Author: Bryan Housel

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…)

Hello Everyone!  This week marks the beginning of the second half of the season (time flies when you’re eating well!).  We still have three more weeks of summer officially and we hope for at least a few more of warm, frost free weather.  We are also hoping for some rain (but not too much) as we have slipped back into a dry weather pattern.  Our early planting of tomatoes has mostly succumbed to disease, but we have second and third plantings that will continue to produce for a while yet.  Peppers and eggplant will continue for at least another 6 weeks.  Unfortunately, the second and third planting of summer squash have not fared so well, so we will probably not have much zucchini for you until a fourth planting begins to produce in a few weeks.  We do have another planting of cucumbers beginning to come in, so we hope to have some cukes for you in the coming weeks. (more…)

Hello Everyone!  So we have finally gotten some relief from the heat!  The cold front brought us a small amount of rain as it moved in, a little more would have been welcome but at least there was no severe weather.  The heat wave took a toll on our lettuce production, causing many varieties to bolt prematurely.  We had to cut many heads at a very small size or lose them.  You will receive 2 or possibly even 3 small heads of lettuce this week.  The rest of the share is similar to recent weeks – lots of tomatoes, beans, peppers and eggplant. (more…)

Hi Folks!  It is my firm belief (or perhaps my desperate hope) that we are over the worse of the heat wave.  It’s been a tough couple of weeks!  I thought that it was forecast to break on Tuesday with some rain followed by more tolerable temperatures but now it seems the temps will climb toward the upper eighties later in the week with no real relief in sight until early next week.  The good news is that we received nearly 3 “of rain during the week a huge benefit to the fall crops that we have been seeding and transplanting. (more…)

Hello Everyone!  We received about 2/10 of an inch of rain on Saturday from a brief downpour.  It appears we will have multiple chances of precipitation during the week ahead and dry spell is over for now; I only hope it doesn’t start to rain too much.  The tomato crop is coming in heavy now, but many of the vines are succumbing to disease, and wet conditions serve to exacerbate the problem.  The squash crop is also quite prone to diseases such as powdery mildew, that are promoted by warm, wet conditions. (more…)

Hi Everyone! So we finally got some rain, a bit over 2 inches with a little more expected overnight.  We are very fortunate not to have been deluged.  I have heard that some NJ farmers were hit with 6” or more; and then there are those poor folks in Maryland.  Wow!  That seems to be the way it is these days – feast or famine, as they say. (more…)

Hi Folks, so it was another scorching week, and no rain fell.  We just received about a quarter of an inch of the wet stuff along with gale force winds at the time of this writing, with more possible this evening.  There are multiple chances for rain from thunderstorms later in the week into next week, so fingers crossed… (more…)

We will once again offer a fruit share for the 2016 season. It will be a slightly shorter season (12 weeks) and comes with some caveats.  All of the local fruit producers have had a very bad season due to late frosts and freezes in the spring.  Many have lost their entire crop of plums and apricots and have had significant losses with peaches and nectarines.  Normally most of the fruit we distribute comes from an organic farm in the Hudson Valley, NY.  While the farm grows their vegetable crops organically, the fruit is labeled Eco-grown.  This means that they adhere as much as possible to organic methods but do spray when necessary with products not approved for organic production.  These sprays are primarily early in the season when the fruit is just setting.  The farm regularly tests the fruit to insure it is free of pesticide residues. (more…)

Hello Everyone!  So the heat wave continues; great for those warm weather crops but not so easy on my crew and I.  We received ¾ of an inch of rain this past week from a downpour which lasted about 20 minutes.  While this is not ideal, we are grateful for any precipitation.  Eggplant and peppers have begun, and we are harvesting the first few tomatoes.  We believe we will have enough peppers and eggplant to provide a small quantity to all groups.  If we run short, we will start a rotation to cover all members in the next 2 weeks. (more…)

Hi Everyone, it was brutally hot last week but I guess most of you noticed that.  We continue to receive much needed rain and I am very busy catching up with planting.  We have another marvelous share for you this week.  It turns out we still have some snow and sugar snap peas available, although the quantity will be less.  We have delicious sweet onions with green tops (edible or good for soup stock).  These are not good keepers, so use them up within a week or so.  We are in rotation with the broccoli still, so it will be kale or broccoli, whatever you did not get last week.  We have abundant squash and cucumbers as well as cooking greens.   (more…)