Backs

Full sun all day. The temperature made a hazy 92F.

Back from the city and a fine holiday. Darlin and I visited her father out by the beach. He's a gifted gardener and landscaper-- so we talked plant business over many beers and much wine. I was happily surprised-- he might take me up on my offer and come see the farm. Is there such a thing as an agricultural-recruiter?-- think I've become one. Buses ran fast, got home early to find my brother had a little party in progress. Over some whiskey in the backyard I got to be chums with two fellas-- one was forced financially from college to join his family working a factory line, the other recently started as a line cook at a chain restaurant. On account of my increasingly grizzled appearance they dubbed me Captain Jack-- unfortunately, they were too young for my Billy Joel jokes ( ...'will get cha high tonight'...). A late night became an early morning too fast.


Rolled up to the farm a bit wooden faced from drink-- no mercy, just get right to it. I watered the greenhouse then joined NYU and Stretch behind the store. Bah's crew had been busy picking peas all weekend, so the cooler was packed full. The wholesaler truck was due in a few hours-- so we shifted out the bad peas, packed and weighed out the 10lb boxes of peas at a fever pace. The boss was in a rotten mood when he arrived. The big money farmer's market started today, and he loaded us up with work: peas all needed to be ready in an hour, bok choi/arugula/rabe needed cutting from the hilltop fields, romaine/chard needed picking from the lower fields, and the van needed to be packed with produce to leave in 2 hours.

NYU kept up the boxing pace, while the foreman took me and Stretch up to the hilltop. I gunned through the arugula and helped Stretch finish a crate of rabe-- the foreman picked off the bok choi. We hustled back down to the farm store and packed up more peas. Time really started to run short. The boys kept on with the boxes-- I ran down to the lower fields to slice through a crate of chard and 2 tight rounds of romaine. I hefted my catch back up the tractor road just in time to see the wholesaler arrive. I hosed down the crates and stuffed 'em in the cooler, but the truck was already gone. Oh well. NYU told me 60 finished boxes were picked up (20 bucks a 10lb box, not a bad haul). We filled another 20 and stacked 'em up in the cooler for tomorrow. Packed up the van with produce, finished just in time. The boss was still sour-- he ambled over and dragged NYU into the van without a word-- then took off to market. Stretch and I pitied our friend.

With the boss gone for the day the tension dropped quick. The foreman took me, Stretch and a new transplanting round of lettuce out to the lower fields. We set the lettuce trays in the shade, soaked them through with a watering can and then left for lunch.


After lunch, I pulled Stretch away from Mouse and we got to the lettuce. We needed to work fast as the foreman wanted to run the irrigation mid-afternoon. After creeping at a snails pace down a bed of loose leaf-- I took a page from Bah and Old Rudolpho's book: divide and conquer. Rather than pop out the soil plugs and then pack in the lettuce one at a time (Stretch was a painfully slow plug popper), I handled the trays--laying out the lettuce in position, while Stretch followed behind covering in with soil. We burned through the 6 trays (2 loose leaf, 2 romaine, 1 iceberg, then 1 tray with an undecipherable tag). While we planted, the foreman reconnected the water gun lines around the peas and shifted up the tomato line.

Finished the lettuce and the water started flowing. Stretch and I grabbed wrenches and wire-- we hustled clearing the nozzles, dragging plants and pond reeds from clogged pipelines. It was wet business, but it was about to get wetter. Irrigating both the tomato and lower fields requires a lot of water pressure, so the foreman pumped up the tractor a few hearty RPMs. The new water force caused a blow out along the tomato line-- the pipes literally shot out of their connectors. The foreman sprinted over and helped me muscle the pipes into place against the water torrent. Fixed it all up fine. Stretch and I cleared the lower fields, when the foreman came over with hand-hoes for our new assignment.

The cucumber rows in the forest field needed heavy weeding. We hiked up through the woods path, peeled out of our sopping shirts and such-- then got to the weeding. Cucumber beetles are entering their mating period, so any we could catch needed killing. I got a bunch, but Stretch said he didn't find any. The sun is hot on a bare back. The foreman came to weed after checking the irrigation. We managed to clear one and 3/4 of the rows before closing.

While the foreman shut down the water pump, I chatted around with Viking and Mouse. Over lunch, Viking made some lemon-limeade mixed with the dregs of strawberry jam from the cooking kettle. It was delicious. And I got on home.


