Monthly Archive: September 2016
Hi Folks! So the nights are getting quite chilly now up here in the hills of Northwest NJ. We came quite close to having a frost on Sunday night. Just down the road, in a low lying field where another farm has some pumpkins planted, I noticed that many of the vines had been blackened by the cold. It’s warming up again so we should have another 2 weeks at least before the next round of cold air descends upon us. We have been getting some rain, with more in the forecast over the next few days. So now I will be worried that it will rain too much! Such is the life of a farmer – always something weather related to fret about. (more…)
Hi Everyone! So we received a little bit of rain this past weekend. I heard reports of heavy downpours near the farm but they seem to have missed us and we got perhaps a quarter of an inch. I planted a lot of seeds for fall crops as well as several acres of oat cover crop ahead of the storms. The light rain will at least help these plantings germinate, but we are still in a drought situation. Nevertheless, we have a great share for you this week. (more…)
Hey Folks! So after another mercifully brief heat wave it has cooled off again. Unfortunately, the rain that generally accompanies these temperature changes did not materialize. We were also missed by the scattered storms that moved through on Friday. So it’s dust bowl days here on the farm again! I am trying to prepare beds for the last round of transplants and direct seeded crops as well as 50 acres of ground to be planted in oats and rye as cover crop. I ride over my fields enveloped in clouds of dust. We are moving the sprinklers around constantly to get newly planted seeds to germinate, wilting transplants to perk up, and mature crops to produce or continue producing. It seems that we have lost the final planting of cucumbers; we just could get water on them in time and they have more or less burned up. We have a couple of shots at the wet stuff in the week ahead, so keep your fingers crossed. (more…)
Hi Folks, I hope you had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend. I guess we dodged a bullet with the hurricane moving out to sea — although I confess I was hoping it might spin a little precipitation our way. There isn’t much rain in the forecast ahead, and we have another heat wave arriving later this week. We are in the final push to get seeds in the ground for the fall crops like spinach, arugula, turnips, and radishes. I guess we will have to continue moving the sprinklers around to ensure germination! It is what it is, as they say, and we do what we gotta do. (more…)