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week #2: veggies!

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The vegetable share for this will be: Red leaf lettuce, scallions,
salad turnips, sugar snap peas, spinach, a mustard (tatsoi, broccoli
raab, green wave), choice of endive or escarole, broccoli (some
groups), summer squash (some groups) and choice of an herb (parsley,
cilantro, dill)

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Farm Update from Starbrite Farm

Hi Folks!

The first round of deliveries seems to have gone fairly well, from all
reports. There will generally be some glitches and confusion with the
first couple of deliveries, especially with new groups. Some lucky
groups got broccoli last week, an item that wasn’t on the list. Those
that did not, will receive it this week.

The earliest variety of broccoli we planted is producing a meager
harvest due to stress from temperature extremes soon after
transplanting. Stress in plants, it should be noted, is completely
unconnected to stress in humans, except as it relates to my stress
levels. Plants react to stress by flowering, which since broccoli is a
flower, should be good, but the flower forms when the plant is still
too small and hence produces a small bud. There are 4 other varieties
in the field for which I have good expectations (not great though-
sorry Charles).  We should have sufficient quantities for all groups
several times in the coming weeks.

We are also beginning to cut summer squash, though not in great
quantity, so we will begin a similar delivery rotation with this crop
until we have more in 2 weeks. Which leads me to the following
disclaimer: We reserve the right to omit or change any item on the
farm update list from your actual share for that week. We also reserve
the right to add a vegetable to your share which was not on the list.
All legal facetiousness aside the update list should be considered a
close approximation, my best guess, of what will be in the share. I
can’t be 100% accurate all the time.

We have at present, what I suppose should be called a good problem to
have- we have too much stuff (foodstuffs).  There is enough spinach
for this week and probably next week as well. It still looks beautiful
but it won’t hold as we head into some hot days this next week (and I
was trying so hard not to talk about the weather!). The problem is
that we don’t have the time to harvest it all, and don’t want to
overwhelm you, the members, with too many greens all at once.

The Swiss chard looks great, but will have to wait. The bok choy is
ready too, but next week will have to do.  All of the mustards-
tatsoi, broccoli raab, and green wave are bolting to flower and the
arugula is already too far gone to salvage anything from this
planting. We will be sending as much broccoli raab as we can as a
choice with the mustard greens this week. The flowers have been
damaged a bit by a new pest- the tarnished plant bug, but the leaf is
nice, and there’s never much of a bud with raab anyway. There will
also be Hakurei salad turnips in the share this week, a favorite among
the veterans and hopefully a new treat for the neophytes. They are
delicious eaten raw, sliced like a radish or grated in salads or can
be cooked.  The root is sweet and mild flavored and the leaf can also
be steamed or braised.

I apologize that there was so much soil on several items last week. We
had a torrential downpour last Sunday and it splashed a lot of soil
onto the leaves. We can’t practically wash the leafy greens like
lettuce and spinach, because if they remain too wet they rot quickly
in storage and transport. My crew compounded the problem a bit by not
removing enough of the lower, dirtier leaves, during harvest and so
soiled the other heads in the tub. We will try to do better!

Many thanks to the pea picking volunteers who came out to the farm to
lend a hand today. We had representatives from Metuchen, Jersey City,
Westfield and Staten Island. Together they picked about 120 lbs. of
peas.

The share for this will be: Red leaf lettuce, scallions, salad
turnips, sugar snap peas, spinach, a mustard (tatsoi, broccoli raab,
green wave), choice of endive or escarole, broccoli (some groups),
summer squash (some groups) and choice of an herb (parsley, cilantro,
dill)

Enjoy!
Farmer John

Farm News \ Farm News \ weekly update

First delivery of the season!

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Hi all, this week is the first delivery of the season! Exciting!  Below is the letter from Farmer John

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Hi Folks,

The week you have been waiting for has arrived, the first delivery.
We have lots of nice stuff in store for the beginning of the season.
The spinach looks beautiful as do the lettuces and the peas have been
flowering profusely.  We received a good slow rain just after my last
writing and a drenching thunderstorm on Sunday, so we are in good
shape in the moisture department.