Tomorrow is a hotter day, take it easy.

Vines

(On the bus, tired, so its gonna be a lightning post)

Full sun most of the day, partly cloudy in the morning. The temperature slipped just under 80F.

Pulled in and got that greenhouse all watered. Stretch and NYU were sent off to start snipping back the runner-vines from the day neutral strawberry rows. The boss mixed up a big buckets worth of a dry nitrogen fertilizer and took me up to the hilltop fields. He gave me elbow length rubber gloves and went on his way. This stuff is pretty caustic to human skin (hence gloves), but I sprinkled the fertilizer down all the rows the boys and I weeded on Tuesday.

Finally finished and headed down to the farm store. The wholesaler was coming to pick up some snap peas and jam around noon. I dragged out a few buckets and 5 boxes worth of the peas-- then sifted through the lot taking out any rodent/fungus/rot damaged pods. 10lbs per box (or 10 3/4lb when accounting for the box), I got 'em all packed right before the truck came. Rhode Island helped me and the truck driver load all the jam and pea boxes into the back. Lunch time.


After lunch NYU, Stretch and I got the CSA set up. Some raspberries went out today-- Bah and Old Rudolpho's crew has been picking more and more berries. Easy is out for two weeks, so NYU became king of the CSA-- stuck greeting members and refilling wagons with produce as they empty. Stretch and I went out to the day neutral strawberries in the lower field to finish snipping vines. Things went slow.

Out in the sun we clipped away 4 hours. Cutting the vines helps keep the rows manageable/conserves the plant's strength for berry production. Mid-way through, the foreman called me over and we disconnected the two peas/fava bean irrigation lines. We double checked all the connections, then he ambled off to get the pump going. Back at the vines, I could hear the drip lines fill long before the water guns started to sound. I headed down to the end of all the drip lines, pulled their plugs, let the pond scum flush and then reattached the plugs. Stretch and I caught a serious bought of field madness after crawling around on our knees in the sun-- fortunately we finished the vine cutting with an hour or so till close.

We joined up with the foreman to reposition the tomato field irrigation line. The foreman shut the water gate, we disconnected each length and carried them up to their new position. We reassembled the line and reopened the gate--water flowed fine. The boss came down and seemed surprised that we finished clipping the strawberries-- so he sent us to weed the parking lot gardens till closing.


Got my check, got some jam for Darlin' and her parents, but I didn't bring 'riding liquor' for the bus (despite NYU's advice). It's still a long ways off to the city, a few more transfers to go. Can't wait to eat. drink. then sleep.

Take it easy everybody, next post is on Tuesday.

Normal

Full sun all day, apparently a quick storm blew through in the early morning hours. The temperature danced in the upper 70Fs.

Stretch and Rhode Island got in early and had started washing yesterday's pick when I arrived. I sauntered down to the greenhouse and set up camp. Watered all the sprouts and to my surprise the broccoli I seeded has already germinated-- little shoots were everywhere. To my discredit-- I didn't do the best job, many plugs had 2 stems poking out. Thinned them out, one plant one plug, until the boss rolled in.

The first market started early, so I fetched the fancy wood produce crates from the barn and scrubbed 'em down. The boss's daughter was going to cover the first market, so she was around the store-- finally got the chance for a brief introduction. NYU and I started packing up everything for the markets (figured we might as well take care of both at once). For each: 1 crate of spinach, 1 crate of bok choi, 2 trays of lettuce (1 of loose leaf, then the romaine), 1 box of sweet peas, 1 box of snap peas, 1 tray of raspberries (18 pints and 18 half pints), 2 trays of strawberries (8 quarts each), 2 boxes of jams, 1 box of small pies (10 chocolate bottomed strawberry, 10 strawberry-rhubarb), 1 tent, 3 tables, scales, signs and shopping bags. No one buys rabe except CSA customers, so we don't usually bring it to market-- same for the swiss chard.

The van was all loaded up and ready to go-- NYU was heading with the boss and daughter to help with set up. There really wasn't much to do (or else the boss was too preoccupied to think up something)-- he sent me and Stretch to the lower fields to 'mix the fertilizer into the soil' with hoes. Neither of us had ever heard of fertilizer needing hoeing-- all the same, we turned over/weeded all the new lettuce rows. Lunch finally saved us.


