Farm News 9/17/08

Hello Everyone! As I predicted the bountiful rain of last weekend has worked miracles on my fields. The fall brassicas and lettuces are growing spectacularly and the many thousands of seeds I planted before the storm have germinated nicely.

I am taking advantage of the moist soil to continue planting more radishes, turnips, spinach, arugula and other mustard greens. Very soon I will have finished planting the last seeds of the season (with the exception of cover crop seed!) and I will be able to turn my attention to harvesting the acres of potatoes and winter squash which will soon be ready.

We are still transplanting lettuces, escarole, endive, and radicchio but the last of those will be in the ground within the next 2 weeks. We have harvested the last of the melons and there will be enough for distribution once more this week. There are mostly cantaloupes, honey dews and canary melons and they are a little smaller than and perhaps not as sweet as the earlier ones.

We are shipping celery again this week and, as you may have noticed from the previous delivery, they are a little different than what you are accustomed to buying at the supermarket. The outer stalks have a very strong flavor and are not especially tender; these are great for cooking in soups or stews. The inner heart should be acceptable for eating raw in salads.

We have begun harvesting wax beans although not in huge quantities just yet, so there will be a smaller quantity in the share for this week. Lima beans and edamame soybeans in 2 weeks!

The share for this week will be: Red lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, white onions, garlic, wax beans, choice of celery or fennel (mostly celery), beets, melons, sweet corn (non-organic) and choice of an herb.

Enjoy! Farmer John

Farm News 9/10/08

Well, we finally received the much needed rain that we’ve been waiting on. A little over 2″ fell overnight this past Saturday. I had pretty much known that our best chance for a good soaking would be from a hurricane, but I dreaded the potential damage of high winds and severe downpours that can accompany this type of storm.

Fortunately we had very little high wind and the rain, although heavy at times, was mostly a good steady shower. I rode the tractor planting as many seeds as I could on Friday ahead of the storm. Now with the ground well drenched the seeds should start to germinate rapidly and the thousands of recently set out plants should begin to grow vigorously. Best of all we get a break from moving sprinklers around 3 times a day.

We are still heavy on Rattlesnake beans, although I think the quality has gone down a bit, mostly due to the dry conditions. The plants had also stopped flowering, but now with adequate soil moisture should begin producing again. We also have a crop of yellow wax beans coming on; they were flowering heavily and should be ready to pick for next week. We also have Edamame soybeans and lima beans that should be ready in 2 or 3 weeks.

We are still harvesting melons; now more honey dews (some of these are orange) and canary melons, but still a few cantaloupes and Galias. There is also an ivory fleshed variety known as Ananas melons which are extremely sweet and delicious. And we still have lots of tomatoes!

The share for this week will be: Red potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, red onions, lettuce, Rattlesnake beans, carrots, choice of red or green cabbage, melons, choice of cherry tomatoes or ground cherries, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy! Farmer John

Farm News 9/3/08

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all enjoyed a pleasant Labor Day. There won’t be much of a holiday for us here on the farm. With a market and deliveries to prepare for, a day off just isn’t possible, although we will try to knock off a little earlier than usual. Dry conditions persist with only a brief tease of a shower on Friday evening. We are all getting tired of moving the sprinklers around, but it’s the only way to keep moving forward with the transplanting and seeding.

We are almost finished with the transplanting but I will continue to sow seeds though most of September. As it turned out we had enough watermelons to ship to all groups last week, although the watermelon harvest is now essentially over, thanks to the crows. This week we will be sending mostly cantaloupes, galia and Korean melons, and a few honey dews. Tomatoes continue to ripen abundantly but most of the plants in the field have a serious blight problem, so production will probably start to drop off rapidly in a couple of weeks. I am spraying them with an organic fungicide called Sporan which contains essential oils of rosemary and clove, but it may already be too late, so enjoy them while they last!

The share for this week will be: French fingerling potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, white onions, garlic, zucchini, melons, lettuce, string beans, choice of cherry tomatoes or ground cherries, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy! Farmer John

Farm News 8/26/08

Hello Folks,
Another week has passed without rain and it’s beginning to make life a bit challenging down here on the farm. As I mentioned previously we are in the midst of a heavy direct seeding and transplanting cycle and both are greatly facilitated by a bit of moisture in the soil.