We finished transplanting most of the warm weather crops this past
week, with just another 1000 or so tomatoes to put in this week. We
will also be planting out the melons this week.  The sweet potatoes
plants have taken root nicely and should start to grow rapidly in
another week. The stage is set for a great season, now all we have to
do is follow through- keep ahead of the weeds, get the tomatoes and
cucumbers tied and trellised, and get the harvesting done.

The biggest challenge I face right now is a shortage of labor. I have
5 field workers presently, but I have been planning and working at
bringing 7 more workers from Central America for the season. At least
some of these I expected to be here by now. I have experienced about
every bureaucratic delay imaginable this year, beginning with the
Dept. of Labor changing their address without notifying those who use
the program or posting it on their website. After a month of
correspondence with the Embassy in Guatemala I finally have
appointments for the interviews the workers need to get their visas,
on June 23. Hopefully the 3 workers from Guatemala will be here by
early July. The other 4 from Honduras are still waiting in
bureaucratic limbo for Immigration services to notify the Embassy
there. I don’t expect to see them until at least August! In the
meantime I will have to go in search of day laborers, which is not
really the best use of my time.

Any volunteer help with the harvest will be greatly appreciated.
Calling all pea pickers!

The share for this week will be: Spinach, lettuce (various types),
peas, garlic scapes, kale and radishes.

Enjoy!
Farmer John

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Welcome Spring!

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I guess technically, it should be welcome summer, since we’re full on into June at the moment…

The first share of the season is almost upon us, which means orientation meetings are almost upon us! This week–Thursday the 10th and Sunday the 13th–are the orientation meetings for this season. Orientation meetings are mandatory, for old members as well as new ones. As we have two sites, please make sure that you’re attending a meeting at your own site.

And here’s Farmer John’s update for the week!

Hello Everyone,

The battle is in full swing now and we are completely and exhaustingly engaged. Make no mistake about it; producing quality vegetables is a battle from start to finish. It’s quite amazing how many critters there are that want to dine on your veggies before they can make it to your plate. We have fenced around the pea patch to keep the deer out and buried fence along the periphery of one field to try (unsuccessfully) to exclude the ground hogs. Compared to the four-legged creatures, the six-legged ones don’t eat as much but they’re much more numerous. Our 2 worst insect pests, the flea beetle and the cucumber beetle have attacked with a vengeance this spring, and we are
spraying to control them before their populations explode even further.  We use only approved organic materials, products that are naturally derived, have low toxicity to humans and breakdown quickly.

The weather has been okay, too hot and a bit too dry, but it’s better than wet and cold!  Most of our chances for rain over the past 3 weeks have been from scattered thunderstorms and none of these potential storms have materialized so far. We have a cool front moving in for the week ahead, which will make working conditions much more tolerable and hopefully bring some rain ahead of the front.

We are in the process of transplanting out into the field all the warm season crops. We have planted about a third of the 5,000 tomato plant and all of the eggplants, 1800 or so.  On Friday the sweet
potato plants arrived and we needed to get those in immediately as they have hardly any root and wilt quickly. They looked quite sad as they baked in the blazing sun, but most of them should take root. This week we will be planting the peppers, melons, summer squash, ground cherries, and the rest of the tomatoes.  We also have herbs and flowers to set out.

The peas are flowering profusely and I expect an abundant supply for the first delivery and during the subsequent 3-4 weeks. The brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, etc.) are growing well for the most part. They could use a good rain and will enjoy the cooler temps forecast for the week ahead. One of the early varieties of broccoli is showing sign of “buttoning” because of the stress of several extremely cold nights in early May. Buttoning means flowering when the plant is still too small and producing a tiny head.  If this variety is a complete loss, it will reduce the number of weeks we will have broccoli in the shares during the early summer harvest. I have also had problems with the emergence on my potato crop. Several varieties did not come up at all, and several others came up so spotty that I will have to abandon them.