NYU was back after lunch. The first market off to a slow start. Easy came in and we helped him clean the produce wagon and set up the CSA. Rhode Island appeared along with the boss and we loaded up the van for second market (the old reliable). Again, the boss was too distracted to think out real work-- so he sent me, NYU and Stretch down to mix fertilizer into the chard's soil. Not everyday is graced by ridiculous conversation, sometimes you're just left to hoe. The chard took 2 hours.

Back at the farm store we met up with the foreman-- we washed up and re-bunched a bunch of produce the boss shipped in from friends' farms to fill out the store. The CSA was in full swing, the spread is getting more impressive-- today we had: strawberry quarts, both lettuce varieties, snap and sweet peas, broccoli rabe, spinach, bok choi, swiss chard and tiny bags of arugula (not enough raspberries to put them out yet). Mouse was in the kitchen banging out pies-- they're always a hot seller on CSA days, people come for their share and then pick up a pie for dessert. The boss came by and decided tomorrow might be the first irrigation day in weeks. NYU and I went out through the tomato and lower fields reconnecting all the lines moved for tractor work. We set a water gun line through the bottom of the tomato field, one through the lettuce, one by the chard/kale/beets/choi, one line on either side of the peas and favas, and then we attached up all the strawberry drip lines. All ready for the water pump tomorrow.

Once more, the boss was at a loss for work. Bah and the Old Rudolpho's family had taken all the hoes, but he sent us to aimlessly weed through the string beans. Without tools, there wasn't much we could do except grab at the largest tower-weeds. Field mustard has sprouted up in patches, but we cleared out the lot of 'em. Closing was getting close.

After pulling through the worst of the string bean weeds, NYU and I wandered through the corn fields then back to the store. We helped Stretch wash and bunch up what produce remained. The foreman had checked in on the farmer's daughter (at the new market) and things had really turned around, almost everything was near sell-out. Stretch and NYU milled about chatting with CSA families, while I headed down for the end-of-day greenhouse check. The sun and heat dries out the tiny plant plug trays pretty quick, so I gave 'em a once over with water-- then finished thinning out my broccoli mistakes.

Closing time came and then home. As NYU said-- Thursday is the last night to clear out all the week beer before picking up weekend beer on Friday. Amen.


I'm headed back to the city for a long weekend tomorrow (the boss gave us July 4th off). Seems all I do these days is work and ride buses... rest is a station bench. I'll write something up for the day on the ride.

Friday cometh.

PICTURE DAY-- 63 Strong and His Lobster Necks

Pictures, then day. Snapped these before heading home (apologies to Darlin for stealing her photo job).

Always gotta start in the greenhouse. The empty looking trays in the center are the 2000+ broccoli plants I marathon seeded. Behind the bale of soil are 2 plantings worth of lettuce getting ready for the field. The mound of green on the far right are actually 6 enormous potted rosemary 'trees.' On the left (out of camera frame) are all the 2nd round tomatoes and a load of basil inching toward their day of transplanting.

Cantaloupe are on their way. In the foreground are the ones NYU and I managed to weed around-- those in the back 2 rows are in desperate need of some plucking.

A lot has changed since the last picture day, here's a shot from the horse's edge of the tomato fields-- a sea of green. They are healthy as hell, and boy am I ready to get picking them-- just 3 weeks to a month till harvest time starts.

Little green tomatoes are pushing out. This will become a Rose tomato one day soon. The roman tomatoes are supposed to be overgrown with budding fruit, but I didn't think to take a picture.

But nothing is ever perfect. Found little worm-maggots like this guy chomping at a few plants. Deep maroon slugs with black spotting and stripes. I might mention them to the boss.

Down at the cherry rows. These are the posts I bashed in with immense help from NYU and the foreman. Bah and Old Rudolpho ran the wire and staked the lines down. All the work crews joined forces to string each tomato plant up to the guide wire. The line will shoulder the plant weight so they wont break beneath the heft of the many tomato clusters.

Turn a little to the right from the last picture and here's the view. Sea of tomato plants cooking in the sun-- its gonna be a good year if the heat and sun keeps.

Here is a close up on how we tie up the cherry tomatoes. Loose knot at the bottom then spiral among the branches up to the wire. Tying knots is surprisingly therapeutic.

