Catalpa Ridge News–October 30, 2017

Last Delivery of the Season

It was dry during the week, except for Sunday and we did nave seasonable temperatures. We haven’t had a frost yet at the farm, though some have occurred locally in the surrounding area. It appears from the weather forecast that we will receive a heavy frost on Wednesday morning. This usually happens after a heavy rain this time of year. Luckily the frost will be arriving after the end of the seasonal deliveries.

The beds that have been harvested will all be brush-hogged and then prepare them for next season. It is a bit late to plant a cover crop now, though we probably have enough mulching on top to cover the beds before winter.

The crew planting garlic during the week and we are ready to plant more during the first weekend of November. They also finished winterizing the heated greenhouse. It is now totally covered with a new door and plastic.

Our Annual Wooly Bear Caterpillar Report. According to folklore, the wooly bear can predict how severe the winter will be. Here is an excerpt from https://www.weather.gov/arx/woollybear

• According to folklore, the amount of black on the woolly bear in autumn varies proportionately with the severity of the coming winter in the locality where the caterpillar is found.  The longer the woolly bear's black bands, the longer, colder, snowier, and more severe the winter will be.  Similarly, the wider the middle brown band is associated with a milder upcoming winter.  The position of the longest dark bands supposedly indicates which part of winter will be coldest or hardest.  If the head end of the caterpillar is dark, the beginning of winter will be severe.  If the tail end is dark, the end of winter will be cold. In addition, the woolly bear caterpillar has 13 segments to its body, which traditional forecasters say correspond to the 13 weeks of winter.

At the farm, we have equal stripes so we guess it is a toss up as to what kind of winter it will be.

The is the last delivery of the season. Thank you for supporting our farm. We look forward to seeing you again in the spring!

Catalpa Ridge News–October 22, 2017

Garlic Planting

The trees are finally showing signs of color. Better late than never! About 30% of the trees around our area dropped their leaves before even turning color. You can see on the photo of the crew planting garlic on Sunday, the ash trees have no leaves on them. Usually this time of year they would be bright scarlet in color.

We had a light frost on Tuesday morning last week and Farmer Diane just down the road was hit hard and lost a lot of her crops. This has happened before as our higher altitude protected us during this frost. The cold air flows down the mountain and the warmer air moves up the mountain and that leads to us being less impacted during the early frosts. It is only a matter of time before a season ending frost comes.

The crew planted garlic on Sunday with a perfect day to do so. Temperatures were in the 70’s and hardly a cloud in the sky. They planted over 2000 cloves of German White and Italian Purple varieties. The remaining rows will be planted over the next week or two and we hope to get 8,000-10,000 cloves planted.

Last delivery of the season will be next week.

Catalpa Ridge News–October 16, 2017

Continued Warm Temps

The weather remains warm though the cooler temperatures are on the horizon. We pulled up the cucumber and bean trellises. We brush hogged that area and the sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichokes). The sunchokes are in the delivery today. The winter squash has all been harvested and they will be in the deliveries over the next few weeks. The tomato crop appears to be at the end and the plants are ready to be pulled up soon.

The garlic beds are ready and we plan on planting soon. It will be a bit later than we have planted in years past but with the warmer temperatures we wanted to put off planting as to not promote too much growth before the cold weather. In between the white plastic rows we have a summer annual covercrop. Normally by this time it is frozen and will die back but the warm temperatures it is still growing. We may even have to cut it prior to planting the garlic.

With just two more weeks to deliver after this week, we will be getting everything that is deliverable off the fields.

Catalpa Ridge News–October 8, 2017

Autumn Conditions Slowly Approaching

This week we had temperatures in the 70’s and they reached in the 80’s over the weekend. It was even hot early in the mornings, not typical for this time of year. The lack of rain and the warm temperatures are impacting the fall foliage. In our area it appears to that the leaves are just falling off the trees without much color. For optimum autumn color, the trees normally need a nice hard-frost, and this has not occurred nor is there one in the forecast in the near future.

