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Hi Folks! So, we received just under an inch of rain this past week and the forecast is calling for a wet Wednesday. All of the crops are getting the water and the sunshine they need and are growing and maturing nicely. We have begun digging the sweet potatoes and they look very nice and more importantly they taste great too! (more…)
Hi Folks! So, on the weather front we have good news and bad news. We received 0.8 of an inch of rain which has alleviated the dry state we were in. Overnight on Friday we had our first frost of the season. This is about 10 days earlier than the average first frost for our area and was most unwelcome. It was a fairly light frost and we were expecting it, so we did what we could to protect some of the more tender crops. We covered some of the peppers, beans, and the summer squash and I got up in the wee hours to turn on the sprinklers to protect a few other crops. (more…)
Hello Everyone! We continue to experience dry conditions here on the farm. This past week we received a scant 0.2 inches of rain. We were hoping for a bit more overnight Saturday but it never arrived. I was anxiously watching the radar as bands of rain moved across Pennsylvania, but the storms either dropped all their moisture to the west of us or passed to the north. Our next chance for precipitation is on Thursday – fingers crossed. Meanwhile, we continue to move the sprinklers around the field to get the most important crops the water that they need. (more…)
This is a pretty simple recipe, via the Food52 food blog, that tastes great no matter how you serve it — hot, at room temperature, or even cold, the beans are so tasty you’ll be surprised. The timing on this will depend on how fresh and tender your beans are and whether you are using regular beans or haricots verts, which will take less time to cook. The beans should be cooked so that they’re neither mushy nor too hard, but somewhere in the middle. There will be some reliance on intuition here, so the estimates on browning time are just that — estimates. Use your eyes and taste buds before deciding when these are done. (more…)
Hello Everyone! So, we received no rain at all this past week. After a wet spring and summer, fall is looking to be on the dry side. We have a chance for some showers early Monday evening which we are hoping will materialize. I am in the final week of seeding fall crops – spinach, turnips, radishes, cilantro, arugula, and other mustard greens. Since we have sandy soil the surface dries out quickly, and we have been moving the sprinklers around to ensure good germination of these plantings. We are also expecting broccoli and cauliflower to begin heading up soon and these crops need a lot of water. It appears that we will need to utilize the overhead irrigation on these crops to ensure good head size. (more…)
Hi Folks! The weather continues to be copacetic; warm days and seasonably cool nights with just under an inch of rain for the week. The rain came in the wee hours of the morning, so it did not interfere with our work. Let’s hope that it continues like this for the next 5 or 6 weeks! (more…)
Hello Everyone! It was a good week of weather here on the farm; just a small amount of precipitation and perfect temperatures. It is getting a bit chilly at night as autumn begins to move in. One major benefit of the cool nights is that it prompts one of our most pernicious pests, the flea beetle, to move underground in preparation for their long winter sleep. We can now grow arugula and other mustard greens without having them riddled with tiny holes! (more…)
Radishes are the root of a plant closely related to mustard (hence their bite). They come in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors and are generally used as a garnish or salad ingredient because of their mild-to-peppery flavor. When cooked, they have a delicate flavor similar to that of white salad turnips. They can be cooked whole or thinly sliced, steamed with a bit of water (or vegetable stock) and butter. I’ve even seen a recipe for glazed whole radishes with a bit of brown sugar and butter. (more…)
Hi Folks, I hope you all had a pleasant holiday weekend. Here on the farm of course, we celebrate Labor Day by laboring. Our labors were complicated a bit this morning’s rain. We were expecting more rain in the afternoon, which never materialized, so we harvested a number of crops wet and had to dry them as best we could with fans in the barn. (more…)
Hello Everyone! So, the heat wave broke and now we have a little taste of fall. The nights have been a bit chilly up here in the mountains of NW New Jersey! The daytime temps will be creeping back up into the 80’s, but the nights will be dipping into the low 60’s. It seems that we might get a brief break from the frequent rain in the coming weeks, although this Wednesday looks to be a little wet. Somewhat drier conditions will be welcomed, as we have lots of potatoes to harvest, and the digger doesn’t work well when the ground is saturated. It may also give us a chance to do some work on the farm roads, which are deeply rutted in most of the low spots around the fields. (more…)