Over to the lower fields. This jumbled mess is actually a vaguely organized jumble of snap peas (on the left), sweet peas (center) and fava beans (the plant mound on the right). Picking has hit full stride on the peas last week up till now-- and more are mere days from ready. Bah and Old Rudolpho's family have been very busy.

The Fava Beans. Yes, its no trick of the lense, the bean pods are enormous and meaty. I dissected one with the boss, his wife and Viking this afternoon. Inside the tough exterior pod, is a fibrous short white hairs packing in the beans shells. The beans shell have a thick wall, but once these are removed there's a soft bean within. Uncooked, they have a bitter zip taste-- but the boss says once cooked they take on a sweet flavor. Picking hasn't started yet on these favas, but soon very soon. My Italian friend at the pizza shop is ready to explode. In years past he has bought the entire harvest-- hundreds of pounds-- outright. This year he has some stiff competition so there might be a 20lb per purchase limit. 

The Sweet Peas. Within the jungle you can make out some pea pods left to mature. These are pretty straight forward, peal the pod and there is a neat row of peas. As you might guess, they taste sweet.

The Snap Peas. The plant is very similar to the sweet pea, short vine structure curls in on itself-- allowing pods to sprout up everywhere in the tangle.Unlike the sweet pea, the pod isn't tasteless-- it's crisp and clean. You eat the pod/peas whole. We pop 'em like candy when walking the lower fields.

Rows of string beans. These plants have a ways to go before letting out their veggies.

Big beds of Swiss Chard (left), a half bed of 2 kale varieties (center) and a bed of beets (right). At the far end of the field, half the kale bed and beet bed has a planting of bok choi. The beets aren't ready yet, but we spent a lot of quality picking time here today (explaining why the chard/kale/choi looks so thin/non-existent).

3 beds of young lettuce. It takes these plants about a month to mature. They were transplanted about a week and a half ago. The CSA gobbles this stuff up, so we plant many cycles of lettuce co-currently to meet the demand.

3 mature lettuce beds. Left and center are the ragged left overs of romaine after today's cutting. The right bed is gone now. We cut all the loose leaf-- nothing but weeds remain.

A few rows of corn. These field shots follow the lower field's road edge chronologically- peas at one side-- corn at the other. The corn has shot up to 3 1/2 feet, growing a foot a week. The boss walked NYU and I through the corn today, explaining-- if everything goes right, just these 10 rows should produce ~900 dozen ears. I had it explained to me forever ago, but I still have trouble realizing the numbers-- one stalk really only yields one sell-able ear of corn. The rest are typically too underdeveloped. Also-- the corn lesson continues-- the silk strands on the ear? Each one is connected and develops with each kernel on the corn ear. The silk only browns when the ear reaches maturity and the strand becomes unnecessary to the plant.   We have many (many) plantings of corn-- but this is the one planted first. Harvest should come sometime mid-early summer.

The mating dance of corn. Each stalk has both male and female reproductive accoutrements.  The grain looking stem inching from the stalk's top is the male bit-- it will release its pollen down onto its female buds or the wind will carry to other plants in the field. Looking good and green.

The forest field-- the scene of last week's grisly vermin-day-of-reckoning. On the left are the long rows of summer squash, zucchini and patty pan destroyed by the vermin. You can see the field cloth we staked into place over the 3 rows. The summer squash and zucchini were in rough shape, but salvageable. The middle patty pan row (center of picture) was eviscerated-- only 20 ft of plants escaped alive (490 yards of waste). To the right, the shiny rows that kinda look like field cloth-- aren't. Those are 2 rows of cucumber planted in a new style the boss learned from his buddy's farm. The jury is still out on its effectiveness. I could go on forever but real quick-- not all plants (obviously) appeal to the vermin. But a plant's chemical make-up plays a major part in the vermin's choice. Young squash varieties offer a sweet smorgasbord-- but once they reach a certain developmental stage (according to the foreman), their chemical make up changes and animals are no longer enticed by the taste. It's just a matter of getting the plants to that point of maturity. 

The peppers are developing more leaves. Bah, Old Rudolpho, NYU and I planted these around the same time as the tomatoes, but just look at the difference in their growth rate-- these are much slower. Slowly they'll come.

I can remember planting these guys well. The double rows on the right and part-way down the center are all basil. The single plants in the center and on the left are all the egg plant varieties. The basil is certainly a bit taller and the egg plants have more leaves-- but they've a long way to go.