We are preparing garlic for planting and the beds are ready to go. It is one of the crops that get planted late in the season for harvest next year. The garlic variety in the delivery is called Music. It was named after its developer, Al Music, the farmer who switched from growing tobacco to garlic in the early 1980’s. It was developed from a strain of garlic he acquired in Italy and brought to Ontario Canada.

The winter squash are coming along and the delivery this week includes Acorn. The butternut will be delivered next week. Our late summer squash did well with some zucchini production. Another variety we have is pattypan, a uniquely shaped squash, sometimes referred to as flying saucers!

The annual Monarch butterfly migration has started as evidenced by them appearing at the farm. We seem to be on their path south to Mexico. They continue to migrate through the end of October or the first severe freeze. They search for milkweed and we have plenty at the farm. An online article on monarchwatch.org discusses the mystery of how Monarchs find the overwintering sites each year. “Somehow they know their way, even though the butterflies returning to Mexico or California each fall are the great-great-grandchildren of the butterflies that left the previous spring. No one knows exactly how their homing system works; it is another of the many unanswered questions in the butterfly world. “

Catalpa Ridge News–October 2, 2017

Cooler Temperatures Return to the Farm

Last Sunday we covered the greenhouse and the temperature was approaching the mid 90’s and on Sunday it was struggling to get to 60-degrees. We still have not received much rain. We have noticed that with the higher temperatures during last week and the lack of rain appears to be postponing the fall foliage in the area. We can see the colors subtly changing but not the big bursts of color we usually see. The apple season is upon us and there are a number of great varieties available now.

The potatoes have been harvested and will be in today’s delivery and again in the future. This week we have Adirondack Blues. The winter squash will start to be delivered next week. The sunchokes are almost ready to harvest and we anticipate them being ready in about 2 weeks. The tomatoes are pretty much done but we can probably squeeze out some more deliveries over the next few weeks, just as long as we don’t get a heavy frost. Our second planting of zucchini will probably be ready in about 2 weeks as well. All of our oriental greens in the greenhouse have some bug problems. Since we don’t spray they may become a crop loss.

We made a trip to Saugerties on Saturday to pick up some new varieties of garlic to plant for next year. A few varieties we haven’t had in a few years are: Marengo, Georgia Fire and Russian Red.

Catalpa Ridge News–September 25, 2017

Autumn Arrived

As summer has refused to leave, being 90-degrees over the weekend, we will be transitioning into autumn soon enough. In preparation of the end of the season we finally finished covering the greenhouse with new plastic. The nice thing about this project was that with the high temperatures on Sunday and virtually no wind, the crew completed the recovering and when the colder temperatures come the plastic will have a super close fit.

We are looking at another two weeks of higher than normal temperatures and no rain is in the forecast.

This week the crew started disassembling the trellises from the cucumber patch that has stopped producing and brush hogged that and the first squash field in preparation of planting a cover crop before winter. The tomatoes in the same area are slowly decreasing production and we’ll probably start pulling up those trellises over the next week. The garlic beds are all prepared and we hope to plant around the middle of October.

We have had twin deer visiting us off and on during the summer. Luckily they are staying outside the fences. They do like to watch what we are doing. We also had another visitor on Sunday, a giant praying mantis decided to sit on the tractor and see what was going on!

Catalpa Ridge News–Week of September 17, 2017

There were warmer temperatures during the week and that helped perk-up some of the crops. Our planting of zucchini are really looking good as they were helped by the warmer temps and additional tomatoes are ripening. While there are beans in tonight’s delivery the plants are pretty much shutting down for the remainder of the season. During this time of year, mid to late September, the warm weather crops start to end producing and the cold weather crops pick up. With this warm trend we can extend some of the harvest.

For field work, we have started taking down some trellises from the tomatoes and cucumber rows and started preparing those areas for next season. More beds were wrapped for planting garlic and onions for next year. This will probably be done about mid-October.

