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Pictures of The First Harvest From The CSA Farm

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Three months ago or so I uploaded an entry talking about how I was joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm for the summer season. One of my roommates and I joined the Merrick Farm in Farmingdale, Monmouth County, New Jersey (which, by the way, I can’t say enough good things about). A few weeks ago one of my roommates and I picked up our unofficial first gathering from the CSA in the form of strawberries and asparagus – both of which tasted great!

Below, though, are pictures of our first “real” take from the farm. As you’ll see, it’s enough greens to last two or three people a good week…which is great because that’s when we’re going back again! Click on the thumbnails below for bigger versions of the pictures.

     

     

If you have a CSA farm in your area, I recommend calling them to see if you can still get a share this season or if you can sign up early for next season!

Roxbury Board of Education Misses The Point

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Each day I browse around the websites of various newspapers that I would read if I had subscriptions and had the time to sit down in the morning and look over them. These include local newspaper websites like the Asbury Park Press and the Daily Record. This morning I was flipping around the Daily Record’s website and came across an article entitled, “Roxbury student code of conduct now in effect 24/7/365.” I’d link you to the article, but these Gannett-owned newspapers don’t keep their articles online for more than a few days and then you have to pay for them (ha!). However, the point of the article was as follows:

The school board has revised its code of conduct policy to require students be on their best behavior the entire calendar year — even when school is out — or face suspension from extracurricular activities, board member Chris Rogers said Tuesday.

Now as a former student at Roxbury High School and as a former college student who fought this type of nanny-state activity at my university, I hate this decision by the Roxbury school board. And there are any number of reasons to hate it. First of all, the policy seems to single out those students that are involved in extracurricular activity. So little Susie is on the softball team and is found in violation of this vague policy in July (what IS “best behavior?”). Is she to be suspended from the first four or five softball games the following spring? Isn’t that a bit ridiculous?

What about little Bobby who doesn’t have any extracurricular activities. Does he get suspended from school if he does something that doesn’t qualify as “best behavior” in August? And if so, then is he suspended the first two weeks of school in September for an “offense” committed on August 1st? Is this insane or what?

How about Jen – the President of the Student Council. She gets cited for not being on her “best behavior” a few days after school is out in June. Is she then suspended from participating in the Student Council for the month of September?

And is it fair that Billy is suspended from school while Susie and Jen just get to miss out on their extracurricular activities?

And does this policy apply to the school’s faculty? Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that every single teacher or employee of the school district exhibits their “best behavior” all day, every day. And who is to define “best behavior?” What if my family’s best behavior is different than your family’s definition? Do you see how crazy this can get?

These types of theoretical situations can go on and on, which is typical of policies that shouldn’t be enacted in the first place. The school board is overstepping their bounds in this case in an inappropriate manner. This policy should be rescinded immediately.

Joining a CSA Farm for the Coming Season

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Last October I reviewed a book called “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan. This book had a lot of great information and I highly recommend it to everyone reading. One of the pieces of information that I pulled out of the book and included in my review was the community supported agriculture concept. This is what I wrote back in October:

Another thing that I picked up from reading this book was the existence of community supported agriculture (CSA). With CSA, a consumer pays a set dollar amount to buy a “share” in the farm’s produce; their share comes in the form of a weekly or monthly box of produce that are grown at the farm. This is a good idea for a variety of reasons including the freshness of the items, supporting the local economy, and creating a sustainable method of getting food on your plate.

Pretty interesting, huh? Well, I’ve kept this idea in my head for the last few months and this past weekend I joined the Merrick Farm CSA program in Farmingdale, NJ by purchasing a half share for the coming season. The half share costs $375 (which I’ll split 50/50 with one of my roommates) and entitles me to a weekly box of vegetables, herbs, some fruits, and other 100% certified organic offerings grown at the farm, which is about fifteen minutes from my house. The length of time that the share is active runs from the first week of June through the last week of October – 22 weeks in total. The weekly cost of the share is about $17 ($8.50 per week once I split it with my roommate). There’s no way I’d be able to get a box of organic vegetables each week and spend only $8.50! Plus, the farmer suggested that we might be able to begin getting some produce earlier than the first week of June, but it’s a long shot.

I’m hoping that this turns out to be a good deal. I did some preliminary research on the farm everyone has good things to say about it. During my visit this past Saturday I liked what I saw and I was very happy with the information that I received. More on my involvement in the CSA program as it comes…

The Folks In Oceanport Have A Problem

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At some point in January, the Asbury Park Press reported that the citizens of Oceanport in Monmouth County have a big problem. It seems that their Town Council was forced to do a revaluation of the township’s properties during the height of the real estate bubble. The end results? Read below…

Now, Councilman Gerald Briscione is looking into ways to relieve borough property owners. “We did the revaluation at the top of the market, but we were forced to,” said Briscione, noting that the state orders such measures and the county Board of Taxation enforces it.

Briscione said he did an analysis of property sales from November 2008 through the middle of January, and found the overwhelming majority of properties listed for sale were now assessed at 163 percent of market value.

During a time when people are looking for immediate tax relief and “change,” is there a better way to deliver it than at the local level? Coucilman Briscione understands what his constituents have to deal with better than anyone at the national or even state levels of government, so why not undertake immediate change right now? The article went on to talk about how the township is considering holding off on revaluing the properties until this summer to see if the real estate market stabilizes.

This represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what the problem is with the real estate market in the first place! The market was in a bubble because prices were inflated – dramatically inflated. Apparently values were inflated some 63% in Oceanport, but the percentages vary around the nation. Due to this inflation, many people woke up one morning to the harsh reality that the home they live in is NOT worth what they were led to believe. In other words, even if the market stabilizes, the value of these properties is not going to shoot up 63%!

The best path forward in Oceanport is to do the revaluations and put this issue to bed. If that doesn’t happen, then I have to imagine that there will be a flood of tax appeals coming in the near future.

An Update on Asbury Park’s Redevelopment

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There is so much going on in the Asbury Park redevelopment that if you’re not paying attention, you may miss a whole lot. One of the nice folks at Madison Marquette (a major developer along the Asbury Park boardwalk) sent me a link to a YouTube video their firm put together that shows a lot of what is going on along the beach area.

This is a great look at all of the fun things going on in Asbury Park. Not only are there people back on the boardwalk, but businesses are back, too! Plus, they are operating year-round in some classic locations. The video is posted below for your review.

Looks like there is a lot going on over in Asbury Park, huh? Here’s hoping that more good things come to this city, which has waited a long time for rejuvenation.