Keep On Growing
Keep On Growing
It’s a new month and time to start focusing on new things like getting outside, preparing planting beds, and planting seeds or transplants in your garden. April is typically a time of year in this region when soil temperatures are warm enough to begin planting cold-weather plants such as lettuces, and cole crops (those include… Read More »
It’s a new month and time to start focusing on new things like getting outside, preparing planting beds, and planting seeds or transplants in your garden. April is typically a time of year in this region when soil temperatures are warm enough to begin planting cold-weather plants such as lettuces, and cole crops (those include broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage to name a few) along with hearty flowers including pansies, tulips, and daffodils.
Any good garden starts at its core with the soil. As farmers, we know what it takes to grow healthy, nutrient-rich soil including the use of cover crops, overwintering crops, and composting. Learn more about how we grow healthy soil on our blog. Several facilities can assist you with soil testing to gauge the PH and nutrient levels in your soil in your home garden beds. We are fortunate to have a soil testing program right here in NJ provided by Rutgers University. Homeowners can utilize the same resources farmers use by supplying a soil sample to their laboratory for analyzing soil results. Did you know? Soil testing is environmentally sound and helps you avoid unnecessary use of fertilizers or incorrect nutrient applications which can contaminate your local water sources. Learn more about soil testing here.
It’s no mistake that April is National Garden Month. As we mentioned above, April is the perfect time to start planning that garden for a bountiful harvest. We now offer cold-weather transplants for you to get a jump start on your home
garden by visiting our farm store in Chester and at our Farm Market in Jefferson/Wharton. We have been doing the same however, we have already planted many seeds indoors in our greenhouses due to the larger quantity of seedlings required to feed people in our community. We started planting onions first in late January and have continued throughout the late winter months planting lettuces, herbs, tomatoes, and cole crops. You can watch Farmer Craig demonstrate how we utilize technology to help lighten our load in this video.
You can catch a glimpse of what our high tunnels and greenhouses look like this time of year here in this video. Not into gardening or growing vegetables? We love being your farmer, providing you with healthy fruits and vegetables to nourish your body. You can connect with us in a variety of different ways, read on.
We utilize other season extension techniques for growing such as expanded high tunnel operations. Our farm production team immersed themselves in learning new growing techniques this winter at conferences, by networking, and on the farm. Our team was eager to start sowing and thus have all of our high tunnels planted to ensure a plentiful harvest for our first CSA share boxes. Our first share begins April 28th and we are excited to share the bounty with our members.
What is a CSA? CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, a program where a member enrolls to receive a “share of the farm”. That share is a weekly box of the freshest produce in season with options to fully customize the contents. New this year, our farm has added more weeks to enjoy eating farm-fresh fruits and vegetables longer into the season. Our Farmer’s Harvest membership has increased to 34 weeks (from 31), our Heart of the Harvest membership 22 weeks (from 20), and our Jersey Essentials membership 12 weeks (from 10). This exciting update was made possible by implementing new production methods allowing us to extend our harvest season which benefits you. Consider joining our CSS during pre-season for the best savings. Choose Farmers Harvest, Heart of the Harvest, or Jersey Essentials program. Learn more about becoming a member here.
Learn more about our greenhouses here in this video with Farmer Rebekah!
