Let the eating begin!!

Hi, Joel and everyone! I am proud to be one of the longest gardeners to be at Taylors. I have had my plot for over 28 years, and worked the same land with friends before that, who had an organic produce business. The Taylor property was deeded to the family by King George and is the oldest operating farm on the Delaware River, owned by the same family. They deeded this value land over to the nature conservancy, so it will never be developed, in an area that the family could have made millions by selling to developers. So I want to first of all, thank this wonderful family who have made it possible for people to have land to grow on and for keeping the wetlands and surrounding forests free from development forever. It is not uncommon to see one of the Bald Eagles, when working in the garden in the morning, but the some of the rest of the wild life is way unbalanced. There has been probably close to 1000 acres of development in the area of the farm withing the last ten years, wiping out habitat of thousands of animals- that is why we have so many problems with keeping what we grow for ourselves at the farm. I have now concentrated on using part of it to establish a safe haven for native endangered plants- both in sun and shade beds, as well as planting some non edibles - like the narcissus. We are going to plant in one of the best fenced in areas, and treat around it for ground hogs, while hoping the deer decide it is not worth trying to go under or over the fence. I will have my basils out there , some other annual herbs and collards. Some cut flowers and sunflowers too. I am going to plant mainly hot peppers-they seemed to escape the blight and the critters. I found if I plant hot peppers closest to the fence all around-they work as a slight deterrent, although by the end of the season the ground hog was actually trying to eat jalapeno peppers! Are you harvesting asparagus now? One of my friends here in South Jersey has been harvesting for a few weeks, but the Amish who live about 100 miles west of here in PA, could not cut yet this past week, because the temperatures dropped again. This area has many micro climates as well. I can harvest tomatoes right through October here in the yard and some years, we do not get a killing frost here in our yard till November, but the farm plot, closer to the river and not getting that heat from the city, usually has a killing frost at least a couple of weeks ahead of here at home- that is less than five miles away! People always think of NJ as a place you drive through on the turnpike and have no clue why we are called the "Garden State", but we not only have preserved more farmland than any other state, our family farms have been able to survive because they were mainly "truck farms", and are not as monoculture centered as other farming states. So that is my little history on the Taylor Family and their legacy in NJ as well as some more about what I grow.Thanks for asking! Green Blessings! Susan

Hi, Joel and everyone! I am proud to be one of the longest gardeners to be at Taylors. I have had my plot for over 28 years, and worked the same land with friends before that, who had an organic produce business. The Taylor property was deeded to the family by King George and is the oldest operating farm on the Delaware River, owned by the same family. They deeded this value land over to the nature conservancy, so it will never be developed, in an area that the family could have made millions by selling to developers. So I want to first of all, thank this wonderful family who have made it possible for people to have land to grow on and for keeping the wetlands and surrounding forests free from development forever. It is not uncommon to see one of the Bald Eagles, when working in the garden in the morning, but the some of the rest of the wild life is way unbalanced. There has been probably close to 1000 acres of development in the area of the farm withing the last ten years, wiping out habitat of thousands of animals- that is why we have so many problems with keeping what we grow for ourselves at the farm. I have now concentrated on using part of it to establish a safe haven for native endangered plants- both in sun and shade beds, as well as planting some non edibles - like the narcissus. We are going to plant in one of the best fenced in areas, and treat around it for ground hogs, while hoping the deer decide it is not worth trying to go under or over the fence. I will have my basils out there , some other annual herbs and collards. Some cut flowers and sunflowers too. I am going to plant mainly hot peppers-they seemed to escape the blight and the critters. I found if I plant hot peppers closest to the fence all around-they work as a slight deterrent, although by the end of the season the ground hog was actually trying to eat jalapeno peppers! Are you harvesting asparagus now? One of my friends here in South Jersey has been harvesting for a few weeks, but the Amish who live about 100 miles west of here in PA, could not cut yet this past week, because the temperatures dropped again. This area has many micro climates as well. I can harvest tomatoes right through October here in the yard and some years, we do not get a killing frost here in our yard till November, but the farm plot, closer to the river and not getting that heat from the city, usually has a killing frost at least a couple of weeks ahead of here at home- that is less than five miles away! People always think of NJ as a place you drive through on the turnpike and have no clue why we are called the "Garden State", but we not only have preserved more farmland than any other state, our family farms have been able to survive because they were mainly "truck farms", and are not as monoculture centered as other farming states. So that is my little history on the Taylor Family and their legacy in NJ as well as some more about what I grow.Thanks for asking! Green Blessings! Susan