Hello Folks,

It finally feels like summer in NJ, with the heat and humidity we’ve come to know and endure. We are enjoying what seems like an unprecedented 5 day period without rain, but it is predicted to end by Wednesday as we head into another week of showers and thunderstorms.

Normally at this time of year I am impeded from seeding crops for the fall by dry conditions. This season however it has been a challenge to find windows of opportunity for planting when the soil is not too wet.  I have been behind schedule on my planting since early June, and as I rush to plant each crop before it’s too late, another crop has to wait until after it’s optimal planting time. Let’s hope it’s a warm fall with no frost until late October! In any given year some crops do poorly due to weather conditions or other variables.

I’m sure most of you have heard about the problems with tomatoes this season due to late blight. While my farm has not yet been affected by this disease, we nevertheless have a plethora of other diseases affecting the tomato crop. Even the tomatoes in the high tunnel greenhouses have been affected. We are harvesting quite a few tomatoes at present, owing to the sheer number of plants we put in. But most of this fruit is coming from plants that are almost dead and will not produce a sustained harvest. We are doing what we can to save those varieties which may have a chance of continued production, but the bottom line is it won’t be a very good year for tomatoes.

Currently we are picking quite a few heirloom tomatoes, especially a variety called Cherokee purple. These have a very dark colored fruit with green shoulders which I and many others consider to be the most delicious of the heirlooms. Keep in mind that they will not lose their green shoulders and you must judge their ripeness by softness.  Heirlooms are notoriously perishable so enjoy them soon after you receive them.

The share for this week will be: White potatoes, green leaf lettuce, celery, white onions, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, choice of dandelion greens or Swiss chard, string beans, choice of red or Savoy cabbage, and choice of an herb.

The fruit share for this week will be peaches.  It will count as a half share, the other half of which I will have to make up later in the season. The reason for this is that I had ordered red plums as the 2nd half and they arrived with 25% rotten fruit. Since the grower was unwilling to make an adjustment on the price I had to reject them completely.  Next week will be the week off for fruit shares, we will resume again in September.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Starbrite Farm Update #11
Hi Everyone,

This past week we finished harvesting the onion crop, which is a great
relief. With these wet and humid conditions everyday that they
remained in the field they were in danger of rotting. Now we can turn
our attention to other pressing matters such as getting the weeds
under control in the winter squash and elsewhere, and beginning to
transplant the fall broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower.

The beets have finally sized up so we will be shipping them this week.
There will be some regular purple types and some Chioggia beets, an
Italian heirloom, also known as Candy cane which is white with red
rings inside. The eggplant and tomatoes have begun to produce so they
will be in the share for this week as well.

The tomatoes are rather small and there aren’t that many ripe just
yet, but it’s a start. The truth is that my tomato crop looks terrible
and I don’t expect a very good season for tomatoes this year. You have
probably heard about the problem of late blight on tomatoes in NJ.
This disease, also known as phytoptera is what caused the Irish potato
famine, and is quite devastating. I heard that one local farm lost
their entire crop of tomatoes and potatoes. Fortunately we have not
seen any sign of it yet here at the farm. But there is a plethora of
other diseases affecting the tomatoes; even the tomatoes in the
greenhouse have been affected.

We still have an abundance of the sweet onion, so we will be sending
these again this week, as they aren’t great keepers. While I normally
only send one member of the Allium family each week, I know that many
of you are waiting for more garlic, so we will be sending it as
well.

The share for this week will be: Red Boston lettuce, garlic, sweet
onions, All Blue potatoes, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, fennel, string
beans, and choice of an herb.

The fruit share will be nectarines and Kagman apples.
Enjoy!
Farmer John

Hello Everyone,

We received some much needed rain this past weekend and fortunately the hailstorms that were about missed us this time. The ground is still quite dry, which is good for digging potatoes but not for much else.

We have been busy putting up trellis for tomatoes and for many people’s favorite, the Rattlesnake pole bean. The beans have been coming in heavily, so we have an ample supply for the shares this week. Unfortunately one variety that I planned which was supposed to be a green bean has produced yellow wax beans, so we have more wax beans than green beans at the moment.

This week you will be receiving Ailsa Craig sweet onions, a wonderful heirloom variety. These we will send with the green tops still attached, which can be used like a scallion.

We will also be shipping radicchio, most of which is the trevisio type which has a form like a small romaine lettuce.

We are continuing with the rotation of cukes and summer squash (zukes). If you got one last week you should get the other this week.

The share for this week will be: Red leaf lettuce, sweet onions, red skinned potatoes, string beans, cabbage, choice of Swiss chard or dandelion greens, radicchio, red skinned or golden turnips, cucumbers or summer squash and choice of an herb- summer savory, sweet marjoram, or parsley.

The fruit share this week will be Shiro plums and Mutsu apples.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Hi Everyone,

The continued dry spell enabled us to get somewhat caught up on the work we fell behind with during the monsoon.  Unfortunately we are now falling behind on the planting and some of the other tasks normal to Mid-July, such as tying up the tomatoes and harvesting the onions.

We have finished harvesting the garlic and it is hung up to cure. The harvest looks good with good size bulbs and not much problem with rot. It will be in the share again in 2 or 3 weeks.

We have begun harvesting the onions and as I feared the wet conditions have caused problems with rot. We have tried to save as many as we could by spreading them out in the greenhouse to dry, but many were too far gone. We will begin shipping some white onions this week and a sweet variety called Ailsa Craig next week. For the time being I recommend using your onions quickly as the sweet onions don’t keep well.

A word about the updates- I try my best to make predictions about what will be ready during the coming week on Sunday, because some groups receive their delivery on Tuesday. Please bear in mind that this is a prediction and not a guarantee. Things change and sometimes there is not enough of an item for groups that receive later in the week. I keep careful track of who has gotten what and to keep things equitable. Generally if an item is on the list and you don’t get it that week you will get it the next. This is the case for a number of items this week such as cauliflower, and squash/cucumbers as well as peas and favas which are ending vs. beans which are just beginning.

During the past week we were forced to harvest thousands of heads of lettuce we were about to lose to bolting. These are now in cold storage to be saved for distribution over the next several weeks.  Lettuce keeps very well this way for 2 or 3 weeks, but we just have too much and no more space in the coolers. And since many of the heads are a bit small, we will be sending 2 different varieties this week, probably a red romaine and a Boston (no guarantees!).

The share for this week will be: Yukon Gold potatoes, white onions, lettuces, carrots, cauliflower, choice of Swiss chard or kale, basil, bok choy, peas or beans, and squash or cucumbers.

(NOTE: the fruit share this week will be blueberries and peaches)

Enjoy!

Farmer John

here’s John’s note from the farm this week!

Hello Folks,

We’ve been busy this past week trying to catch up with the planting and with the weeding that we were unable to get done this past month due to the rain.

I have almost finished planting the pumpkins and the winter squash. On Monday I will finish up with planting the acorn squash and will also try to plant the edamame soybeans. We have also begun to harvest the garlic and hang it in the barn to cure. We should finish that project as well early this week.

We have also been busy in the greenhouse planting broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and other thing for the fall crop. The tops on some of the onions have begun to die back so we will be starting the onion harvest next week.

The share for this week will be: Romaine lettuce, Chinese cabbage, carrots, fresh garlic, peas, basil and choice of mustard or dandelion greens.

Enjoy,

Farmer John

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