The salad greens in the greenhouse are really looking good and will start appearing in the deliveries over the next week or two. We have a variety of Red Mustard, Tokyo Bekanna, Green Mustark, and some Red Daikon, a Minosiaese cross. The Cherry Bell Radishes were a stunning crop this year, perhaps the best we have had.

It has been a good year for apples and this week we are delivering Gala apples from a local orchard.

Catalpa Ridge News–September 4, 2017

Colder Temps still @ the Farm

We had a low of 40 degrees on Saturday morning. Fortunately it was dry all week and only rained on Sunday morning. We actually had to use some irrigation during the week (only about the third time this year), to keep the crops from drying out.

The eroded field from earlier in the year has finally been put back together & we hope it won’t be a problem again. We were able to lay down new beds and actually used the bed wrapping attachment to the tractor to install the plastic and that will be used for garlic. We will also use some of the beds for spring onions and will transplant some of our perennials herbs into them. As autumn approaches we start to plan our fields for next season. Some of our beds have been tilled already and we just need to add soil amendments and fertilizer to prepare them for next year. The soil amendments add minerals and nutrients for the succeeding crops.

The Jerusalem Artichoke (Sunchokes) plants are looking good this year. We anticipate harvesting them in about one month. Winter squash may be limited to Spaghetti, Butternut and Acorn this year due to the excessive rain ruining some plantings.

The final steps to complete the repairs on the greenhouse were delayed as we had to harvest on Saturday due to the forecast for rain on Sunday and of course we had rain on Sunday. The crew did some inside work in the greenhouse

Upcoming Event – we will be at the:

Sussex County Harvest, Honey & Garlic Festival

Celebrating the best in Sussex County and Northern NJ Agritourism, Ecotourism and Heritage Tourism

October 7, 2017 - Sussex County Fairgrounds

10am-4pm

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.

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 22 No 1–June 28, 2017

Late start to the season

Better late than never! After a horrible early spring; no sun, lots of rain and cold temperatures, the harvest season has finally started. We are about 1-2 weeks behind from prior years’ start dates. Now that the warm weather has come the crops are caught up and the harvest has begun.

Farmer Rich and crew have been diligently working over the past several weeks, despite the challenging weather. The greenhouses that were full of plants for our spring heirloom plant sales are now changed over for the CSA deliveries to our corporate, Franklin & On-Farm pickup members. We gave up delivering to Hoboken this year as we can classify Farmer Rich as semi-retired.

The fields are planted with tomatoes, zucchini, cabbage, Brussel Sprouts, peppers, chard, kale and lots of different herbs. All of the plantings in the fields are our own transplants and we have a really nice variety of tomatoes and peppers. Cucumbers and winter squash were seeded last week and they are up and growing already. Some beans were planted but they aren’t doing well.

This week’s delivery is mostly greens, remember the deliveries are seasonal. The tomatoes are greenhouse ripened. The field tomatoes will be coming probably by the end of July and of course there will be many heirloom varieties.

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

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 21 No 20–October 25, 2016

Last Delivery of the Season

News from the Fields & Farm:  Tonight is the last delivery of the season. Thanks to all CSA members for supporting our farm.

 

The seasons always come with a fair share of frustration and this season was no different with the drought conditions during most of the harvest year. Our crew is the best and we thank them as well for their dedicated work ethic during the harvest year as well as their pre-season and post-season work. 

 

The fields will be cleaned up by the crew starting next week and we have them work until it gets too cold to work outside.

 

Franklin Greenhouse Report:

We always like to save several items to the end of the season protected in the greenhouse as we never know what the weather will be like for the final week. This worked out perfectly this year as the chard, beets & peppers were harvested from the greenhouse.

 

Weather report: We did have a mild frost at the farm. Last year around this time we had a low of 21 degrees. Most of the farms in the area did suffer crop losses, though we were not severely affected. Perhaps it is our altitude that helps us out. Saturday was very cold, rainy and windy. It was difficult to start to put the delivery together.

