New Jersey farms look ahead to holiday season after challenging fall

It's a chilly day up on the farm and as the weather changes, so do the activities. So pumpkin picking is over. There's no doubt that this year has been a very challenging year for New Jersey agriculture, especially the Northeast agriculture. Through the late season freeze, killing nearly 70% of the apple crop, losing September weekends to rain, Rebecca at Alstead Farms is keeping the place running. This year is not one of the best years on record. I think we're going to make it into another year, but we're really hoping and preparing for next year to be a really... Low spending year and a good year to recover and plan some amazing events. The pumpkin patch and corn maze will be tilled into the ground, fall veggies are harvested, and you can smell Thanksgiving already. Wait, no, not that. I mean the pies. And they're super popular. throughout the week of Thanksgiving. Moving right along to Christmas. We're probably moving through This year is our second year doing Cut Your Own Christmas Trees. We're really excited. These trees were planted over almost 10 years ago. a couple thousand pies. Each tree takes about a year to grow a foot. So now we're sitting at some Six, seven, eight footers this year, we have about 600 trees. And even when it's cold, they are still picking lettuce. These will be growing and we'll be able to harvest them in December for Christmas time, but also into January, February and March as this tunnel keeps it much, much warmer in here. So it allows us to get an extra month or two on the end of our season and also on the early side of our season. It's definitely the time to support your local farmers this year.