park, onto Sinatra Drive sidewalk. Enter and exit through the Iron Gate in the railing to Shipyard dog run Walk through the Shipyard dog run. Close dog run gates behind you and if a dog is present, check with the owner before entering. Step onto Pier and walk to end to go on board. NOTE:Unfortunately, the boat is not child-friendly and not set up for the safety of children under under12. Only Children 12 years and older will be able to attend. Please RSVP by October 25^th to Valerie D'Antonio (see your weekly newsletter for contact info)

She will be coordinating three categories of dishes: Ÿappetizers Ÿmain dishes Ÿdesserts

If possible, please contact her as soon as you can with the dish you will be bringing so that there will be a good variety. It is great to get together at the end of the season and to meet many of you who enjoy the harvests each week that we don't get to see on delivery day. We hope that many of you can make it.

UPCOMING EVENTS

4^th Annual Garlic Fest- Hoboken Historical Museum - 1301 Hudson Street

· Sunday October 17th 1-5 pm

Week of October 11th - 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
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery
• United Synagogue of Hoboken

Volume 15 - No 18 - Week of October 4th

October Rain !

We have been reporting all season about our struggle with drought conditions, which has occurred in past seasons as well. It has been dry with spurts of rain now & then but on Friday we made up for it all in one day! We received over 7" of rain on Friday alone and had received another ½" earlier in the week. It certainly is no fun working the rain, but duty calls!

The temperature definitely dropped on Sunday morning a low of about 42⁰. The record high for Sussex County for October 1^st was 87⁰ in 1919 and the record low was 24⁰ in 1899. I wonder what type of seasons those farmers had!

The crew continues to work on cleaning up the fields on non-harvest days. They are starting to remove the plastic from the wrapped beds.

It was great to meet some CSA members who traveled up to Olde Lafayette Village this past weekend to the Garlic Gathering.

What's up & growing:The hot weather, summer crops are "limping" along. We are trying to squeeze out another week's harvest or two out of them as long as we don't get a frost. This includes the eggplant, tomatoes and peppers. The rain, though a bit much, certainly perked up the mustards, Daikon, chard and kale. Everything that needed water was very thankful. The late potatoes are still in the field and we be digging them for the delivery first chance we get. They definitely will be in one of the final week's harvest.

Weather Report: As reported, over 7" of rain fell on Friday. This week's forecast is for more rain as well through Thursday. We hope that we don't get into a rainy trend as more work is yet to be done with 3 weeks to go for the season. Fortunately, the area where we plan on planting the garlic is one of the driest parts of the field. Last year we struggled to get the beds ready due to a wet trend.

Animal report: Everything is quiet with no problems. We are waiting to give our report on the Annual Wooly Bear Caterpillars, but have yet to see one. I don't know if they were washed away! The folklore about the Wooly Bear Caterpillars predicting the upcoming winter will be forthcoming.

TRIP to the FARM-Help Plant Garlic - Sunday October 24^th. 11 am - ??

Want to spend a day in the country and help us on the farm? We are scheduling our next work day at the farm to be a garlic planting day. Help us plant garlic for the 2011 season. We picked up some new varieties for other local farmers to plant over the weekend at the Garlic Gathering in Olde Lafayette Village. Some of them include: Porcelain, Romanian Red and German Red

• Who - CSA members, families, friends
• What - Plant Garlic!!
• Where - @ Catalpa Ridge Farm in Wantage
• When - October 24^th, starting at 11 am
• Why - visit the farm to help out

Just RSVP via e-mailso we can send you directions, as well as plan on refreshments & lunch.

Fruit Delivery:Tonight's delivery we have some Mutsu Apples from Windy Brow Farm. Mutso (also known as Crispin), is a cross between the Golden Delicious & the Indo, and arrived in the USA in the late 1940's. Its generous size & appealing color attract you to what lies within...a crisp, white, juicy flesh, with just a touch of tartness. Windy Brow offers pick your own apples until October 10^th this year or when Mother Nature decides.

UPCOMING EVENTS

4^th Annual Garlic Fest- Hoboken Historical Museum - 1301 Hudson Street

· Sunday October 17^th 1 pm - 5 pm

The END of SEASON POTLUCK is coming up. It is hosted by the Hoboken Midtown group - but all CSA members are welcome - Tentative date is November 6^th. More details to come…..

