Happy Spring Everyone! According to the calendar we’re 3 weeks into the season, but it’s only been during the last few days that it has actually felt like spring. The forsythias are blooming and the garlic is up and growing. We’ve been busy in the greenhouse for the last 5 or 6 weeks planting lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and radicchio among other things. Many of these plants are ready to go outside to be “hardened off”, which means becoming accustomed to slightly colder nighttime temperatures and the drying effect of the wind. I hope to begin transplanting these by the end of the week. Actually the planting season began in early February with onions and leeks that I started in a vacant room in my house under florescent lights. These crops are slow germinators and slow growers and should be transplanted out into the field as early in April as possible. Since it’s too cold and would be too expensive to heat the greenhouse to grow these plants in February, I choose to let my neighbors wonder: “what’s he growing in there”. We began transplanting the onions into the field this past week, and will be continuing to plant them out over the next couple of weeks. Also planted this past week were about 2200 row feet of Fava beans, and nearly 6000 r.f. of peas. In the next 2 weeks I will be spending a lot of time on the big tractor plowing and preparing ground for the many crops that it will soon be time to seed, and the plants which will soon be ready for transplanting. I expect to begin planting potatoes in the next few days; a process that will continue for several weeks. Spring has sprung and the hard work has begun! I look forward to a great season. Farmer John

Hi Folks!

It seems as if we’ve gone straight from summer to winter, with nights getting colder almost every day. We have experienced some damage to various crops which are normally very tolerant to cold. At present we are scrambling to harvest or cover various planting of greens, lettuces, and even normally hardy cabbage family crops, in preparation for the coldest nights yet this fall, predicted for Wednesday and Thursday.

Today we finished harvesting the last of the potatoes. As always it’s a great relief to be done with that arduous task. Now I need to turn my attention to planting some cover crops to protect and improve the soil over the winter, and prepare ground for planting next years garlic crop. Garlic cloves are planted now and grow some roots before the ground freezes, then begins growing above ground as soon as the ground thaws in early spring. You might think that things would be slowing down by now, but there’s still plenty of work to be done, that will keep us busy right up to the end of the month.

The share for this week will be: Lettuce, salad turnips, celery root, tatsoi, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, choice of leeks or scallions, peppers, choice of cabbage or kohlrabi, bok choi, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Hi Folks,

Well the seemingly endless summer has finally come to a close with a hard freeze last night. All of the warm weather crops, such as beans, peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini were killed. We were able to harvest some of these before the cold blast, so they will still be some for the shares for at least one more week. The Romaine lettuce was also slightly burned at the tips, but they are very large and dense heads, so there’s still plenty of good eating left.

There’s also plenty of good stuff still in the fields, that is essentially unaffected by this degree of coldness (pun intended). In the coming weeks the shares will be more centered around root crops, hardy greens, brassicas, and winter squash.

The share for this week will be: French fingerling potatoes, garlic, parsnips, Romaine lettuce, spinach, broccoli, peppers, daikon or Easter egg radishes, spaghetti and buttercup squash, choice of an herb, and choice of arugula, broccoli raab, or kale.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Hi Folks!

The mild weather continues with another 5 or 6 days without much chance of frost. This means we can continue to enjoy summer vegetables alongside the beautiful fall greens and winter squash.

The unstoppable Rattlesnake beans continue producing and my late planting of bush beans is attempting to produce a crop, albeit painfully slowly. The tomatoes too, are ripening very slowly, but the ones I have sampled still have good flavor. The regular green spinach is still a bit small for bunching, so we will be harvesting a nice red veined variety called Bordeaux. The broccoli is still not maturing in sufficient quantities for delivery this week but should certainly be ready by next week.

For those of you for whom this is you last pickup (that’s the other CSA’s, not the Bloomfield-Montclair CSA), thank you so much for participating. I hope you have enjoyed the season! For the rest, there’s lots of great produce to look forward to in the coming weeks.

The share for this week will be: Boston lettuce, Acorn squash, Hakurei turnips, bok choy, red onions, Bordeaux spinach, All red potatoes (pink inside) tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, ornamental gourds, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Hi Everyone,

Well fall has finally arrived and despite the fact that there were no predictions for a frost, we had a very light frost this past Friday and again Saturday night. The cold slightly burned the summer squash and beans, but they are still alive and should continue to produce. The tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant remain relatively unscathed. We also received buckets of rain this past week, ending the long dry spell. It’s predicted to warm slightly this week, with no frost expected for another 10 days.

The broccoli is heading up nicely and will be in the share next week. The spinach is getting large as well and should be big enough to cut next week.

The share for this week will be: Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, sweet potatoes, summer squash, pumpkins, radishes, choice of Napa cabbage or kohlrabi, delicate squash, lettuce, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Hi Everyone,

As I imagine you have noticed, the unseasonable warmth and dryness continues. There are predictions for some rain about midweek and a slight drop in temperatures into the weekend, but still no frost expected for the next 2 weeks.

This is great news as we can continue to enjoy summer veggies for another few weeks and perhaps even see a resurgence of tomatoes. We have begun heavily pruning the late planting of tomatoes to encourage the plants to ripen their fruit rather than continue to put their energy into flowering and excessive vegetative growth. There are over a thousand plants and several thousand pounds of green fruit that should start to ripen soon.

The peppers and eggplant continue to produce abundantly. Late plantings of beans are beginning to flower and the summer squash has small fruit growing.