These few problems notwithstanding, most everything is growing well and we have lots of great stuff coming on for the beginning of the season; now just a little more than a week away.

Thanks to the volunteers who came out to help with covering the greenhouse on May 15th. We were able to get it done on the first try this year!

I look forward to seeing many of you at the farm visit next Saturday. Remember if you can’t make it on Saturday, you are welcome to come on Sunday.

Farmer John

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last share of the season, and farm update

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Hello Everyone,

We have reached the end of another CSA season.  While all years hold
their own particular challenges for a farmer this one has been
especially difficult. Most of the other farmers that I have had a
chance to talk with agree that 2009 was the worst growing season they
can remember. The loss of the tomatoes was particularly heartbreaking
as so much work goes into their production. Still, one of the
requisites for being a farmer is being an eternal optimist; believing
that next year the weather will be better, maybe even that perfect
year with just enough rain and sun and no hurricanes or hailstorms! It
could happen…someday!

While many of this season’s calamities were beyond my control there
are things that I know must be done differently. Making sure that the
melons are inside fencing to protect them from the deer, and working
on a better trellis system and an organic spray program to control
diseases in the tomatoes, are two examples. One of the principal
reasons I choose to continue in this challenging profession is that I
believe it is the best way I can contribute in the struggle to
mitigate climate change and create a sustainable future. It is ironic
that the increasingly erratic and unpredictable weather make it more
difficult to succeed in this crucial endeavor. Still, it’s clear they
we won’t be able to reverse the process of global warming any time
soon, and so we will need adapt to and persevere through each new
twist that nature sends our way.

It is also clear that I would not be able to persist and persevere in
this battle without the CSA program and the support of the members.
I’d like to thank the many dedicated coordinators and volunteers that
make the program possible. The encouragement, support and patience
that I have received allow me to do what I love- to farm. And of
course thanks to all of you, whose financial support and trust in me
is equally indispensable. I wish you a happy and healthy winter season
and look forward to serving you next year.

The share for this week will be: Broccoli, Romaine lettuce, parsnips,
celery root, yellow onions, carnival or acorn squash, white potatoes,
choice of 2 greens from the following list- arugula, broccoli raab,
mustard green, tatsoi, escarole, endive, or green leaf lettuce, baby
bok choy,  and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!
Farmer John

Farm News \ Farm News \ weekly update

Farm Update #19, week 17, October 6 delivery

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Hello Everyone,

It was an unusually cool September, although the weather is so strange anymore it’s hard to say what is normal. I know I have been promising string beans for the past couple of weeks, but they have been growing slower than I’ve ever experienced in the past. The week ahead is predicted to be relatively warm with abundant sunshine so we should be able to begin harvesting beans next week. We do have edamame soybeans for this week.

I have a large planting of broccoli that I noticed was beginning to head last week and I had hoped it would be ready for this week. But after a walk though last evening it appears we will have to wait another week on this crop as well. All of the brassicas are growing beautifully and I expect to have lots of broccoli, as well as cauliflower and cabbage in the final weeks of the regular season. The sweet potato crop looks good and we should begin to dig these tasty treats for delivery in the next 2 weeks.

The share for this week will be: Leeks, white potatoes, peppers, spaghetti squash, arugula, kale, multi-colored carrots, choice of lettuce, edamame soybeans, choice of shallots or cippolini onions, and choice of an herb.

The tranmission went on my truck last week. Because I was uncertain how long I would be without it, I decided to take a break on the fruit shares. I am also waiting for different apples and Bosc pears to become available. There were no Kiwi berries avilable this season. The fruit share for this week will be a half share of Concord grapes.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

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Farm update #18, week 16, September 29th delivery

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Hi Folks,

We’ve been taking advantage of the dry conditions during this past week to dig as many of the potatoes as possible. The potato digging machine that I own does not work well when the ground is wet and up until now we have been digging most of the potatoes by hand. This is not only a slow and laborious process but leaves some potatoes behind and many that are damaged by being speared by the pitchfork.

