Westfield Area CSA Blog

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News- September 22, 2011

Hi Folks,

We continue to feel the ef- fects of the back to back inun- dations delivered by Irene and Lee. Some brassicas that were not flooded are wilting and dying from root diseases brought on by continuously saturated soil. We are still unable to machine dig potatoes and some of the crop that was in low pockets has almost certainly rotted. (more…)

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News- September 15, 2011

Hello Everyone,

It’s been a difficult couple of weeks on the farm as I’m sure you can imagine. The rain from the remnants of Hurricane Lee dropped another 5 inches of rain on already saturated ground and swollen streams. The lake that formed in my lower field during Irene returned and swallowed even more of the fall brassicas than before. I estimate that we have lost nearly 10,000 plants. (more…)

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News- September 8, 2011

Hello Everyone,

I know you are all anxious to know how the farm fared with Hurricane Irene. I have not been able to write until now because we were without power until Saturday. While we sustained some damage, it could have been much worse, and in deed it was worse for many farms in NJ and especially for New England farmers. (more…)

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News- August 25, 2011

Hi Folks,

The rainy week is behind us and fortunately it was not as bad as it looked on the weather sites. We received another inch and a half of rain during the week in addition to the 3 inches mentioned in the last update. Last night’s storms which were predicted to possibly bring hail and damaging winds brought neither and only a quarter of an inch of precipitation. (more…)

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News- August 18, 2011

Hi Everyone,

It was a week of glorious weather; plenty of sunshine and moderate temperatures. Now it seems we have slipped back into the rainy weather pattern that prevailed in the spring. The rains that began on Saturday evening have dropped 3 inches on us thus far, with more forecast for Monday and Tuesday. (more…)

Circle Brook Farm

August 11, 2011

Hi Folks,

It was another good weather week here on the farm. We received an inch and a quarter of rain on Saturday night. We are looking at a lot of chances for more rain from scattered and isolated thunderstorms during the week ahead. (more…)

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News TBA- August 4, 2011

Hi Folks,

We’ve had two wonderful rains here on the farm during the past week; each dropping a little over an inch of precipitation. The first was a beautiful slow steady rain that fell over a period of 8 hours or so, which allowed the very parched ground to soak it up. The second came as more of a deluge, delivering an inch in about two hours, but since the ground was already moist it was ready to absorb the water with little or no runoff. (more…)

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News- July 28, 2011

Hi Folks,

Holy heat and humidity, Batman! The record breaking heat wave has been stressing my crops and taking a toll on my workers and myself. We have been moving the sprinklers around trying to maintain some soil moisture on those crops not set up with drip irrigation. The extreme temps have also led to the second onion catastrophe in as many weeks. (more…)

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News- July 21,2011

Hi Folks,

It was another week of hot and dry weather here at the farm. We really need some rain! It looks as though we may get some Monday afternoon from thunderstorms, hopefully sans hail and damaging winds. We are beginning to transplant the fall brassica crop out into the field and a little moisture would certainly help the plants to take root. (more…)

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News- July 14, 2011

Hi Folks,

It was another good weather week here on the farm: plenty of sunshine but not terribly hot. We had a torrential downpour accompanied by some strong winds on Friday evening but it didn’t last long and caused no damage. Our greatest challenge in recent weeks has been the critters, both the four-legged and six-legged kinds. (more…)