 

We received about ½” of rain during the week and we hope it is enough to get the ground wet enough to till up the beds to plant garlic.

Sunday morning was still cold and the winds did diminish so the crew went to the fields to harvest what was left for the last delivery of the season.

 

Garlic Planting in November:

We are planning a trip to the farm to plant garlic for next year. The date will be in November (date to be set) we will start around 11 am. It is a great family activity as well. We start by “popping” the garlic. This is simply separating the garlic bulbs into their individual cloves.

 Then we head to the field for planting. The final step is to spread straw over the planted garlic to help protect them from the winter weather. In just an hour or two with the extra help we can plant thousands of cloves. When we are finished, we plan on having a late picnic lunch.

 

If you are interested, just send us an email and we will send you directions and of course the date.

 

Thank you for your support!

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 21 No 19–October 18, 2016

Frost at the Farm !

News from the Fields & Farm:  We had a low of 29 degrees at the farm and two of the fields were covered with a heavy frost. Fortunately most of the tomatoes were already harvested and the peppers were covered in the field.

 

Most of next week’s delivery will come out of the Franklin Greenhouse and any of the cold-hardy crops still in the field. We plan on also delivering butternut squash. We should also have some green onions and baby leeks. We hope to also be able to harvest the beet greens.

 

The crew cleared out the back field and harvested the sunchokes. That area was noticeably dry as most of the season has been in drought mode.

 

Weather report: The frost did come over the weekend. This week they are predicting 80 degree weather! Interestingly, in looking at the weather history in Sussex, the record high was 84-degreens in 1963 and the record low of 20-degrees in 1978 on the 18^th of October. We had a trace of rain during the week.

 

Retro Picture! Michael & his brother Kevin in 2002:

It was taken after garlic planting at the farm and It was snowing that day.

 

Jersalem Artichoke (Sunhoke) Wikipedia notes: The Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), also called sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple or topinambour, is a species of sunflower native to eastern North America. Jerusalem artichokes were first cultivated by the Native Americans long before the arrival of the Europeans; this extensive cultivation obscures the exact native range of the species.[2] The French explorer Samuel de Champlain found domestically grown plants at Cape Cod in 1605.

The tubers are sometimes used as a substitute for potatoes:[13] they have a similar consistency, and in their raw form have a similar texture, but a sweeter, nuttier flavor; raw and sliced thinly, they are fit for a salad. Their inulin form of carbohydrates give the tubers a tendency to become soft and mushy if boiled, but they retain their texture better when steamed.

Storage tips for your Sunchokes: Best stored in a cool, dry, well-ventilated area away from light. We prefer to store them in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator; wrapped in paper towels and sealed in a plastic bag.

 

Last Delivery of the Season Next Week October 25^th.

Catalpa Ridge News - Volume 21 No 18–October 11, 2016

 

Fresh Ginger !

 

News from the Fields & Farm:  We had some nice weather over the end of last week then it turned cold and rainy on Sunday. This was just in time to harvest the delivery.

 

The Sussex Harvest, Honey & Garlic Festival was great and the attendance surpassed prior years. We did get to meet some of our local members.

 

You will be receiving some fresh Ginger, just harvested from the Franklin Greenhouse. Overall we were pleased with the outcome. We have to start the ginger in February/March and it takes about 8 months to get to the point it is ready to harvest. It does have to be grown in the heated greenhouse and goes through a few different stages during the early planting cycle.

 

Some Culinary tips for using your fresh ginger:   Grate ginger for stir-frys, sauces & dressings.

 

Slice into “coins”, then whack each coin to break up the fibers and release the ginger essence, heat oil in your sauce pan or wok and let ginger stir-fry for 30 seconds (stir-fry longer for a stronger ginger flavor, but do not allow to burn) – add your GARLIC and you have a start to a classic Oriental stir-fry.