Let me take you on a berry tour of the farm:

The blueberries are just day/week away. Almost all the berries have started to take on their blues and purples. I missed these last year-- the harvest hardly lasted 2 weeks due to the hot weather. This year looks good, very good.

The gooseberries. I sampled some right after taking the picture, and their bitterness has given way to a nice clean bite. We hardly ever get to pick these guys-- the old russian ladies come down and clear the field on their own.

The currants are coming. These I know-- they take on a bright fiery red when ripe. These berries have a tart zip similar to the gooseberries, but even smoother.

I realized that I haven't posted any ripe raspberry photos-- so here they are, in all their glory. Even in the late day lighting you might be able to tell the slight difference in red-shade between the ripe berries and the ripe-about-to-drop berries. I wouldn't mind picking a lot more of these tomorrow.

The blackberries are in bloom. The most of the other berry photos came from the lower fields/rows near the onion field, but these are on the way up the hilltop. They have a long way to go.

A close up on the blackberry blooms-- you can see some of the berries developing in the cluster.

The hearty surviving strawberries of the hilltop fields. These are not an ever-bearing strawberry variety, so their end is approaching. The summer sun has started to take its toll on the plant's leaves. But here's hoping for another week or two.

Not berries, but here's the view in the orchard-- the peaches are swelling nicely. NYU had money riding on them staying tiny and inedible-- looks like I might get to collect. They wont be ready till Fall, but I got my eye that one with some color in the center.

End of berry/peach tour, on with a few more pictures.

View of some hilltop fields. The foreman has been busy laying periodic rows of corn rounds. If you zoom in and look close, you can see where the one round is just starting to peek out of the soil and then the dirt where more corn rounds will be planted in the upcoming weeks.

The heartbreak fields at the hilltop, where my boys work crew nearly met its match. On the far left are the 2 beds of beets, then the 3 beds of spinach, then the arugula, the bok choi and the broccoli rabe. The weeds used to be pretty thick around here, that is until yesterday.

The potato rows are unrecognizable. They are thriving up here.The boss pulled out a plant to check their development and gave me a look/lesson. 5-10 potatoes are developing in each plant's root system. The soil up here is perfect, we can just plant them and forget them (with only occasional weeding). The Fall harvest will be immense.

Turn left from the potatoes, and as you can see-- the foreman has been busy in his tractor solitude. The big summer sweet corn planting is creeping along at a serious clip. I'm looking forward to the return of the corn forests.

Last photo, the view from the orchard. Freshly mowed by the foreman, the peach trees and their fields are looking good. The farm has definitely entered the front door to summer.

Today was one of long hard picking, so I left many of the raspberry rows and fields up to the imagination (but as a hint: they're overflowing).  On to the day itself.

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63 Strong and His Lobster Necks

Full sun all day through. The temperature stuck at the mid 80Fs.

NYU, Stretch and Rhode Island were out behind the farm store when I arrived, they were lathering up their sun burns with a communal tub of lotion. We've all become attached to our specific knives-- NYU has a long fillet knife with a wood handle, Stretch has a short razor blade with a long rubber handle, Rhode Island has a kitchen knife with a duct taped grip, mine's a kitchen knife-- its handle held on with wire, electrical tape and rubber bands. We sharpened the knives, grabbed a sack of elastics and carried a few pick crates up to the onion fields. The boss had left a note-- all the rabe and spinach by the onions needed to be cut.


Rhode Island and I took the rabe, NYU and Stretch handled the spinach. I carried up 12 extra crates as we needed them. The boss's wife was preparing for a day at the dump, so she walked out to the field to get some help. NYU, Rhode Island and I loaded her SUV with a few old TVs and odd junk. Then back to the field. The boss's daughter showed up at the farm store during our water refilling. She was showing off her 'newest accessory', a terrified kitten that clung to her with all its claws as Lucy darted around. Back in the field, NYU convinced Rhode Island that the boss's daughter carried a secret flame for him. The subject of conversation varied depending on pick-your-own families proximity. But money was a safe topic-- NYU had enough of the 'bougy' folks who shop at Wholefoods complaining about eggs and papayas and their supposedly 'frankenstein-free' fruit. He talked with me about wealthy people who disguised their wealth well, and those who didn't-- and the difference that makes. First haul-- 8 crates packed tight with rabe, 3 tight cases of spinach.

