Weather, weather, weather. Hot and clear skies all day until a few hours before closing-- big isolated thunderstorms passed on either side of the farm. The thunder was booming, but everything narrowly missed us-- only got 15 minutes of rain, then back to sunny/humid/hot. Temperature was in the upper 80Fs.
Met up with everyone in the barn this morning-- shifting around the tomato boxes. We set up 60 or so boxes for the CSA today, 15 boxes for the store and then picked through all the piles throwing out the rotten tomatoes. There was a major haul of new tomatoes coming from the fields today, so the boss/foreman/me threw 800lbs of imperfect/damaged old ones into the tractor bucket for the compost heap. Big Boy came in to work one last day before going back to school-- he helped NYU and me arranging all the corn/tomatoes in the store. Next job: Big Boy, NYU, the boss and I headed up to the hill top for more potatoes. We dug along and filled 8 bushel baskets (4 reds, 4 yukon golds).
Back at the store, we washed up all the potatoes and started setting up some more of the CSA produce. The foreman called me over and we made several tomato trips-- carting buckets from the field to the barn. 90+ buckets worth, I stopped counting after the third trip.
A few weeks back the foreman shattered the rotor attachment's cutting blades on some rocks (7/8in of solid steel simply shattered in half). The replacements finally arrived, so the foreman and I climbed under the encasement and got everything bolted into place. It's amazing how such a big piece of machinery can be so well balanced-- I could spin the blades with just a push of my finger. We tested everything out and headed to lunch.
Over lunch I sat and chatted with NYU. Exchanged our information and discussed a couple good bars for once he gets back from studying in Germany. The foreman came by and we actually discussed the possibility of splitting an apartment on the off-season-- his girl-friend lives in the city too, and he has been trying to get a foothold there for years. Rhode Island rushed out of the store with a newspaper-- apparently a local journal picked up my beet photo. We passed it around and the boys laughed their asses off.
After lunch everything slowed down to a grind. Big Boy and I helped the foreman carry over another load of tomato buckets from the field-- and we set up shop in the barn with Old Rudolpho and family. The lot of us shined and sorted through all the tomatoes. We prepared 100 boxes for wholesale (50 ripe, 50 unripe) and filled up 2 towers of tomato trays. Old Rudolpho saved a bucket of good tomatoes the boss didn't want for Bah. The boss came to check in on us and chatted with Big Boy/NYU about their school plans. After a few more hours work we'd sorted everything-- time to go pick more.
Me and the boys headed down to the trellises and picked all the cherries/big tomatoes-- filled 22 buckets. The thunderstorms blew in around us-- we hustled all we could carry up to the store to stay dry. Then back out into the rain-- fortunately for the tomatoes it didn't last long. Bah came down from berry picking and helped us finish up. The lower half of the big tomato field was next. The short rain left the field a muddy mess, but we inched along through the red pear/striped german/striped roman/big yellow rows. I sat down with NYU for a quick breather, it's too bad his last hours on the farm this year had to be so miserable-- he was soaking wet, covered with mud and exhausted. Well, the work goes on.
Closing time finally came around and it was time for goodbyes. Shook hands with NYU saying, see ya soon buddy. He's flying out to Berlin in a week for his semester abroad. Easy (the CSA guy) has his last day tomorrow, so I won't see him again-- handshakes and well wishes. Today was Big Boy's last too, slapped him on the back and told him to have a hell of a football season (funnily enough, I found out today that his real-life nickname at school/sports is 'the dough boy'-- I got close ahaha). Before heading out I met up with the boss out back and got my paycheck. It's been a rough 2 weeks money-wise-- a big weekend fair was rained out, 3 markets were a bust and the rain slowed the farm store's business to a crawl. Then piled on top--all the recent expenses: getting the van, repairing the water pump and the old tractor's broken hydraulic system. The boss was relieved that we've started dwindling back to just the skeleton crew (me, the foreman, Newport, Viking and Bah). It has been a bit tight keeping up with both the expenses and the summer kids' payroll. The boss wanted to check-in with me, and see if I wanted extra hours covering a late market/1 or 2 late CSA days every week-- my answer was, of course, yes. More work, more money.
I'm off for a little weekend trip with the family. And Darlin' is off on a 10 day trip with her family in Ireland. Stuff is inching slowly together, I like to imagine. I've all sorts of plans for next week-- gotta drive around with gift tomatoes for family/crazy neighbors/old teachers and such. Old friends are back in town (both recently unemployed, maybe this can be fixed: farmwise. Then again maybe not). There is lots of catching up and drinking to be done. I've been cutting down on the coffin-nails (or cigarettes, for you lay-people), and maybe the farm work has finally rebuilt my torn-up shoulders enough that I can start sparring again. Jesus, I'm becoming some sort of straight-laced old man. Gotta remember-- a little chaos now and then never did anyone no harm. The wheels just keep on turning.
Take it good and easy, this Summer will soon be gone.
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