New Field Farm – Temple, New Hampshire

THREE ITEMS: PLEASE READ

Greetings,

THERE IS NO ORDER THIS WEEK. Our daughter’s horse Blue is having leg surgery on Friday and I need to be around to help with the logistics. It should be a straightforward procedure and recovery.

THE BULK ORDER WILL BE FRIDAY, NOV. 6.
We’ll have a discount on potatoes, onions and carrots for orders of 10 lbs or more. You can also order smaller amounts of those, as well as whatever other produce is still available. Ordering will be from Wed., Oct. 28 to Wed., Nov. 5.

I’ll send out a reminder this Wednesday.

ABOUT NEXT YEAR. I’m taking a break from farming in 2016! I plan to resume again in 2017.

WE’LL STILL HAVE U-PICK BLUEBERRIES NEXT YEAR.

My first full season farming was in 1975. I’ve farmed 36 out of the last 40 years since that time, the last 29 being here at New Field Farm. Time for a break. There’s also a lot to do around the farm and house that never gets done because it’s too cold and snowy in the winter and I’m too busy the other three seasons. And we could take a summer vacation!

This idea has been brewing since last year, and while the difficulties of this season, such as a bad ankle, porcupines, labor shortage and whatnot didn’t cause the decision, they did help affirm that the time was right.

I’m mentioning this now so you’ll have time to decide where to get local produce for next season.

I’ll get in touch in the fall of 2016 to see who might be interested in joining the online market again.

THANK YOU SO MUCH !! for your support for however many years you’ve been with us. It’s a privilege and an interesting challenge and a deep satisfaction to be able to farm (for all that I grumble about the weather and such) and you all have helped to make it happen. I hope we kept up our end of the bargain providing fresh, organic produce.

Thanks,
Tim

GINGER, and a mighty freeze

Greetings,

The temperature here Monday morning was around 19 degrees and that brought an end to the parsley and chard. Other crops in the field had multiple row covers and tarps laid over them and came through okay. We harvested that day for our Tuesday market and Meridian and Madeleine carried on with cold hands and good humor.

IF YOU ORDERED GINGER DON’T FORGET TO PICK IT UP EVEN IF YOU DON’T PUT IN A REGULAR ORDER.

The beets are now sold by the pound. The garlic is getting smaller, but is still visible to the naked eye. There are still a few cabbages and the lettuce from the hoophouse is still nice.

The annual BULK ORDER will be the first week of November.

Thank you for your orders.

Tim

Ginger order clarification

Hi,

I want to be sure that I’m clear about the ginger/turmeric order.

The ginger and turmeric need to be ordered this week and will be picked up next week. If you want some you can let me know in the comment section of your regular order for this week.

Or, if you’re not ordering veggies this week, you can email me how much ginger you want.

If you just order ginger and/or turmeric then that’s what you will pick up next Friday, Oct. 23 at the usual time and place. If you also order veggies next week then the ginger or turmeric will be added to your regular order.

And again, the ginger is $12/lb. or $6 per half lb. and turmeric is $16/lb. or $8 per half lb.

If you have questions please let me know.

Thanks,
Tim

Ginger and Turmeric

Greetings,

For several years we’ve gotten beautiful FRESH GINGER from Old Friends Farm down in Amherst, Ma. They also have fresh TURMERIC.

ORDERS WOULD BE PLACED THIS WEEK FOR PICK-UP NEXT WEEK, FRIDAY OCTOBER 23.

PLACE YOUR ORDER IN THE COMMENT SECTION OF YOUR REGULAR ORDER – OR – IF YOU’RE NOT DOING A REGULAR ORDER THEN EMAIL ME YOUR ORDER.

We offer both in 1 lb. or 1/2 lb. amounts. GINGER IS $12/LB or $6/ 1/2 lb.

TURMERIC IS $16/lb or $8/ 1/2 lb.