The boss came to pick up the crates and we headed down to the lower fields. A tower of empty crates waited for us by the chard. Rhode Island and I started at one end, NYU and Stretch started at the other. We picked 8 crates by lunch time. Before taking off, we hosed off all the chard/rabe/spinach. The boss's wife swung by to pick up any final items bound for the dump. She revealed that today was the boss's 63 birthday-- we sang to him as we carried crates into the packed cooler. He couldn't have been happier.


After lunch, the boys lathered their burns and we headed back out. As we worked through the remaining chard Rhode Island turned his attention once more to his hatred for Jockey. Apparently Rhode Island overheard his enemy verbally abuse the boss, and that just couldn't stand. He wanted us to run into kitchen and ride the kid out on a pike-- instead we finished the chard. The boss picked up our catch and we started picking Kale. Rhode Island and Stretch took the dinosaur Kale. NYU and I covered a purple Kale variety. We pulled 4 crates of each type. Next up was the bok choi. Stretch and I started at one end and we finished the 12 crates in less than an hour.

Once again the boss rolled by to pick up the crates, but this time he dropped off many more empties and a bunch of big cardboard boxes. The lettuce was next-- as much as we could pick before close. Loose leaf has been in high demand, so we picked the entire row before turning to the Romaine. Rhode Island revealed the intimate secrets of his grooming habits. NYU was horrified to hear that he didn't have a pet name for his manhood-- so he orchestrated an elaborate naming ceremony in the middle of the field. Rhode Island decided he'd take the name of his car-- Jeep-- and double entendres filled the afternoon. Stretch shared his relished image of Rhode Island joining a furious boss at the breakfast table after a clandestine night with his secret love. Everyone decided that Rhode Island was the savior of the field-- he might not work particularly fast, but his conversation makes any job a pleasure. 20 crates of lettuce (18 loose leaf/ 2 romaine), then 10 big cardboard boxes of romaine.

Closing came around-- we were out of crates and time, but plenty of lettuce was still in the field. The boys took off immediately. I helped the boss wash the lettuce and move it into the cooler. Chatted a while with Viking-- she's concerned about Jockey, after all he's human too. The boss gave us a fava bean lesson, when his wife came back from the dump. She's an avid dump picker and scored quite a catch today-- a heavy steel dolly with one flat tire, 3 steel shovels, an iron grub hoe with a solid oak handle and three perfect rakes. The foreman returned from another day tied behind the tractor wheel. Everyone went on their ways home-- I took today's photos then followed suit.

Tomorrow is the first double market and CSA day-- its gonna be a madhouse.

Onward to it.

Rhode Island and the Boys

Full sun all day through. The temperature stuck at 82F.

Got in a few minutes late this morning-- not a good start. Avoided eye contact with the boss as he led the boys down to the lower fields, I passed down to the greenhouse. Chatted with the foreman about liquid fertilizer mixtures as I watered the seedlings-- 2nd round of tomatoes (for late summer/fall) are 3inches tall, 2 big plantings worth of broccoli are coming along (one almost ready for planting, the other hasn't germinated yet), romaine/loose leaf lettuce trays were slowly making progress, more basil is creeping out, 2 trays of zinnias are almost ready to be planted around the store and the potted rosemary plants were looking hearty as ever. I turned off the hose, grabbed a pick bucket and sprinted to the raspberry field at the far side of the lower fields.

The boys were just getting started, and the boss gave me a quick run down of the picking plan before he drove off in the SUV. He'd dumped 3 big plastic flat trays packed full of pint containers (~30 per tray). Raspberry picking is a dexterity game-- dodge through the prickered canes, digging out only the deep red berries (which easily pop off their stems when ripe). We use plastic paint buckets with ropes attached to carry the raspberries, so both our hands are free to pick and plop-- but you can never fill a bucket more than 1/3-1/2 full or else the weight will start to crush the berries at the bottom. I started at a fever pace to catch up/ pay penance for being late.

