Old School Heirloom Farms Blog

Sweet Local Jersey Corn THIS WEEK

2009-07-10T13:05:00.002-04:00

Despite the cool weather sweet corn is in! Our corn is locally grown by Wojculewski's Sweet Corn in Pittsgrove. They plant every few days and taste to perfection and only harvest at the optimal time and all corn is picked the day its sold and the sugar content is amazing making for a sweet South Jersey experience. Corn just screams SUMMER so come out and get some and enjoy this wonderful local produce that makes New Jersey the "Garden State"

I dropped off our bushel baskets and got a quick tour of the farm.

Tomato progress

2009-07-10T09:05:00.004-04:00

Its been a cool season and tomatoes are a little bit behind, but we're almost there and to wait for the local tomatoes vs. the imported ones is certainly worth the wait!!! There is nothing worse than a shipped non ripe hybrid variety with tough skin and little taste and nothing better than an organic heirloom tomato grown locally to vine ripened perfection. We will have a few tomatoes this week for sampling and a full array next week.

Here are some photos of where we are with our organic heirloom crop.

This is Pompeii, quite possibly the best paste tomato there is (in my opinion)

Black Cherry ready to start cranking out some fruits

Lots of flowers

Tons of fruits right on the brink of ripening

Not to change the subject but what better to go with tomatoes than basil! The only thing we need to do now is make some fresh organic homemade Mozzerella!!!

3 kinds of Chinese Yard Long Beans are up and running look for those in a couple weeks

Tendercrisp Celery also nearing perfection, and don't forget that celery is a negative calorie snack; you burn more calories eating it than it has in it!

Here are 10 varieties of specialty eggplant, I can't wait for these. Now they are flowering look for them in a couple of weeks

We'll have tons of heirloom Squash this week, I just harvested a basket that was almost too heavy to carry of dark green, yellow, striped and white green they look fantastic!

Squash Flowers

Watermelons! Tons of them coming along, this is VERY exiting! Several heirloom varieties.

Onions are harvested, we'll have Vidalia and Super Sweet this week! Great to saute with our Squash!

Some food photos

2009-06-21T22:23:00.002-04:00

Here are some food photos from the past few days. The garden is kicking in and more things are there to eat!

Here are some onions, not quite ready and a bit strong but they are still delicious. Pictured is super sweet and vidalia

Cupcakes on Father's day

Salad of baby & organic arugula and mixed lettuce from our field

First pizza night of the summer!

Pizza with sauteed arugula, homemade sausage & sauce

Sugar Snap peas

Raspberries, maybe I'll have enough to sell some!

Bluebirds in the garden

2009-06-20T00:38:00.002-04:00

I had a pair of Bluebirds nest in my garden. They are gone for now but should be back for another nesting later on. They are beautiful to see and they also eat alot of bugs.

Baby Carrots this week!

2009-06-18T23:34:00.000-04:00

Baby carrots are tasting fantastic! This is a pint of Cosmic Purple

First Market Day in Haddonfield

2009-05-03T06:55:00.002-04:00

So glad the new season is underway! Despite a rainy day, the market was slamming! I didn't really even have time to meet the new vendors.

French Breakfast Radish are delicious!

Kale shoots! Yum!

Since Mary Ellen wasn't there we brought some Lily of the Valley and Lilac bunches for spring fragrance!

And some upscale Dwarf Rhododendrons and Deciduous Azaleas in full bloom

Overall it was great to see everybody and get the season kicked off.

Its Phillies season!!!

2009-04-04T13:16:00.000-04:00

I'm standing inside Citizens Bank Park on this brisk sunny and windy
Saturday. I'm really glad it's baseball season again! If you dont
know, Old School Heirloom Farms are big fans of the Phils. Pat
Burrell just hit a home run off Cole Hamels, making for a very rare
occasion of Philadelphia fans cheering for the opponant.

Tomato germination

2009-03-28T14:40:00.006-04:00

Here is a photo showing some tomato seedlings. It looks like very
good results even from a seed packet or two packed for 2005. My saved seeds all are sprouting except Camp Joy and I have no idea why that one batch was not viable. But overall there will be many tomatoes this year! All excess plants will be available for sale at Triple Oaks Nursery in Franklinville www.tripleoaks.com

Here is a photo update from today 3/29

Outside, I sowed my side garden over the past two days from left to right: Crimson Forest Bunching Onions, True Greek Oregano, Fine Leaf Chives, Primor Baby Leeks, Oriental Giant Spinach, Catalina Baby Leaf Spinach, Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach, Munchener Bier Radish, Carrots: Yellowstone, Nantes Fordo, Danvers, St. Valery, Canary Yellow Chard, Vulcan Red Chard, Italian Silver Rib Chard & Charlotte Red Chard. More to go in on that side soon.