Week of October 4th - 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
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery
• United Synagogue of Hoboken

Volume 15 - No 17 - Week of September 27th

Warm Snap !

The past week brought near record highs. For this week temperatures are supposed to trend to a more seasonable range. The autumn leaves are turning early due to the combination of lack of rain & shorter days. The shorter days are also shutting down the warm weather crops, such as the eggplant, tomatoes & pepper plants.

The crew is working the fields on non-harvest days cleaning up in preparation for next year since all the planting has been done. They are taking down the trellises that supported the tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and tomatillos. Next week they should be removing the plastic from the wrapped beds.

We continue to irrigate during the week to keep the October crops ready for the deliveries. We still have tomato plants in the field and are not sure when their production will end. So far we are pleased with the production from the tomato plants this year which is in stark contrast to last year.

We are working on getting a brush-hog attachment for the tractor to get our anticipated new field in order for next year. The brush-hog clears fields by cutting down larger brush and small trees. After, we can plow the field, pick the rocks (which is just a really great job!!) and then plant a cover crop. As this we hope to have done by November. If this is all done before winter then in the early spring we can put up the fences.

What's up & growing:The winter squash, pumpkins & gourds will be coming in more now. We have leeks, turnips, chard, lettuce and radishes to be harvested in October. More onions will be delivered as they are in their curing stage on racks in the greenhouse. The garlic crop was weak this year, mostly due drought conditions. We went up to the Garlic Festival in Saugerties to get more garlic and look for seed stock and pick up new varieties, but there were slim pickings up there as well.

Weather Report: Last week was another dry week with no rain. The forecast for this week looks like rain early in the week, which will be greatly appreciated.

Animal report: There have been no signs of any of the neighborhood ground hogs or rabbits. We do hear the turkeys in the back gobbling away. It looks like they are eating acorns amongst the stand of oak trees. They are making Farmer Rich hungry thinking of Thanksgiving!

TRIP to the FARM-Help Plant Garlic

Sunday October 24^th. 11 am - ??

Want to spend a day in the country and help us on the farm? We are scheduling our next work day at the farm to be a garlic planting day. Help us plant garlic for the 2011 season. It is a great for families, as garlic is very easy to plant. Just a few extra hands and we plant plenty of garlic in just a few hours. If we had to do it ourselves it would take the better part of a week. We first start by "popping" the garlic, which is separating the individual cloves from the bulb, then we plant each clove and finally apply mulch over it. We'll also plan Farmer Sue's famous BBQ lunch to follow!! Just RSVP via e-mail so we can plan on refreshments & lunch.

Fruit Delivery: Tonight's delivery we have some Melrose Apples from Windy Brow Farm. The Melrose,(the official apple of Ohio) looks like a vintage apple, but surprisingly, it only dates back to World War 2. It's a cross between a Jonathan and a Red Delicious. Good in the kitchen since it stays firm with cooking and it doesn't need much sweetener. Windy Brow offers pick your own apples until October 10th this year.

UPCOMING EVENTS

9^th Annual Garlic Gathering- Olde Lafayette Village - Lafayette, NJ
• Saturday / Sunday October 2^nd & 3^rd 11 am - 4 pm

4^th Annual Garlic Fest- Hoboken Historical Museum - 1301 Hudson Street

· Sunday October 17^th 1 pm - 5 pm

END of SEASON POTLUCK hosted by the Hoboken Midtown group - but all CSA members are welcome - Tentative date is November 6^th. More details to come…..

Week of September 27th - 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
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery
• United Synagogue of Hoboken

Volume 15 - No 16 - Week of September 20th

Dry conditions continue !

The drought continues for another week which makes our job harder to keep up with irrigating and trying to offset crop losses. We did receive ¼" of rain and fortunately did not receive the hail storm that many farmers in the area did. It all occurred last week during the severe weather that impacted the NYC area the most. We haven't seen much publicity regarding the drought conditions, but in driving in Wanaque recently by the Monksville Reservoir, I noticed that there was practically no water in it!! It is a huge reservoir and I have never seen it as low as it was on Saturday.

The fruit trees are suffering as well. In talking with Jim @ Windy Brow it appears that the pear trees suffered greatly during the drought & didn't produce at all. This means no pears this season L. He also mentioned that the apple harvest will be winding up next week, which is way ahead of normal. He will however, be able to provide apples for our CSA deliveries until the end of the season.