Meanwhile we are busy harvesting the winter squash, pumpkins and gourds. Soon we will begin harvesting the sweet potatoes, which appear to have produced a good crop. The fall broccoli and cabbage are beginning to form heads and should be ready to cut in 2 weeks. The Hakurei salad turnips are beginning to size up and will be in the share this week. The greens are beautiful, tender, and nutritious and can be used in salads or sautéed/steamed.

We also have lettuce again, with Green leaf for this week and Boston and Romaine to follow in the coming weeks. We will also be shipping Tatsoi this week, a mild Asian mustard green which is great in stir fries or mixed into salads.

Next week we will de delivering pumpkins. While all pumpkins are edible, there are some such as Long Island Cheese and Jarradale which are better for making soups, cakes and pies. I would like to take a poll this week to know your preference for an ornamental or a cooking type, so I can bring the appropriate # of each.

The share for this week will be: Lettuce, potatoes, sweet corn (conventional), peppers, eggplant, Hakurei turnips, Tatsoi, white onions, Butternut squash, beans, choice of an herb, and some form of tomatoes (either cherries, slicers, plums, or small salad)

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Hi Everyone,

The weather continues to be glorious, with unseasonable warmth, but we still have not received any substantial rain. A passing front that had been predicted to drop close to an inch of rain delivered less than 1/8 of an inch. There isn’t any rain predicted for the near future, but there is no prediction of frost either, so hopefully our late plantings of tomatoes and beans will have a chance to produce a crop.

The tomatoes still have not begun ripening so they will continue to be scarce this week. We will begin deliveries of winter squash this week, starting with spaghetti squash. Next week we will have butternut, with acorn, delicate and buttercup to follow as we go through October. We still have an abundance of edamame soybeans, so they will be in the share again this week. We also have sufficient quantities of assorted string beans to deliver. There is no lettuce this week, but the next planting is growing beautifully and some should attain harvestable size by next week.

The share for this week will be: Garlic, Fingerling potatoes, arugula or mizuna (Asian mustard green), French breakfast radishes, peppers, eggplant, spaghetti squash, choice of celery or fennel, edamame soybeans, string beans, and choice of an herb.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Hello Everyone,

We continue to experience dry conditions, with no substantial rain now for over 3 weeks. We are moving the sprinklers around constantly to help germinate newly planted seeds and keep other crops growing rapidly.

I expect to sow the last few beds of direct seeded crops this week- arugula, salad turnips and some oriental mustard greens. We will also be transplanting another batch of lettuce plants this week, which will be ready for harvest in November. I will finally be done with planting for this year!

Tomatoes have become rather scarce at the moment, but a late planting of plum tomatoes and some heirlooms are getting close to ripening. Hopefully we can begin harvesting these by next week, and with some luck from the weather (no frosts) will continue to have tomatoes well into October.

We again have beets with tops, there will be a choice of white, candy cane, or an elongated red type-aptly named Cylindro. The beet greens are quite nutritious and can be steamed, sautéed or used in soup. We also have edamame soybeans this week. These Japanese treats are prepared by boiling in the pods and then slipping the seeds out with your teeth! We will also be offering celery or fennel as a choice this week. This will be repeated again next week, so you will have a chance to get both.

This week’s share will be: Lettuce, yellow onions, potatoes, sweet corn (conventional), peppers, eggplant, edamame soybeans, beets, celery or fennel, melons, choice of an herb, and maybe tomatoes.

Enjoy!

Farmer John

Hi Everyone,

Well fall is in the air, with some very cool nights this past week, but for now we will continue to enjoy summer vegetables. Peppers have begun to ripen abundantly to beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow. We still have lots of melons and watermelons.

The edamame soybeans are almost ready, but will need one more week for all the pods to finish filling out. These can be quite time consuming to harvest and so we need to wait until all of the pods on the bush are mature and can be harvested at one time. I am also waiting on a planting of lima beans to begin producing.

The Rattlesnake beans have slowed down considerably, probably due to the dry conditions for the past 3 weeks. It’s uncertain whether we can harvest enough to put in this week’s share. Cucumbers are also in short supply.

The fall broccoli and cabbage plants are growing beautifully and should be ready to begin harvesting in 4 or 5 weeks. As I mentioned previously we are out of lettuce for the moment, but I am buying some from another local organic farm to put in the shares this week.

This week’s share will be: Lettuce, Swiss chard, garlic, potatoes, melons, peppers, eggplant, carrots, tomatoes and choice of an herb.

Enjoy! Farmer John

Hi Everyone,

Summer is in it’s final weeks, but the summertime veggies continue to be abundant. While most of my tomato plants have been stricken with early blight, I have a late planting that should start to produce in the next few weeks. I also have second plantings of zucchini, cucumbers, and beans which if the weather stays warm will start to produce in early October.

This past week I was finally able to seed many cool weather crops such as spinach, radishes, turnips, broccoli raab and various other greens. Some of these will be ready for harvest in just a few weeks, while others will come in during October and November.

We’ve had a good run with the lettuce, with some in every share thus far this season, but we’re approaching a gap in my lettuce production. This week we will be cutting some romaine lettuce for bunching, that was direct seeded for salad mix. After this there may be a few weeks without lettuce in the shares. Melons continue to ripen abundantly, and the warm weather has insured their sweetness. There will be a choice of cantaloupe, honey dew, or watermelon, this week.

The share for this week will be: Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, red onions, melons, cucumbers, bu