Tuesday (18-October-2022) — New Jersey

Fairgrown Farm CSA Weekly Delivery Box #24.

This week the box contained the following:

Kale (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Collard Greens (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Carrots (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Green Peppers (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Butternut Squash (Cassaday Farms, Monroeville)
Broccoli (Cassaday Farms, Monroeville)

Add on of eggs, fruit, mushrooms:

Eggs (Polnasek Farm, Hillsborough)
Various Apples and Pears
Lion’s Mane Mushroom, Chestnut Mushroom, Black Pearl Mushroom, Pioppino Mushroom (Zell’s Farm)


CSA Delivery Box (Week 23). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

I harvested over 100 Habanero Peppers from my Grow Towers. Even though it is starting to get cold at night, the plants are still producing.

Habanero Pepper. (David J Mathre)
caption. (David J Mathre)

Tuesday (04-October-2022) — New Jersey

Fairgrown Farm CSA Weekly Delivery Box #23.

This week the box contained the following:

Kale (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Collard Greens (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Caspertia Pumpkin (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Acorn Squash (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Serrano Peppers (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Bok Choy (Great Meadows Farm, Lawrenceville)
Sweet Potato (Cassaday Farms, Monroeville)

Add on of eggs, herbs, mushrooms:

Eggs (Polnasek Farm, Hillsborough)
Sage, Lavender, Thyme, Rosemary (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Chestnut, Golden Oyster, Grey Oyster, Shiitake Mushrooms (Zell’s Farm)


CSA Delivery Box (Week 23). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Tuesday (05-July-2022) — New Jersey

Fairgrown Farm CSA Weekly Delivery Box #10.

This week the box contained the following:

Basil (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Fresh Garlic (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Swiss Chard (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Collard Greens (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Cucumbers (Cassaday Farms, Monroeville)
Sweet Corn (Cassaday Farms, Monroeville)
Green Beens (Cassaday Farms, Monroeville)

Add on of eggs, fruit and mushrooms:

Eggs (Polnasek Farm, Hillsborough)
Blueberries and Blackberries (Rosedale Farms)
Golden Oyster Mushrooms, Blue Oyster Mushrooms, Chestnut Mushrooms, and Lion’s Mane Mushrooms (Zell’s Farm)


CSA Delivery Box (Week 10). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

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Tuesday (15-February-2022) — New Jersey

Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed in the backyard, at the birdfeeder and on the patio: Mourning Dove, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, House Finch, Chipping Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Northern Cardinal. First Chipping Sparrow this year.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Indoor Hydroponic Update. AeroGarden Bounty 01 (Day 30): Bok Choi doing well. Harvesting leaves almost every day. Drinks a lot of water, and needs extra liquid fertilizer. AeroGarden Bounty 02 (Day 30): Rouge d’Hiver, Black-seeded Simpson lettuce, Genovese Basil, Thai Basil, and Dill doing well. Harvesting leaves from the lettuce so not to block light from the basil plants. AeroGarden Bounty Elite 03 (Day 22 and 30): Genovese Basil and Dill doing well. Two of the Parsley and one Thyme sprouted. The 2nd Thyme and Chives have not sprouted. AeroGarden Bounty Elite Seed Starter 04 (Day 7) Heirloom Red Cherry Tomatoes (4/5) sprouted. Golden Harvest Tomatoes (2/4) sprouted.


AeroGarden Bounty. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

AeroGarden Farm 01L (Day28): California Poppy, Oriental Poppy, Laurin’s Grape Poppy. Farm 01R (Day 28): Hungarian Bread Seed Poppy, Red Poppy, Turkish Tulip Poppy. Farm 02L (Day 28): Somniferum Mix, Red Poppy, Red Poppy Mix. Farm 02R (Day 28): Oriental Poppy, Hungarian Bread Seed Poppy, Turkish Tulip Poppy, Red Poppy, Somniferum Mix Poppy.


AeroGarden Farms 01 and 02. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

AeroGarden Farm 03L/03R (Day 22): Swiss Chard, Kale, Collard Greens, Spinach, Mustard Greens. After taking the images, harvested some of the larger Kale and Collard Greens leaves that were blocking the smaller plants. May have to re-think the number of plants per farm. AeroGarden Farm 04L/04R (Day 22): Oregano, Rosemary, Tarragon, Thyme. The larger plants in row D are supposed to be Sage, but I think they are something else???


AeroGarden Farms 03 and 04. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

AeroGarden Farm 08L (Day28): California Poppy, Oriental Poppy, Laurin’s Grape Poppy. Farm 08R (Day 28): Hungarian Bread Seed Poppy, Red Poppy, Turkish Tulip Poppy. Farm 09L (Day 28): Somniferum Mix, Red Poppy, Red Poppy Mix. The poppy plants were pruned to leave only 1-2 plants per position. Farm 09R Seed Sprouting Tray (Day 23): Row A: Snapdragon, Max Orange Wonder, Outside Pride (5/8); Row B: Chrysanthemum, Robinson’s Mix, Outside Pride (7/10); Row C: Iceland Poppy, American Meadows (8/11); Row D: Calendula Mix, Outside Pride, (5/10); Row E: Sweet William Mix, Outside Pride (5/8); Row F: Columbine, Multicolor, PopCool Seeds (1/10); Row G: Osteospermum, Ecklonis Mix, PopCool Seeds (6/11); Row H: Osteospermum,, Whirligs, PopCool Seeds (0/9); Row I: Blue Eyed Daisy, PopCool Seeds (1/8). I will start transplanting the larger seedlings to a regular farm. I have also included a time-lapse video of the Farm O9R seedlings.


AeroGarden Farms 08 and 09. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (121.8 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (27.6kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Solar Panels mostly clear of snow, but the temperature dropped below 10°F so supplemental resistance heating was required. Deficit of 92.4 kWh.

Monday (24-January-2022) — New Jersey

Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Dark-eyed Junco.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Herb and Green seeds planted in an AeroGarden Elite Bounty with a seed starter tray. Rainbow Swiss Chard, Broadleaf Sage, Winter Bloomsdale Spinach, Rosemary, Thyme, Tarragon, Greek Oregano, Tatsoi Mustard Greens, Siberian Kale, Champion Collard Greens. Images of the seeds taken with a Leica SL2s camera with a Laowa 24 mm f/14 macro probe lens. For reference, the diameter of the circle is 35 mm.


Seeds. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (97.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (36.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cold outside. Whenever the external temperature drops below 10°F, the resistance heaters kick in to assist the Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 60.5 kWh.