BOTH FREEZE VERY WELL AND KEEP THAT WAY A LONG TIME.

For some info about fresh ginger go to
http://www.oldfriendsfarm.com/about-our-ginger.html

We’ll be harvesting some nice lettuce and arugula from the hoop house this week.

Chard, bok choy, and spinach are also still doing well.

Garlic is winding down, with mostly just small bulbs left. The snow didn’t melt from the field where the plants were until the third week of April so the bulbs never sized up the way they usually do.

Enjoy this beautiful time of year and thank you for your orders.

Tim

Weblog Entry

Greetings,

A few small green cabbages survived the porcupines (I caught another tonight in the kale)so we have some to offer.
There’s some nice Summer Crisp lettuce that got nipped by frost so we’re offering that for a bit less than usual.

The hoop house has a nice stand of lettuce, kale, arugula and spinach so we’ll see how long we can offer greens into the fall.

Still lots of onions, potatoes, carrots, leeks, kale, chard, spinach and bok choy.

Looks like we’ll have a little honey to offer again this year once we extract it.

Enjoy the beautiful autumn and thank you for your orders.

Tim

A hard frost

Greetings,

The potatoes are now $1.60/lb. The Purple Majesty are done.

We woke up Sunday morning to find we had had a hard frost. I had seen no warning of it, but should have been vigilant what with a full moon on a clear, calm night at the end of September. It took out the field tomatoes, squash, pepper and eggplant foliage (but not the peppers or eggplant), and singed the summer crisp. At least it took out a lot of galinsoga as well, our worst weed.

And the clear, calm night and full moon that followed gave us the chance to see the beautiful and mysterious eclipse.

So we have what we still have, which is a fair amount, but the season is winding down bit by bit.

Thank you for your continuing support.

Tim

Happy Autmnal Equinox

Greetings,

Cool nights and mild days – a nice stretch of weather. But dry, so irrigating continues, even this late in the season.

We can offer some lettuce, but it’s still limited as we get into the first of the last three plantings.

Field tomatoes are just about over, with still some here and there.

There are plenty of potatoes, except for Purple Majesty which are just about gone. Also lots of carrots, beets, leeks, onions, garlic, peppers, scallions, chard, bok choy, spinach, kale, parsley, and lettuce (to come).

Thank you for your orders and happy autumn.

Tim

spinach, baby bok choy, beans

Greetings,

We’re adding spinach,some nice looking baby bok choy, and beans.

No lettuce this week! It doesn’t like it too hot, too humid, or heavy rains and we’ve had all three recently. BUT, we have three more plantings coming along so hopefully it will be back on the list next week.

It’s been bumpy for salad mix as well, but I should be able to come up with a little.

Squash is winding down and even the tomatoes are considering calling it quits. But not quite yet.

A porcupine got through the electric fence last week and started to lay into the curly kale. Amazing how much damage they can do! A friend and I caught it one night and drove it far away. Hopefully, that’s the last one of the season.

Thank you for your orders.

Tim

Hot enough?

Greetings,

Although it feels like the height of summer, we’re adding late season crops such as leeks, Copra onions, and Kennebec potatoes. *It’s supposed to be 72 degrees on Friday *so such food will seem appropriate to the season after all this heat passes.

Lettuce and salad mix are looking good at the moment. Hopefully they’ll come through another hot and humid day and then the possibly heavy rains on Thursday. Likewise the tomatoes.

Thank you for your recent orders and keep cool. Or hot, depending on your preference.

Enjoy,
Tim

Order deadline confusion?

Hi,
A couple of people who ordered today, Thursday, thought their order might be late.

I apologize for any confusion. When my foot was in bad shape I was encouraging everyone to order by Wednesday night to allow for my slower pace. The official deadline for ordering was still Thursday night by 8:00.

My foot is much better, and while it can be helpful to get orders on the early side in any case, ordering by Thursday evening at 8:00 is completely fine.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Thanks,
Tim