I also set up a netting on the fence and sowed Oregon Sugar Pod, Oregon Giant Snap, Sugar Snap & Mammoth Melting Sugar Pea the length

Monroeville Planting

2009-03-22T21:30:00.002-04:00

Wow, good weather plus no weekend commitments equals much planting. Old School's Monroeville site is up and running! Peas were planted on Saturday 3/21. Laxton Progress were planted about ten days after our first planting in Franklinville. Amending soil? Staggering planting? We might be catching on. On Sunday 3/22 we established three beds and planted them with carrots (Little Fingers, Atomic Red, Amarillo), Arugala, Dente di Leone (chicory), mixed heirloom lettuces, bunching onions (Tokyo White) and many Chioggia Bassano beets. Time for the nites to warm a bit. However, we could do alot worse than these sunny days.

Tomato seeds sown

2009-03-22T16:01:00.004-04:00

From Farm photos 3/10/09 10:36 PM

A bit of a late start on tomatoes this year but last year was so cold
as this spring is turning out to be as well. But many varieties sown
today in the warm greenhouse. Don't let that fool you though it
supposed to be in the teens for the next two nights. Follow up: I did more tomatoes and also eggplant and peppers and updated the photo. Today was cold but sunny so at least the greenhouse was nice and warm which is great for germination. Three Melanocoton seedlings are up and running, as well as Cape Gooseberry and the smaller Poha Berry aka Husk Strawberry. Forecast of 18 tonight and I'm always colder here in the frost pocket so we'll get an idea of how hardy celery plants under remay are LOL.

3.11 Broccoli Rabe planted & another onion mound created

2009-03-11T22:33:00.006-04:00

Tonight I raked out a row for Broccoli Rabe, its an Italian heirloom variety from Renee's seeds called 'Cima di Rapa' and sounds delicious! Its a great cool season grower so its planted where tomatoes will be and we'll harvest it all and remove it some time after the tomatoes are planted.

The onion mound is getting onion sets tomorrow morning of a flat yellow onion and Super Sweet. I have two big bags of sets and they just need to be plugged into the raised berm. Photos to follow when its light out lol.

3.12 update: Onion sets are in, as well as finishing off the row with Crimson Forest Bunching onion seed. The Broccoli Rabe row was finished off with Lacinato Italian heirloom Kale aka "Dinasaur Kale" which is a sweet full flavored green to steam, saute, braise or use in hearty soups, and English Watercress which is a crunchy zesty salad green that is high in Vitamin A.

I checked under the cover again on the celery and they look fantastic. Our forecast of 27 never came about last night and it bottomed out at 34, tonight should be colder but hopefully not the 23 originally forecast which has been revised higher.

3.13 update, temperature bottomed out at 30 last night a long way from the 23 forecasted. I didn't look at the celery but I'd bet it looks perfect.

Container gardening at my house

2009-03-11T00:15:00.007-04:00

I decided to make a small kitchen garden right on my patio outside the back door. I planted the three half whiskey barrels with 3 kinds of spinach and an heirloom lettuce mix and Italian Arugula. When it gets hot out I'm going to put some cherry tomatoes and herbs in the pots.

From Farm photos 3/10/09 10:36 PM

Germination is very good in all three containers so I'll be eating some upscale leafy greens very soon!

3.9 Planting & "Going Pro"

2009-03-09T21:23:00.014-04:00

Beets (Golden and Detroit Dark Red) in the ground. Goin' pro with the Remay cover. Can't wait to see the pictures - we'll almost look organized and professional. Let come the rain. We're looking for the Monroeville site to be active this weekend.

From Farm photos 3/10/09 10:36 PM

3.7/3.8 Plantings

2009-03-08T21:07:00.007-04:00

We enjoyed a busy beautiful March weekend of planting. We sowed many Spring crops at the Franklinville site including radishes, carrots, onions, celery, lettuce, chicories & arugula. Almost time to move to the Monroeville site which is currently undergoing an organic soil amendment. Now, if Mother Nature cooperates and we can figure a means of warding off the vermin, we should be well on our way!

Bianco di Maggio Onion germination

2009-03-07T08:11:00.000-05:00

Its that time of the year again, germination has begun! Here is a photo of an Heirloom onion that we will be growing this year: Bianco di Maggio! This Italian heirloom Cipollini onion with excellent sweet and mild flavor! Used for grilling, pickling and in salads!