Use a vegetable peeler to peel paper-thin slices of the ginger root, then slice thinly and add as a condiment to soups, dumplings, fresh vegetable dishes.

Make homemade Ginger Ale!

 

Believe it or not, the tomatoes and peppers continue to produce in the fields. In speaking with some of our members and customers from our Spring Heirloom Plant sales, their tomato and pepper production has been exception this year as well.

 

Here are some peppers in the lower field:

 

A few Green Zebra tomatoes on the vine:

 

Weather report: A frost advisory has been issued for Sussex County from Monday evening through Tuesday morning. Hopefully our fields will be unaffected.

 

Last Delivery of the Season will be the last Tuesday of October; October 25^th.

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 21 No 17–October 4, 2016

 

Garlic Fest Saturday in Sussex!

 

News from the Fields & Farm:  We had a rainy, cool week. The tomato harvest continues which is great to have heirlooms this late in the season. The tomato plants are close to shutting down now that the cooler shorter days are here. We are hoping for another week.

 

We had the second new moon in one month with the “Black Moon” appearing on Sept 30^th. A black moon is opposite of a blue moon (a second full moon in the same calendar month).

 

We headed up to Saugerties, NY to the annual Garlic Festival on Saturday. We like to pick up some new varieties to try in the fields for next year. We were surprised that there wasn’t too much color change in the fall foliage up there yet (Saugerties is about 90 miles away). Many are speculating that the drought the area has been having (along with Northern NJ) will mute the autumn foliage colors. The leaves may actually turn brown and fall off the trees before they reach their peak color.

 

Garlic bed preparation will begin soon. We have to select an area that has loose, good draining soil and check the soil nutrition. Garlic grows best in nitrogen rich soil. Once the beds are ready we can start to plant. Here is a look at how we plant the garlic:

 

Franklin Greenhouse Report: Status quo at the Franklin Greenhouse. The only new item that we will be harvesting from this greenhouse are the Diakon Radishes. We are holding off harvesting the beets in the greenhouse with the hopes that they will size up better. Otherwise, the beet greens are gorgeous.

 

Weather report: About ½” of rain feel during the week. Though the fields are wet, the rain really hasn’t helped with the overall drought conditions.

 

Kabocha Squash – Interesting information from Wikipedia: “Portuguese sailors introduced the kabocha to Japan in 1541, bringing it with them from Cambodia. The Portuguese name for the squash Cambodia abóbora (カンボジャ・アボボラ), was shortened by the Japanese to kabocha.”

 

Upcoming Event Saturday 10 am – 4 pm: 

 

Sussex County Harvest, Honey & Garlic Festival – October 8 – 10 am – 4 pm Sussex Fair Grounds – Augusta, NJ.

 

Make a trip to Sussex County on Saturday and enjoy a “Stinkin Day” of Fun!

 

The Sussex County Harvest, Honey & Garlic Festival will celebrate the agri‑ecotourism, arts & heritage of New Jersey's great northwest with displays & info about northern NJ's open spaces. We will have garlic at this event!

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 21 No 16–September 27, 2016

Zucchini Surprise !

 

News from the Fields & Farm: 

All of a sudden our late planting of zucchini came to life! They got away from us and most are rather large but excellent this time of year for baking up into zucchini bread, stuffed zukes, etc. It is probably the latest in the season that we have delivered zukes. Farmer Rich says the plants still look good so we may actually be able to harvest another crop.

 

 

The rain we received early in the week has helped with the field crops. With the shorter days, the moisture is holding better in the soil.

 

The sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichokes) are close to harvest, perhaps in about two weeks. The tomato crop continues to produce which is quite late in the season.

 

We planned on harvesting kale for tonight’s delivery but the plants were not harvestable. There was an overnight attack of cabbage worms that destroyed most of the crop.

