Overhaul

(Before getting started: The dog days of summer harvest haven't made for the best writing/reading. I'm looking to revitalize things, a lot. I've been dragging my feet, but maybe it's about time to update the site design. My brother is a web programmer and has offered to help out many times-- I've just put it all off for some other day. Well, I'm sure you might notice when things start looking different.)

(I left right after work to help move my brother into a new apartment, just got home at midnight. I'm beat. Let's stuff in some words before I collapse into sleep/coma.)

Cloudless sky all day through. Temperature was in the low 70Fs.

We made it through the storm fine. The streams and ponds flooded a good portion of the cow pasture-- but we didn't lose any of the herd. On the drive to the farm I pass through 300-400 acres of Veterinary school farm land-- today it was a mess. Trees were down everywhere, their feed-corn fields were snapped and busted. A crew had just finished sawing up a tree-trunk that had block off the town road entirely. The school is built on a hilltop and that damned them-- our hills saved us. The corn was twisted up pretty badly, but I didn't see huge sections snapped like up the street. The raspberries had been shook up-- a good number of canes had bowed down into the mud/lost their over-ripe berries. Otherwise, everything picked up as the day wore on-- the sun brought all the swamped fields (as Newport says-- plants want to live, so get out of the way and let them). The biggest trouble we had was hunting down the garbage cans (the boss forgot to put 'em inside)-- Newport fished one out of the pond, I pulled one from the woods edge on the other side of the tomato fields. The log bridge leading up to the forest field was swept down stream, but Newport and I rebuilt it during our rounds. The foreman made out the worst of everybody. He went down to visit his girlfriend in the city/ride out the storm this weekend-- but while he was gone a tree fell onto his new car in a parking lot. He didn't show at work, needless to say. But mostly, the damage was minimal. The electricity was out at the farm from late Saturday straight through to early Monday. Businesses in the town's center are still left in the dark. The boss had planned for a power-out (we only picked what we needed for the CSA/store on Saturday), so the cooler was empty-- nothing spoiled or went bad for want of refrigeration. The boss was in a stellar mood this morning.

After the damage assessment, we just picked up and started picking/filling that cooler back up. Newport and I joke all day-- today was magic, neither of us could remember hauling so much food. Bah has splintered off, heading up a small Vietnamese work crew-- they repaired the berries and picked beans. All of Old Rudolpho's extended family hit the fields (with the exception of his grandson Jay-Jay, who has started school)-- they picked hard veggies with me and Newport.

Before lunch we got: 12 buckets of zucchini, 15 buckets of summer squash, 7 buckets of patty pan, 6 buckets of kousa, 10 buckets of cucumbers and 5 buckets of pickling cukes. Somehow Newport and I managed to grab: 1 bucket of italian bull nose peppers, 1 bucket of fairytale eggplant, 2 crates of basil (all for the store), and wash/box/chill the entire morning haul-- finishing just in time for lunch.


After lunch the fun really began-- Old Rudolpho's crew hit the peppers. Newport and I ran around grabbing a few bunches worth of chard/kale/beets to round out the store. With all the chaos in town the boss really wanted to send a statement-- don't worry/pity us, everything is just fine and dandy. So we tidied up the store and got everything looking perfect. We got a start dragging everything together for tomorrow's big money market-- Gizzie's first day/proving ground. Then it was time to pick up the peppers.

I hitched the big wagon up to the wagon and the boss drove us up to the forest field. The harvest was a dream. 28 buckets of red italian bull nose peppers (and 4 big cardboard boxes full) , 18 buckets of ace/super shepherd red peppers (and 2 cardboard boxes), 8 buckets of red pepper 2nds (for hot pepper jelly) and 1 bucket of green peppers (hahahaha). Newport and I piled all the buckets into the front of the wagon and built a box wall across the back-- leaving the center empty, as it was cantaloupe time. Together with Old Rudolpho's family we filled the entire wagon and the front loader with melon. We rode back to the farm store sitting on the melon pile-- feeling like kings. With cigarettes ablaze, Newport and I shouted down to everyone in earshot/driving-by. It is a damn fine feeling.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sorting through/boxing up the peppers and carefully arranging the cooler. With so much melon the boss wanted to be careful-- so we set up a big pumpkin box in the cooler and stuffed it to overflowing (the cold will slow the ripening a little). With all the excitement the boss didn't have a chance to check the damage on half the farm, but he didn't care. Harvest hauls like today's are enough-- quite simply, they're enough to make anybody feel good.

With only a little time left Newport and I ran out to the cantaloupe patch near the store and pulled 50 melons (of a new variety) for the store/tomorrow's market. Newport decided he had no idea what a good melon looked like and left the cutting to me-- he hauled them from the field, 5 at a time, and packed 'em away. With the day done, we hunted down a good ripe melon for ourselves and sat on the harrow in a nearby grass field. I took my long knife and hacked it up into slices, Newport scooped out the seeds and muck. We laughed and stuffed our faces. It was a damn fine day.