Hi Folks, We are coming into the home stretch, with only a few more deliveries to be made and the final markets of the year. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be almost done with this season. Every year has its own particular challenges but this year has certainly been the most difficult that I have experienced in my 15 years of farming.

Hi Folks, Well, there just doesn’t seem to be any limit to the kind of crazy weather that Mother Nature can throw at us these days! We got about 14 inches of snow from the storm and experienced two nights of frigid temperatures; 19 degrees last Sunday night. The low temperatures did the most damage; the snow actually protected most of the shorter crops, insulating them from the extremely cold air.

Hi Folks, With the exception of some heavy rain on Thursday, the past week of weather was more or less beneficial. The temperatures remained balmy and the winds that followed the rain have helped to dry out the fields a bit. We still have some very soggy spots in the fields, making it a challenge to plant the winter cover crop.

Hi Folks, It was another week of mild temperatures and the rain that was predicted fortunately did not amount to much. The fields are still very soggy and I am a bit worried about how I will plant my cover crops and prepare the beds to plant next season’s garlic crop. There is not much rain forecasted for the next ten days and the breezy conditions are helpful in drying out the ground so, hopefully, there will be a window of opportunity soon.

Hi Folks, It’s been a glorious week of sunny weather and mild temperatures. Our fields are finally beginning to dry out although there are still a few wet spots about. While daytime temps have been balmy it is getting chilly at night and clear skies mean strong radiative cooling.

Hi Folks, I guess I spoke too soon last week about dodging a bullet, as the scattered storms of the week brought us another 5 inches of rain. The creek did once again rise and form a lake in the field with the brassicas, drowning a few more plants on the edges of the previous inundation. While I enjoy bird watching, I am not happy to see ducks swimming and egrets wading in my fields.

Hello Everyone, We seem to have dodged a bullet this weekend as the heavy rains predicted did not materialize. We received only about a half an inch of precipitation as opposed to the 3-5 inches forecast as possible. We’re not completely out of the woods yet, as there are still a few days of scattered storms and showers ahead.

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.

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.

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.