We have been moving the sprinklers around to water in the thousands of brassica (broccoli, cabbage, etc-pay attention!) transplants we put in last week and they have rooted and are beginning to grow. But the soil is so dry that I am unable to plant seed, because the mechanical seeders that I use won’t set the seed properly in dust. I am forced to irrigate the beds I have prepared before planting and then again a day or two later if it hasn’t rained.

The winter squash field looks great; we have managed to beat the grasses and they are beginning to set lots of fruit, but the size of the squash will be much larger if we get some rain soon. There are also many varieties of potatoes still growing in the field that could use a little water to fatten them up.

Tomatoes are ripening up prodigiously, so expect lots of tomatoes for the next few weeks. Melons have begun ripening in great numbers as well, but unfortunately I am having a terrible problem with the crows. About 2 weeks back they began poking holes in the watermelons, even before they were ripe, and have now destroyed hundreds of fruit of different varieties. We will begin to deliver melons over the next 2 weeks in a rotation amongst the groups as availability allows. There will be a choice among cantaloupes, watermelons, gala melons, honey dews, and a Korean melon called Sun Jewel. These last have an elongated shape like an overgrown cucumber and are yellow with white stripes. They are quite sweet and have a crisp flesh somewhat like a pear. The dark green watermelons are Sugar Babies with red flesh and the striped ones are yellow.

We are still heavy on beans so look for a generous helping again this week. Ground cherries have begun falling in large numbers and will make their debut in the share this week. For the uninitiated Ground cherries are in the tomato family, and are closely related to the tomatillo, with a similar paper husk around the fruit, but they are quite sweet and have a unique flavor. They fall off the plant when they are ripe and we gather them off the ground, hence the name. They are also known as Cape gooseberries or Husk tomatoes. Slip them from their paper shell and eat them out of hand or in salads; they make great snacks for kids.

The share for this week will be: Potatoes, red onions, string beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, choice of a root vegetable (carrots, beets, or radishes), melons (maybe) and choice of cherry tomatoes or ground cherries. These last 2 items come in a plastic clamshell which I would like to reuse, so if you wish you can return them to the pickup site for recycling.

Thanks and Enjoy! Farmer John

Farm News 8/20/08

Hi Folks,

The mild summer weather continues, leaving me with little to complain about on that front! We could use some rain though, as the scattered thunderstorms we experienced this past week came and went quickly and served only to interrupt our field work. Much of the crew’s time this week was again spent on bean picking.

The rattlesnake pole beans have begun producing and the early bush beans are still providing a third and final harvest. Expect to receive a double dose in the share for this week. Beans freeze well, but need to be blanched in boiling water or steamed for a minute or two, to destroy enzymes which breakdown the vitamins. After blanching plunge them into cold water and then place them in zip lock bags to freeze.

We have hit a gap in our lettuce production at present with the next planting still a couple of weeks from harvest. I have tried to obtain some from other local farms, but everyone seems to be in the same boat, there just isn’t any local lettuce available. Other greens too are in short supply. My Swiss chard beds have been over cut and need to rest and regenerate a bit and the kale has been decimated by both a pesky insect called the flea beetle and a pesky mammal known as a ground hog.I have been addressing both issues and with cooler weather ahead the plants should begin to again produce good quality leaf. I

am also busy planting spinach, arugula, and other mustard greens which we will start to harvest in about 5 weeks. This past week we planted thousands of broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seedlings which will be ready in mid October and into November. The share for this week will be: Potatoes, onions, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, string beans, garlic, either summer squash or eggplant, and choice of basil or parsley.

Enjoy! Farmer John

Farm News 8/12/08

Hello Everyone,

I hope you have all been enjoying the beautiful weather this past week. The mild temperatures for early August are quite a pleasant surprise and have made the hard work my crew and I do a bit more bearable.

It seemed as though most of the crew’s time this week was spent picking beans which are producing quite prolifically. There are hundreds of pounds stored in the new cooler and many of them are French filet beans, haricot verts.

We have also been busy trying to catch up with the trellising and tying of tomatoes which had been neglected due to our preoccupation with the garlic and onion harvest. And we also needed to turn our attentions to part of the winter squash patch which was in danger of being overtaken by the grass in the former hayfield.

Another important task during this past week has been moving tables and other infrastructure, putting up shelves, and generally organizing, as we make the transition to working out of the barn where the new cooler has been completed.

