Farm News – September 26, 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.
We are getting close to finishing the winter squash/pumpkin harvest, thanks in part to some great volunteers who came out on Sunday and filled a couple of large bins. Thank you! We will be sending you some acorn squash this week, some of which is a white heirloom type. I think they are quite nice; I find them a little less stringy than the green variety. They are a bit larger than the green, so that will be your reward for trying something different. We still have lots of peppers and eggplant but the tomatoes are coming to an end. We will try to get all of you a few more over the next 2 weeks.
We are still heavy on green beans, so expect large quantities again this week. These are easy to freeze if you are overwhelmed – just blanch in boiling water for 1 minute, then chill in cold water to stop the cooking process. Toss them in Ziploc bags and into the freezer. Voila! We also have fresh Lima beans as an extra, so watch for them if you are a fan. We are finishing up the 3 week broccoli rotation this week, so if you have not gotten any yet, you will this week. We are out of lettuce for the moment but we are shipping Napa (aka Chinese) cabbage which makes a nice surrogate. We have beautiful arugula now, which we will offer as a choice with spinach, in order to stretch both of these crops until the next planting matures. Some groups will receive radishes this week and others will receive Hakurei salad turnips – this will be reversed for next week.
The share for this week will be: Choice of Arugula or spinach, Napa cabbage, peppers, eggplant, gold potatoes, red onions, choice of fennel or celery, acorn squash, beans, radishes (early week groups) or salad turnips (late week groups) and choice of an herb (parsley, garlic chives, or Thai basil). Some groups will receive tomatoes this week, others next week. Extras are hot peppers and lima beans.
The fruit share for this week will be Red Bartlett pears and Cortland apples.
Enjoy! Farmer John