The autumnal equinox came on September 22^nd and now the days are getting shorter and the temperatures are starting to drop. We had a low of 37^◦ on Sunday morning when the crew started harvesting. It wasn’t as cold as anticipated, but still cool enough for gloves and flannel shirts.

 

The first of the pumpkins are being delivered this week. Variety Name is Sugar Pumpkin. You can cook it up for a nice soup or simply use for seasonal decoration.

 

Franklin Greenhouse Report: Nothing new is going on at the Franklin Greenhouse. The tomatoes and peppers plants are still producing. We plan on harvesting beets next week.

 

Weather report: We received about ½” of rain fell during the week. The leaves on the trees are just starting to turn color so we are a few weeks away from really ideal fall foliage colors.

 

Upcoming Event:  

 

Sussex County Harvest, Honey & Garlic Festival – October 8 – 10 am – 4 pm Sussex Fair Grounds – Augusta, NJ. The Sussex County Harvest, Honey & Garlic Festival will celebrate the agri‑ecotourism, arts & heritage of New Jersey's great northwest with displays & info about northern NJ's open spaces. We will have garlic at this event!

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 21 No 15–September 20, 2016

 

Harvest Moon !

 

News from the Fields & Farm: 

The Harvest Moon came on the 16^th. It is followed by the Hunter's Moon, the Beaver Moon and the Cold Moon to round out the year. We had a super cool morning on the 16^th, and 17^th – about 42◦. Then the days warmed up with the morning temps around 70◦ on Sunday. The Autumn Equinox is on the 22^nd and the days will then become shorter. We have already seen some of the trees starting to change color.

 

The crew is starting to map out where the garlic beds will be for planting in October. We plan on preparing a number of beds for both hard and soft neck garlic varieties to be planted mid to late October. We do like to rotate the beds each year to avoid problems with a combination of nutrients and soil borne diseases.

 

We will attempt to replant the greenhouse on the farm with more salad greens.

 

Lucille Fryer Peppers in the field:

 

Franklin Greenhouse Report: We are still harvesting from the greenhouse; tomatoes, chard, hot peppers

and the eggplant plants have shut down. With only 5 more weeks after this week we will not be replanting into this greenhouse but will continue weekly harvests.

 

Weather report: We managed to get some rain this past week; probably about 1/2'”. We generally remain in drought conditions along with the rest of northern NJ. The northern NJ district reservoirs are only about 60% full. This is about 10% below the 1962-2010 average for the same time period. This year we had the 9^th driest August since records were kept back to 1895 as noted on the Rutgers chart below:

 

We did have a brief rainstorm on Sunday just as the crew was finishing the delivery.

Catalpa Ridge News–Volume 21 No 14–September 13, 2016

 

Hot Weather Returns!

News from the Fields & Farm: 

It is now early September and we are having record high temperatures. We have had to cut back on the hours as it is too hot to work by late morning. The crew is working diligently between 7 am -  11 am each day.

 

It appears we have an abundance of butternut squash this year. We anticipate starting to deliver them next week. We are still good with tomatoes as most of the plants are still producing. The cucumber plants have shut down but we do have a new planting going in.

 

Newly transplanted beets & escarole:

 

Franklin Greenhouse Report: The chard is almost ready to harvest and the beets should be ready in a few weeks. We also have some Daikon radishes doing well. We are trying some South American Sunchokes in the greenhouse. They usually don’t get harvested until very late in the season. This variety is called Oca (originally grown by the Incas).

Cipollini’s curing in the greenhouse:

 

Weather report: In addition to the heat reported earlier, we are also having another dry spell. We were fortunate to receive about ½” of rain during the week. This was both good and bad. The good is that the general crops perked up and the bad was that many of the heirlooms and cherry tomatoes split on the vine after receiving the rain. Since it was so dry and then the switch to the rain they take a lot of water in and split or as we like to say, we have “salsa in the field”. It is unfortunate that this affected the cherry tomatoes this week. Luckily the heirlooms on today’s delivery were harvested prior to the rain.