The "Harvest Moon" appears on Thursday the 23rd. The full moon that appears closest to the autumnal equinox is known as the harvest moon. Though folklore has the harvest moon as gathering up the crops for the season, we have our harvests going to the end of October, though it may be a struggle.

What's up & growing:We are just planting for the end of the harvest season to help off-set some crop losses. Some arugula was planted in the greenhouse this week. In the fields the recently planted lettuce & arugula are doing well. The red mustard plants were thinned and are in tonight's delivery, which will make the remaining plants get bigger when grown to maturity. The next crop is expected to be harvested in October.

We are going to be preparing and area for garlic planting in October. Currently there are daikon radishes, turnips and cilantro in that field and as they are harvested we'll be getting that area ready. We hope to schedule another work-day at the farm for Sunday October 24th and our project will be planting garlic. More info will be forthcoming in upcoming newsletters.

Weather Report: There is a just a chance of some thunderstorms this week on Wednesday and Friday, but nothing of any consequence to help with the continued drought conditions. Temperatures will remain comfortable in the high 70's and low 80's which makes it nice to work in the fields.

Animal report: No major problems in the fields this past week. There were a few deer grazing in an area we plan to have a new field for next year. Hopefully they won't get too used to it! Also the toads abound in the greenhouse, which is a good thing as they like to feast on insects!

Fruit Delivery: Tonight's delivery we have some Greenings Apples from Windy Brow Farm. The first orchard in Massachusetts was planted around 1625 by a clergyman named William Blaxton who owned a farm on Beacon Hill in Boston. He later moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island and planted the first Rhode Island orchard in 1635. Blaxton is credited for having grown the first named apple in America. This variety is sometimes referred to as Rhode Island Greening.

UPCOMING EVENTS

9^th Annual Garlic Gathering- Olde Lafayette Village - Lafayette, NJ

• Saturday / Sunday October 2^nd & 3^rd
11 am - 4 pm

4^th Annual Garlic Fest- Hoboken Historical Museum - 1301 Hudson Street

· Sunday October 17^th 1 pm - 5 pm

END of SEASON POTLUCK hosted by the Hoboken Midtown group - but all CSA members are welcome - Tentative date is November 6^th. More details to come…..

Week of September 20th - 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
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery
• United Synagogue of Hoboken

Volume 15 - No 15 - Week of September 13th

Splash of Rain !

Sunday brought a splash of rain. Something is better than nothing, but we are still in drought conditions. NJ State DEP issued their 2nd Drought Watch this summer, the first being on August 5th and the second on September 8th. The drought conditions impact us as well as the hot weather all spring & summer. The press release posted on their website http://www.njdrought.org/ has the following statement: "According to State Climatologist David Robinson of Rutgers University, New Jersey is experiencing its warmest summer (June-August) on record since weather data has been kept starting in 1895. This followed the warmest spring on record. Every month since March has ranked in the top 10 of all time for heat, with August ranked 10th, July ranked 2nd and June as the first hottest month in the past 105 years."

Each year we hope for the perfect season, and it never seems to come. Last year was too cold & wet and this year is too hot & dry. We adapt, though it is often a struggle. Even the plants have what is called "stress" during a season like we have had. Most evident was the tomatoes which experienced extra heat stress which led to decreased production.

What's up & growing:We hope to seed some mustard & arugula in some open beds for the late October deliveries. It may be a little late but we should get something. As beds are opening up in the back field, we will prepare the beds for planting garlic. The winter squash crop looks good but the squash are small, due to the lack of water during their growing season. The crew picked quite a few this past week and will harvest more during the rest of the week. The tomatoes are slowing up, but there are still more to be harvested. The peppers and eggplant should last for another week or two, depending on the weather.

With the cooler temperatures the cherry tomato plants in our Franklin greenhouse are finally setting fruit. They have been non-producers all summer with the high temperatures. We hope they will produce for late October delivery and are protected from any frost that may take place since the plants are in the greenhouse.

On a negative side we lost most of our turnips and red meat radishes to pests. Two planting of radishes and one planting of mustard bolted with the hot temperatures. Powdery mildew wiped out the cucumber plants, almost overnight.

