Honey Brook Organic Farm CSA: Tour of the Farm

Two weeks ago, we stopped at Rutgers Ag Field Day to pick up Rutgers Scarlet Strawberries.  We didn't wander around too much because I don't support their craptastic animal program.  Can you believe they send the animals to slaughter at the end of the semester!  One group of kids hooked up with the Tamerlaine Farm Animal Sanctuary who agreed their pig, Pecan, they worked with (go donate!).  I mean seriously...they're like the 4H trying to teach kids to be sociopaths! Here's an animal to learn about and take care of, now go kill it!  WTF?

Off my soapbox.  

Then we drove down to the Chesterfield Green Fair, which, I'm sure they meant well, but a lot of the products being sold weren't very green and a lot of meat and dairy products being sold by the food trucks.  I guess they're not aware of how not green the cattle industry is.  Maybe they should hold a screening of Cowspiracy and educate themselves and others.  Not being an ass, but really... 

Okay, so I guess I wasn't off my soapbox, but this time I'm serious.  

From there, we drove a few miles over to the Honey Brook Organic Farm for their tour.

After a bit of discussion about the farm and a Q&A about their CSA program, we headed over to the tractor for a ride around the farm with Farmer Jim.

My kid, our resident photographer, was supposed to bring her camera and take pictures but forgot, as she seems to do a lot now that she's a pre-teen, so you're stuck with my cellphone pics.

It was hard to hear him, but he spoke about their use of cover crops to improve soil quality.  I really need to stop talking about doing that and start actually doing it.

They set up the tomato seedlings in these hoop houses.  They keep them covered to prevent the tomatoes from splitting when there's a big influx of rain.  Instead, the rain falls onto the hoop houses and runs down the sides into these gutters (I guess you'd call them that) and down into a pond.  I believe he said they pump that water into the drip irrigation system that is set up on the material covering the tomatoes.  It was quite fascinating.  Well, to me...because I'm a dork and like this stuff.

This is Farmer Jim.  Or just Jim.  I can't imagine people really go around calling him Farmer Jim.

We also bought three pounds of these monstrously large asparagus, but we ate them so fast I never had time to take a picture.  Can you believe this was the only farm with a CSA program near me that didn't also support some form of animal agriculture?  Who knew finding a vegan-friendly farm in Jersey would be so difficult?  They still have shares available at Honey Brook in case anyone is interested. Everyone there seemed nice.  Thank God they have a box share pick up that's close to home.  While they're a bit far for us to go there every week and do the Pick Your Own, we will make sure we head down every two or three weeks.  I'll keep you posted with picturess of our CSA boxes and our pick your own hauls.  Hopefully, the tyrant will remember her camera so you can experience the true beauty of the farm with much nicer photos next time.