August marks the beginning of a new round of intensive planting in the field, as we begin to sow all of the cool weather crops such as spinach, radishes, turnips, arugula and other mustard greens, for the fall harvest. We are also still busy planting lettuces, brassicas, and chicories in the greenhouse. This week we will be trying to transplant broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower plants that we started in late June.

Tomatoes are starting to come in a bit heavier now and I believe there will be enough for at least one or two per share in the distribution this week. Very soon I expect the flood gates to open and we will have large quantities of tomatoes to ship.

The share for this week will be: White onions, peppers, eggplant, carrots, haricot verts, tomatoes, sweet corn (conventional), choice of fennel or celery, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!
Farmer John

Farm News 8/6/08

Hi Folks,

Murphy’s Law ruled again this past week, with various problems with tractors, and the refrigeration unit on my box truck. After having spent $1800 to set up 3 phase electric to run the reefer unit on my truck, when we plugged it in everything ran in reverse. After the electrician finished making some changes it wouldn’t run at all, and now the diesel engine won’t run either.

The electrician swears that everything is correctly installed and says that the problem is with the unit. So now I must somehow find time to drop the truck off in Carlstadt for Thermo king to check it over.

But the weather has been good, with reasonable temps and adequate rainfall. The crops are mostly growing nicely and we have started picking a few tomatoes; which means we should have sufficient quantities to distribute soon, perhaps by next week.

The share for this week will be: Potatoes, red lettuce, summer squash, cucumbers, garlic, cabbage (red or savoy), string beans, Swiss chard or kale, peppers, beets or radishes, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!
Farmer John

Farm News 7/31/08

Hello everyone,

The good news for this week is that we received some much needed rain. The bad news is that now we’re getting a little too much rain at a time when we are trying to harvest the garlic and onion crop.

It certainly seemed that Murphy’s Law was in full effect this week. My lead worker who drives the trucks and moves both the workers and the harvest to where they need to be, contracted Lyme’s Disease this past week and was out for most of the week. The under cutter blade which I use to pass under the garlic to loosen it for harvest, broke when I was half through the task. The pickup truck broke down in the middle of a field, where it had to be pulled out with a tractor.

But as always, we forge ahead, dealing with each new challenge as it arises. The onion crop looks good although some varieties are a bit smaller than I would have liked, owing too not having had electricity to run the irrigation pump in one particular field for the past 5 weeks.

The beans have begun to produce and peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes will be starting soon. There are potatoes ready to be dug, but with picking beans and finishing the onion harvest there just isn’t time to harvest them for this week’s delivery.

The share for this week will be: Oak leaf lettuce, kohlrabi, carrots, sweet onions (one more time!), string beans, cucumbers or summer squash, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Farm News 7/22/08

Hi Folks,

Hot enough for you? It was a rough week for my workers and me, trying to work in this heat.  And most of the plants, even the heat loving ones, don’t really thrive above 90 degrees. It’s been dry as well, with several promised thunderstorms failing to materialize; we haven’t had a good rain in several weeks.

At this writing it is just beginning to rain a bit, so hopefully my thirsty plants will get a good drenching. I just finished planting some string beans so a good soaking rain is just the ticket to germinate them quickly. I have finished framing the new cooler and hope to have it up and running by the end of the week. I imagine it will quickly be filled, as there are several thousand heads of lettuce and cabbage that will need to be harvested ASAP.

We will be including beets in the share this week, some will be the regular red type, but there will also be white beets and an Italian heirloom called Chioggia. These are also known as Candy cane beets and are white with red rings inside. We will also be sending radicchio, mostly of the trevisio type, which has the form of a romaine lettuce. We will be shipping sweet onions again this week as we have quite an abundance of them, and as previously mentioned they don’t store well.

We have come to the end of the pea season, with only the snow peas continuing to flower and produce. The green beans are full of flowers and tiny beans and I expect to begin picking by next week. The cucumbers are beginning to come in as well, although not in sufficient quantities for all groups, so we will begin a rotation with the summer squash over the next few weeks.

The share for this week will be:  Romaine lettuce (green or red), radicchio, summer squash or cucumbers, Swiss chard, sweet onions, cabbage, garlic, beets, and choice of 2 herbs (cilantro, parsley or basil.)

Enjoy!

Farmer John

The Westfield Area CSA was Featured in the Star Ledger!

We keep getting lots of great press!  Enjoy!

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/_csa13_1.html