Hello Folks,

The weather looks good for the week ahead so perhaps this means we have reached the end of the monsoon season here in the Northeast.  With abundant sunshine and some moderate heat the warm weather crops should begin to grow rapidly.

The summer squash has recovered from the hail damage and is beginning to produce prolifically. The tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are beginning to flower, so we should have these in another 3 or 4 weeks. The sweet potatoes, cucumbers and beans are growing nicely, although the main bean crop was planted about 2 weeks later than planned, so it could be awhile until beans are abundant.The broccoli crop is still coming in heavily so we should have broccoli to deliver for the next 2 shares.

The pea patch, which looked so beautiful and promising for the longest time has succumbed to the one two punch of hail and repeated rains. Most of the dwarf varieties, which are not trellised, were flattened and the developing pods ended up against the soil under a mat of wet vegetation making them quite ugly if not completely rotten. This has been an especially bad problem with the sugar snaps since they are eaten whole. I hope to have peas in the shares for the next 2 weeks, but I can’t make any promises as to the quantities or quality.

By the way, I promise not to open next week’s update with a weather report or mention the hail storm again!

You will have a choice this week of baby salad turnips or red skinned turnips, which are generally cooked. I suspect than many of you may be tired of the radish and turnip rotation by now, so I wanted to reassure you that this will be the last until the fall, and that carrots and beets are coming! If you still have your radishes, take the tops off and they will keep for weeks until you find a use for them (this is true for the turnips as well). Radishes can be cooked in stir fries or soups and lose much of their spiciness in the process. One idea for getting your family to eat turnips is to make fritters out of them substituting them for potatoes in a potato pancake recipe.

The share for this week will be: Peas, scallions, summer squash, Oak leaf lettuce, choice of tatsoi or kale, turnips, choice of dill or cilantro, and kohlrabi (broccoli for those groups who got kohlrabi last week).

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Hi Folks,

Well it seems that we are in for another week of scattered thunderstorms.  Hopefully it won’t be quite as bad as this past month has been.

We were caught out in the field several times this past week as strong storms rolled through unexpectedly. They always seem to come at the most inopportune times, such as in the middle of transplanting or with me on the tractor in one field and my workers scattered around in others and needing to be picked up.

We were finally able to transplant the melons this past week and a few thousand lettuce plants.  We were interrupted  by one of the storms while planting the lettuce and a dozen or so flats had to be left  in the barn out of sun (sun? what sun?) for several days because they had already been pulled from their cells. We were finally able to finish the job on Saturday evening; working around a couple of passing showers and plodding through the mud.

In spite of the difficult weather many crops are doing great and have recovered fairly well from the hail damage.  The carrot crop looks good and we should have them in the share in another 2 or 3 weeks. The beets are coming along and should start sizing up soon as well. The Chinese (napa) cabbage is heading up and should be ready in 2 weeks. In the meantime there’s lots of broccoli coming on and it should be in the shares for the next several weeks.

The share for this week will be: Radishes, mustard greens, broccoli, peas, red leaf lettuce, choice of escarole or endive, bok choy, and choice of cilantro or dill.

Enjoy!
Farmer John

Hello Everyone,

The cool wet weather continues to make life difficult here on the farm. Unfortunately I have an even worse weather phenomenon to report. On Monday evening the Andover farm was hit by a quite severe hailstorm. Virtually all of the crops in these fields were damaged. The plants with softer leaves, such as lettuce, spinach, and other greens suffered the worst damage. About 20% of the tomato plants were damaged beyond recovery. The peppers which were flowering and beginning to set fruit, had all the flowers and fruit ripped off.  The pea plants were flattened and the peas are pockmarked with white spots.  The bok choy, which looked beautiful and which I expected to deliver in the share this week, has had most of the outside leaf destroyed. The summer squash which was just beginning to fruit has lost all of the large outer leaves and the young fruit are riddled with holes.

What this means for the CSA members is that greens will be rather scarce for the next 2 or 3 weeks. Lettuces, cauliflower and broccoli will be smaller than usual. It also means that the warm weather crops, such as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant will be delayed by at least 2 weeks from their normal start date of late July.

It was truly heartbreaking to see the damage to so many crops that were growing so beautifully and that we have worked so hard to plant and maintain.  I confess that I am quite discouraged and disheartened, but I don’t give up easily.  We will forge ahead, make the best of what is left, and replant those crops which we are able.