On Sunday I attended the Garlic Festival in Saugerties NY and purchased nearly 500 lbs. of seed garlic and 80 lbs of shallots to plant this fall for next years crop. Along with perhaps 100 lbs of our own crop that I have saved for planting this should be nearly twice the amount planted last year, and should provide ample quantities for next season’s shares.

We have ample quantities of lettuce planted to finish out the season and it is growing nicely. At present however it is all too small to cut. We should begin to have lettuce for the shares in another week or two. The string bean crop is coming along a bit slower than I had anticipated and won’t be ready until next week. The edamame soybeans are also filling out slowly and will need another week to size up. The Swiss chard is beginning to grow well again but is also still to small to cut. I have decided to buy some chard this week from another local organic farm.

I will be sending various extras in the deliveries this week to try to compensate for a slightly light share this week. I hope that everyone can find something that they enjoy amongst the choices.

The share for this week will be: Red skinned potatoes, Swiss chard, beets, red onions, peppers, ground cherries, delicata squash, and choice of an herb. The fruit share will be Spartan apples and Seckle pears

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Farm News \ Farm News \ weekly update

Farm Update #17, week 15, September 22nd delivery

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Hi Folks,

We continue to enjoy dry, but somewhat cool conditions here at the farm. This past Saturday night we came perilously close to having our first frost of the fall. But for now we have been spared and the temperatures are predicted to be more moderate for the next 10 days. The cool temps do cause plant growth to slow considerably especially for the warm season crops. The next planting of beans which I expected to be ready will have to wait until next week. The eggplant too has slowed down its production, although it is still flowering and has a considerable amount of small fruit. The cool weather crops, of course are love these conditions and are growing beautifully.

We finished transplanting the last few broccoli and collard plants this past Saturday night. This week I will be seeding the last beds of mustard greens, radishes and turnips for the season. The only major planting left for this year will be the garlic and shallots for next years crop, which will go in at the end of October. Next weekend I will be going up to Saugerties NY for the annual Garlic Festival. I will be shopping for about 500 lbs of seed stock to ensure that their will be an ample supply for next years deliveries.

The share for this week will be: Red leaf lettuce, yellow onions, garlic, kale, white potatoes, carrots, peppers, ground cherries, sweet corn (conventional) and choice of an herb.

The fruit share for this week will be nectarines and Devoe pears. These pears are unique to the NY state orchard where the fruit comes from and are reccomended as being delicous paired with cheddar cheese. They are a bit more expensive than other varieties, so their will be a smaller quantity.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Farm News \ Farm News \ weekly update

Farm Update #16, week 14, september 15th delivery

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Hello Everyone,

We received a good steady rain last Friday and Saturday that was, for
a change, needed and appreciated. The fall brassicas crops are growing
nicely and the many rows of seed I sowed during the dry spell have
germinated well. In several weeks we will begin to have radishes and
the white salad turnips as well as arugula and other greens.

The ground cherries continue to fall abundantly and they will be in
the share again this week. The eggplant production has begun to slow
down and while the plants continue to flower they have dropped much of
their leaf. This is a consequence of the cooler weather we have had as
well as fungal diseases that have began to take their toll.  We will
take a week off from delivering eggplant and meanwhile I will spray
them with Neem oil, a natural fungicide, to try to sustain their
production for a few more weeks.

As previously mentioned the Rattlesnake bean production has dwindled
but the final planting of bush beans have begun to flower and should
be ready to harvest by next week. We also have edamame soybeans on the
way; probably in 2 weeks. We finally have an abundance of colored
peppers, so most of the peppers in this weeks share should be red,
orange, or my favorite, chocolate.

We are in the process of putting up a temporary fence around the
winter squash planting, as the deer have discovered them and are
beginning to destroy what is already a somewhat meager crop. Wet
conditions caused much of the young fruit to rot immediately after the
blossom dropped. There probably won’t be any pumpkins this year and
the other winter squash varieties will likely be a bit small.

The share for this week will be: Romaine lettuce, red-skinned
potatoes, red onions, beans, celery, summer squash, beets, ground
cherries, peppers, and choice of an herb.