Weather Report: As reported earlier, just a splash of rain fell on Sunday and no further rain is in the forecast for the rest of this week. The mornings have been chilly and warm In the afternoon which makes for pleasant working in the fields. This week we were in the high 40's. Farmer Rich has been spending a lot of time moving hoses to irrigate the fields. Basically the fields are dead-dry!

Animal report: With the dry conditions, pressure from animals increases. They look for ways to break through the fence to get into the fields. One groundhog devoured the lettuce crop last week and another one just loved the yellow peach tomatoes! A trellis of tomatoes fell over because it was too heavy which left a banquet table full of tomatoes for the voles to feast on. Next year we will have to make stronger trellises.

Fruit Delivery: Tonight's delivery we have some great Cox Orange Pippin Apples from Windy Brow Farm. It is considered to be one of the best dessert apples ever! The variety originated in England and was introduced in 1825.

Week of September 13th - 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
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery
• United Synagogue of Hoboken

UPCOMING EVENTS

9^th Annual Garlic Gathering- Olde Lafayette Village - Lafayette, NJ

• Saturday / Sunday October 2^nd & 3^rd
11 am - 4 pm

4^th Annual Garlic Fest- Hoboken Historical Museum - 1301 Hudson Street

· Sunday October 17^th 1 pm - 5 pm

Volume 15 - No 14 - Week of September 6th

Low of 43 ⁰F !

We had temperature fluctuations of between 93⁰F early last week to a low of 43⁰F early in the morning this week. The crew had to harvest with gloves & sweatshirts on for a change.

Needless to say the hot weather crops have either shut down production or are "toast" now that temperatures have dipped that low.

Believe it or not the potatoes we planted late are producing. Farmer Rich checked out the potatoes that were planted the end of July when CSA members came up to the farm for a workday, and they will be ready to harvest soon!! Theoretically potatoes need to be planted early in the spring for the best production, but the ones we planted in July were stored in the cooler and either had to be planted or thrown out, so plant we did! The plants started showing their flowers a few weeks ago, which meant they were starting to produce potatoes. Once the tops of the plants start to die back, that is the signal to start the harvest. Harvesting of them will begin soon, they will be small, but we will get some potatoes from our CSA member work day!!

The hay on the upper end of our farm was finally cut by Farmer Adam and it is baled and stacked by the field that we plan on planting garlic in October. We will be planning a trip to the farm to plant garlic and will post the date in the upcoming newsletters. It is a great project to help with and an easy project to bring up the kids as well. What would take us two weeks to do, we can do in just a few hours with CSA member help.

We are always planning on the next year and we have a plan for a new back field which we hope to get started in a week or two.

What's up & growing:The planned crops for October are coming in early. The Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi should be ready to harvest soon and the additional planting of greens (other than the lettuce - see below) are doing well in the cooler weather.

Meanwhile at our Franklin greenhouse the hot peppers, eggplant & turnips are doing better than those at the farm in the field. This is of course due to the warmer temperatures in the greenhouse and being about 10-12 miles south of the farm where the low was perhaps in the low 50's instead of the low 40's.

Weather Report: Rain is still needed as the spurt that we received was good just for the short term. The forecast for the week predicts perhaps a shower on Wednesday and seasonal temperatures all week. Farmer Rich is irrigating all sections that he can. Some sections of the field aren't set up for irrigation so we have to hope to get some more rain.

Animal report: The deer that jumped the fence decided to munch only a few things and a groundhog broke in and decided to devour the lettuce. The new planting of lettuce was completely wiped out by the groundhog so not only are our October crops coming in early; the planned lettuce isn't left to harvest. After the deer snacked on a few things it laid down in the shade & took a nap!

Fruit Delivery: Tonight's delivery we have some great Molly's Delicious Apples from Windy Brow Farm. This variety was introduced in 1966 by the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.

Week of September 6th - 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
• Jersey City Hamilton Park Delivery
• United Synagogue of Hoboken

UPCOMING EVENTS

9^th Annual Garlic Gathering- Olde Lafayette Village - Lafayette, NJ

• Saturday / Sunday October 2^nd & 3^rd
11 am - 4 pm

• 4^th Annual Garlic Fest- Hoboken Historical Museum - 1301 Hudson Street

Sunday October 17^th 1 pm - 5 pm