In last weeks update I mentioned spraying, which prompted an inquiry from one of the members. Since I imagine there are others who may be concerned about this issue, I thought I should address it. I have at times heard conventional farmers say that one of their crops is organic. When asked to explain they say that since there was no need to spray that crop it became organic. In the same way that simply not spraying a crop does not make it organic, spraying a crop does not preclude it from being organic. Almost all organic farmers use sprays to control insects and disease, as well as for foliar feeding.

As a certified organic farm we are allowed to use various products which are approved for organic production by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) and reviewed and evaluated by OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute). These products may be elemental, such as copper or sulfur, which are fungicidal or biological such as bacillus thuringensis (Bt) which affect only Lepidoptera family insects (caterpillars).  They may also be natural insecticides derived from plants such as pyrethrum, which is derived from a chrysanthemum, or neem oil from the seeds of the Neem tree.

All of these products breakdown quickly, are not persistent in the environment, and have low toxicity to humans and other animals. One of my favorite products as a fungicide is called Sporan which contains essential oils of clove, rosemary and wintergreen. It works well and it smells great too! While there are cultural methods employed to minimize pest problems such as crop rotation, there are still times when pests can do sufficient damage to seriously reduce yields or render a crop unmarketable. Timely spraying, done when pests first arrive or emerge (many overwinter in the soil) can do much to control the problem before populations explode out of control. While I have spoken to a few organic farmers who say that they don’t spray, I believe that what they are guaranteeing their customers is produce laced with holes and worms in their broccoli or cabbage. I have also spoken to the members of one of these farms and been told about all the crops they don’t receive.

I strictly adhere to the rules governing what is allowed in organic production and do not spray any crop that is close to being harvested.

The share for this week will be: Escarole, Red leaf lettuce, broccoli, baby salad turnips (edible tops) and peas.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Hello Everyone and Happy Spring!

Welcome to the first installment of the 2009 farm updates. I’m a bit late getting this out, but April was a very hectic month. We’ve been busy in the greenhouse since early March planting seed for the many crops that are transplanted out into the field, from broccoli and cabbage to tomatoes and peppers. The early spring was not quite as cold as it was last year and not quite as wet as it can sometimes be, but it was quite gray. With many days in a row without sunshine the plants seemed to grow extremely slowly. One of the challenges that come along with gray weather is watering; without sunshine the soil in the flats stays too wet and with cool nights can lead to damping off, a fungal disease of the roots. We experienced a bit of this with the lettuce plants but with a little care most of them have recovered and almost caught up with the others. Of course the 4 day April heat wave we just experienced was another kind of challenge; keeping me running back an forth between the 2 greenhouses I am using, trying to keep everything from burning up!

In early April I began planting peas and fava beans in the field, all of which have come up nicely and are growing well. I calculate that I have planted about 15,000 row ft. or nearly 3 miles of these crops. The next step is to finish putting up some fencing around this field before the plants are tall enough to be attractive to the deer (the theme of a bad dream I had just last night!).

At the end of last week we transplanted thousands of cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower plants in a marathon session through drizzle and sometimes heavier rain. Having waited until after the heat broke I was anxious to get these plants in the ground ahead of more rain.

One of this weeks major tasks will be setting out the thousand of lettuce, radicchio, and escarole plants that have also been waiting in the wings for the heat to abate. We have so far planted about 1500 lbs. of potatoes (1500 to go) and 40,000 onion plants (20,000 to go). The garlic and shallots which were planted last fall have come up well and are growing beautifully. Now is the time for direct seeding many of the root crops and greens.

In the next week I will be planting carrots parsnips, radishes, spinach, chard, arugula and many other types of mustard greens. The wet weather predicted will of course make this difficult, but one has to watch for windows when the soil dries out enough just before the next round of rain begins. It hasn’t been an easy spring here on the farm but then again it never is; on the whole I think we’re on track for a good season.

Thanks to all those who came out to help cover the greenhouse on April 18^th, and to those who helped with transplanting this past weekend. Your help is greatly appreciated! Next chance is this Sunday as we try again to cover the big high tunnel greenhouse. Keep your fingers crossed for calm winds and no rain!

Farmer John

Farm Update #8

Hello Everyone,

Well I have finally finished planting the winter squash and the edamame soybeans. Better late than never is an expression that doesn’t quite work in farming, but with a little rain and plenty of sun for these next 2 months there should still be a decent harvest. The varieties which were seeded first have germinated well and I have already cultivated them twice, since the grass in this former hayfield is also germinating quite prolifically.