The fruit share will be Gala apples and Bartlett pears. A few of the pears will have some slight hail damage from early in the season.
Enjoy!
Farmer John
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Farm update #15, week 13, Sept 8 delivery

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Hi Folks,

The dry weather this past week has finally allowed me to plant many of
the fall root and greens crops that I have been trying to sow for
weeks. Now of course a little rain would be appreciated to get them
sprouted and growing.  We have also been busy transplanting lettuces
and brassicas for late season harvest.

As previously mentioned a planting of summer squash is beginning to
produce, unfortunately they are already showing signs of disease. At
present I am unable to predict whether there will be sufficient
quantities to deliver in the shares this week. I expect to be able to
ship zucchini to some groups this week and to others next week.

The tomato harvest seems to be just about over for this season,
whatever fruit we are able to harvest breaks down very quickly. The
rattlesnake beans have also slowed way down in their production, due
primarily to a bad infestation of Mexican bean beetles. This is a
consequence of not being able to spray to control this pest on the
early planting of bush beans. Left uncontrolled the populations grow
rapidly and spread to successive plantings. Some of you may have
encountered a few of the yellow larva in your beans and I apologize
for that. We try to remove them as we harvest, but inevitably some
escape detection.  I have one last planting of beans that should begin
in another 2 or 3 weeks and I will be spraying them this week to try
to control this plague.

I will be sending various items as extras this week, such as turnips,
kohlrabi, tomatillos, and hot peppers. These are products that we
don’t have in large quantities and which are not universally popular.
This serves the dual purpose of supplementing a slightly light
delivery this week and allowing me to make space in my cooler. I hope
everyone can find something they can use among this assortment. I will
also be sending sweet corn this week. It will be freshly picked,
locally grown corn but not organic.

The share for this week will be: Red lettuce. Carrots, peppers,
eggplant, fingerling potatoes, yellow onions, ground cherries,
conventional sweet corn, and choice of an herb.
The fruit share for this week will be peaches and Ginger gold
apples.

Enjoy!
Farmer John

Farm News \ Farm News \ weekly update

Farm Update #14, Week 12, Sept 1 delivery

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Hi Folks,

The weather has continued to present challenges during this past week. The frequent rain does not give the ground ample time to dry out enough for me to prepare ground or plant seeds. In addition high winds which accompanied a storm on August 21 tore the plastic off the high tunnel greenhouse at the Blairstown farm. I was never able to plant anything in this greenhouse due to the wet conditions, but we were using it to dry much of the onion crop. I didn’t become aware of the situation until last Wednesday ,and so on Thursday we were diverted from other pressing tasks in order to gather them and bring them to Andover to be stored in the barn, ahead of the weekend rainstorm. The same high winds knocked over much of the trellising that supports the Rattlesnake pole beans.

In between harvesting and dealing with these various calamities we have been busy transplanting lettuces and the fall brassicas crops. The week ahead is predicted to be rain free, so I hope to be able to seed a multitude of fall crops such as turnips, radishes, arugula, spinach, and various other greens.  Because I have been delayed in planting these crops for so many weeks, greens will be rather scarce for a while. About the only greens I have in great abundance are dandelions and I doubt there are many of you who are huge fans of this bitter green.  The chard has succumbed to fungal diseases because of the damp conditions, but we are attempting to rejuvenate it by cutting it off at base so it can re-grow.  We will save all the clean leaf we find to distribute in the shares bagged, because it is mostly too small to bunch.

With cooler condition beginning the kale should begin to grow well again and we can harvest it for distribution in another couple of weeks.  A second planting of zucchini and other summer squash is coming on and I hope to have sufficient quantities to deliver by next week.

The share for this week will be Romaine lettuce, white potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, Rattlesnake beans, beets, leeks, choice of Swiss chard or dandelion greens, garlic, ground cherries, and choice of an herb.

The fruit share this week is nectarines and Italian plums.

Enjoy!

Farmer John