Howell Farm visitors and volunteers in potato field.On Saturday, August 21 visitors, volunteers, and farmers harvested 3,600 lbs. of potatoes grown at Howell Farm. Over 2,100 pounds of these potatoes will be donated to Trenton hunger projects.

At Howell Farm, potatoes are unearthed with a potato plow pulled by horses then gathered up by hand (see photo below).

Other Crop Notes:

Farmers Rob Flory and Pete Watson drive the potato plow with horses Jack & Chester.The recent rain has improved conditions for what little crops are left on the farm. The sweet corn matured too early to be served at Howell Farm's "Fiddle Contest" event on Saturday, August 28, so farmer Rob Flory and his son Martin Flory have been chopping the corn stalks and feeding it to Howell Farm's cow Daisy since green grass has been lacking.

Howell Farm entered medium brown eggs, grade B maple syrup, and honey at the Middletown Grange Fair. Brown eggs received a 2nd place ribbon and Howell Farm's prize winning maple syrup attained another blue ribbon. Honey was not awarded a ribbon.

Howell Farm has fared relatively well during this summer drought. Where as some nearby farmer's corn has shriveled and turned pale green, Howell Farm's sweet corn, popcorn, dent corn, and Indian corn has only slightly wilted. The leaves remain green and ears of corn are slowly maturing. This is attested to the fact that it was planted in the bottom land and fine soil of Hunter's field and the Market Garden.

Pumpkins have also done very well compared to previous years at Howell Farm. Farm manager Gary Houghton says that the dryness has kept mildew away that ruined last year's pumpkin crop.

However, the drought has taken its toll in the South Crop Fields (see crop map) where the soil contains more shale. Crops like Timothy hay that is expected to regrow after the first hay cutting withered out, "but some of the deeply-rooted weeds like Canada thistle have [not]" says farmer Rob Flory. A turn-of-the-century solution:  on Saturday, August 7 farmer Ian Ferry drove horses Jack & Chester as they pulled a 1918 McCormick #6 sickle bar mower and cut the thistles. Thistles and weeds are not easily stopped and will require much of the farmers' time to keep them from taking over the crop fields.

On Saturday, July 31 Howell Farm hosted its 3rd annual 4-H Fair. The day was full of festivities and family fun, however farming must go on and the spelt needed to be threshed.

The newly restored threshing floor housed a large antique thresher, proudly proclaiming its manufacturing origin of Trenton, NJ. Spelt and other summer grains were bountiful due to the dry conditions; there is no great loss without some small 'grain'.

Intern Christie Naylor and Farmer Rob Flory (on wagon) pitch spelt sheavesThreshing removes the seeds from the stalk and usually separates the husk and chaff as well, however in the case of spelt the husk is left on since it is difficult to remove and as it offers valuable fiber for the animals consuming it. Farmer Rob Flory, interns Christie Naylor and Daniel Bailey operated the thresher run by a Galloway gas engine (c. 1910) to thresh out the bumper spelt crop.

Spelt is used primarily for Howell Farm's horses as it is a gluten free substitute for wheat. Though massive and strong, horses have delicate stomachs that cannot handle much glutenous substance. Spelt also produces particularly fine straw that is long and golden, which makes it easy to bind into sheaves while in the field. The straw is being stored loosely in Howell Farm's hay mow in the Horse Barn.
The remainder of Howell Farm's spelt will be threshed during Howell Farm's Fall Festival event October 2 & 3.

The Kitchen Garden has done relatively well during this dry season, especially the cucumbers. The peas shriveled under the intense New Jersey sunlight but the cucumbers with their ample leafy shade have beat the heat and are producing numbers of large straight 'cukes.'

The cucumber patch covers a small section of the Kitchen Garden but has capably supplied Howell Farm's two interns plus two resident farmers, who tend the garden and receive the fruits of their labor.

Farmer Jeremy Mills cultivated the sweet corn and popcorn in Hunter's Field on Tuesday, but even the weeds were in need of rain.  The dirt, which usually has some moisture a few inches below the surface, was entirely parched.  Mills remarked it was "so dry it was hard to tell where [he'd] been" with the cultivator.

Corn leaves curl over parched soil. 

The maze corn is even more desperate for water.  Planted later in the season to accommodate a September-November schedule, the Howell Farm Corn Maze is still growing and in need of rain.  Farmer Jim McDonough explained that the corn is "in distress," but predicts rain in the near future.  In the meantime, mounted sprinklers are distributing well water over very dry areas of the field, in advance of the rain.

 Sprinklers irrigate dry sections of Howell Farm Corn Maze.