With this major task behind me I expect to have time to begin constructing the new cooler. At present I have green, red and Savoy cabbage ready in the field and all of them will have to be harvested very soon or they will begin to split. So unless I include 3 heads of cabbage in next week’s share, we will need to store them for the next couple of weeks. The Chinese cabbage which I expected to be ready weeks ago has mostly bolted and is not useable. I am planting more for the fall harvest when the cool weather will insure a successful harvest.

We are continuing to harvest cauliflower and have quite a bit of a yellow variety called Cheddar and a purple variety as well as the traditional white type. I hope to have enough for everyone this week, but if not will send cabbage instead. Peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant are all flowering profusely, so it should be just another couple of weeks before we begin harvesting these summer favorites.

This week we will be shipping a variety of sweet onion called Walla Walla. They are rather large and very mild but they do not store well so use them up quickly. We will begin delivering garlic next week. The peas are coming to an end but there should be sufficient quantities for delivery this week. The green beans are growing beautifully and should be beginning to produce in 2 weeks. We still have radishes and both salad turnips and red skinned turnips in abundance, and so there will be a choice of these again this week. Beets will begin next week with carrots to follow.

The share for this week will be: Summer squash, sweet onions, peas, lettuce, choice of turnips or radishes, choice of Swiss chard or kale, cauliflower or cabbage, and choice of an herb- dill, cilantro, or basil.

Enjoy! Farmer John

Hi Folks,

It was another hectic week at the farm, but a lot was accomplished. One of the major projects that has been worrying me for the last several weeks was the laying of a waterline 500 ft. across horse paddocks, to get water to the crops planted in my newly rented field. There are eggplant, peppers, ground cherries, melons, and other crops planted in this field in plastic mulch covered beds. The plants have been growing well for the last few weeks but will grow much faster with water running through the drip tape. On Wednesday we rented a trenching machine and were able to complete 95% of the ditch. Unfortunately we encountered an old concrete slab in our path and will have to rent a jack hammer next week to complete the job. On Thursday we finished laying the PVC pipe as far as we could and for the time being we have temporarily bridged the gap with 2” hose. So finally we have irrigation capability and I expect that we should start seeing peppers and eggplant in 3-4 weeks. My new delivery driver Richard was able to obtain the correct refrigerant and charge the system on my box truck, so I now have working refrigeration. The next hurdle (in this particular arena at least) is finding a solution to the need for 3 phase electric power to run the compressor rather than a diesel engine. This option would give be extra backup cooler space, something I have badly needed during these past few weeks of bolting lettuces and an overflowing cooler. The next major project that looms ahead is the construction of another walk-in cooler in the barn of the newly rented farm. And there was actually still time to get some planting done! I have almost completed planting the pumpkins and winter squash and I expect to finish as well as plant the edamame soybeans this week. We have also been busy in the greenhouse- planting all of the same cool weather crops (broccoli, cabbage, etc.) for the fall that we are currently harvesting from the spring planting.
I hope you have been enjoying lots of salads because there will be 2 heads of lettuce in the share again this week. I have to make room in the cooler! The share for this week will be: Romaine lettuce, Boston lettuce, kohlrabi, parsley, peas, broccoli or cauliflower (that which you didn’t get last week) choice of salad turnips or radishes, and choice of Swiss chard or spinach. Enjoy! Farmer John

Farm update #6: July 1, 2008

Hi Everyone,

As we head into the dog days of summer we continue to be plagued with the problem of bolting. We are just finishing the harvest of the first planting of lettuce and the second planting is already showing signs of shooting up their flower stalks. The cooler is already jammed full of tubs of lettuce and there are thousands of heads in the field that must be cut or will be lost.

Because of this we will be shipping 2 heads of lettuce this week. One of the varieties is a beautiful heirloom type of romaine called Forellenschluss. It has gorgeous speckled red leaves and very dense heads filled with a preponderance of very thin tender leaves.

We have begun cutting a lot of cauliflower, but there may not be enough for all groups this week. Those who do not receive cauliflower will get broccoli, and next week it will be the reverse. The summer squash is coming on strong and there should be zucchini in next week’s share.

The share for this week will be:

Red leaf lettuce, Forellenschluss romaine, scallions, mustard greens, cauliflower or broccoli. There will be peas for those groups who did not receive them last week.

Enjoy!

Farmer John