Spinella Farm

The frontal boundary stalled over our area is keeping the humid and wet conditions present. However, I feel confident that I have done what I could to protect the plants most susceptible to disease. Time will tell.

In the meantime, the plants are really taking off and getting big. In the last couple of days, some plants have grown to two to three times their previous size at the start of the week.

Dad is amazed at the growth of the snow peas. He has been out in the patch picking every day over the same rows. He has taken to calling the snow peas, the "asparagus of the bush climbing family" because of the frequency at which he is picking. I believe that we have already exceeded the number of pounds of snow peas we picked at this time last year, it's been that good.

The garlic scapes are another big time product. We have more scapes now than we can possibly sell. I have started to make inquiries of restaurants who may be interested in using them. I'm hoping to keep them as long as I can to sell at the tail gate markets but I fear that I will have to get rid of many before this is all over.

The Atlantic City Press had a front page article yesterday on small acreage farmers. These are operations defined as less than 10 acres down to one acre. While the statistics say that these are becoming less and less, that can be misleading. One of the reasons is that small acreage like that does not qualify for farmland assessment. Another is that an operation of that size has a large start up cost that could take most people years to recoup. Anyone doing that scale is probably earning money off the property like myself. But I believe in the end that these small operations will be the life blood of agriculture here in New Jersey. The techniques and equipment are changing and become more cost efficient along with the movement of locally grown food.