The boys crew is: Rhode Island (with Viking ruling the store, he's a field man now), NYU, Stretch, Big Boy (the new guy-- he's built like a thick stump, 14 years old but could bench press the van) and then there was me. We worked our way down the rows at a decent clip. Reached through the raspberries to shake Big Boy's hand and introduce myself-- he hardly said another word for the rest of the day. It was good to be back bullshitting with the boys, even Stretch was chatty-- ready to bust Rhode Island's chops at every turn. Though Rhode Island hardly left an opening-- he talked without stopping for a breath all morning. Jockey might as well have been tied to a whipping post, the way Rhode Island complained and tore the kid to pieces-- it got so bad that NYU (no friend to Jockey) finally told him to lay off and shut his face for a minute. Between that, Rhode Island's drinking stories and his detailed fantasies in filth, Big Boy was left somewhere between polite horror and terrified good humor. Rhode Island decided that because the boss has 2 daughters, we're all his adopt-a-sons by proxy. We filled up 2 trays (60 pints) and started a good number on the 3rd tray when we finished the rows (many berries left to ripen). Before leaving for lunch, I dragged the boys once more down the line to catch the few stray berries they'd missed.


After lunch I chatted with Jay-jay and Old Rudolpho. Two of the daughter-in-laws started working today-- their entire crew was out with Bah picking peas. The boys were ready to go, so we filled the water bottles and hiked up to the hilltop fields.

Like the boss mentioned yesterday, our big job of the day was to weed 8 beds (2 beet beds/6 rows, 3 spinach beds/9 rows, 1 arugula bed/3 rows, 1 bok choi bed/2 black summer rows & 1 Mei Qing row, 1 bed of broccoli rabe/3 rows). We started in high spirits-- be done in no time, or so we thought. Each row took about 40 minutes at a medium pace to finish-- but the foreman is always right, the summer boys worked like a funeral dirge. NYU kept with me and we cleared out the arugula in no time, then he took a beet bed and I turned to the Bok Choi. Stretch kept moving through a spinach bed-- but Big Boy and Rhode Island were a problem. When I finished the bok choi, no one had made any progress except NYU. So the two of us went to check on Big Boy-- and oh boy. The 2 rows he supposedly finished had more weeds left alive than beets. We gave him a few pointers and started to give him a hand, but he laid down and pulled weeds like he was playing with dandelions in a park. Rhode Island attempted to trade conversation for weeding-- so I sent him on a water refill run to the farm store. The sun was melting the boys down.

Fortunately Stretch upped his weeding game, between him, NYU and me we cleared nearly all the beds. Rhode Island finally returned in his jeep with water. With twenty minutes until closing, only the bed of rabe remained. All the boys set in and it proved a quick job. The boss came by to admire our work, then we all piled into Rhode Island's jeep for a near death experience/ ride back to the farm store.

After closing I stuck around to help the boss cut fertilizer bags into the spreader attached to the tractor. He asked me what I thought of Big Boy. I told him the guy did good for his first day, very very unused to the fields but with arms like his he'd catch on quick. The boss agreed. I checked in on the greenhouse and gave the seedlings a light watering. Viking seemed particularly harried in the store, so I took my leave and headed home.


Tomorrow is the first mega-pick day of the season. 3 markets start this week, the store needs to be restocked and the CSA is just a few days off-- hope the boys are ready.

Living Up

Full sun today, big clouds drifted here and there. Temperature stuck at 80F.

Back from the city-- real happy to see Darlin. It took quite some sleep this weekend to shed last week, though squeezed a few shared drinks with friends. Met a 60 yr old man in a Hawaiian shirt outside the bus station-- he grew up in Oregon and we chatted a long time about the state of things in this world. It's funny how much an old man and a young man can agree upon.

Dwelling a bit on the city, probably because the first day back in the fields after a trip is always strange-- maybe lonely is the word. Monday is a lonely day.



Stretch (the tall high school guy who helped out in March) was back. He's been working weekends, but the boss has upped him to the big leagues. Rail skinny and two feet taller than me, Stretch has a speech impediment-- so he's pretty quiet. We grabbed 5 gallon buckets and headed down to the lower fields with the boss. Old Rudolpho apparently got real sick over the weekend, so Bah was out alone facing down the snap and sweet pea harvest--until we got there.

We focused on the sweet peas (Bah had the snap peas covered)-- even the boss was on his knees digging pods out of the tangled rows. We filled up three buckets and marched them back to the farm store. The boss decided that too many things needed doing for us to spend the day with peas. We have 12 rows (6 beds) of snap peas and 6 rows (3 beds) of sweet peas, all of them are ready to pick right now. 20lbs of each type are kept in the store, a couple hundred lbs are held for the CSA, and then all the rest are boxed up to be sold wholesale. Stretch and I headed up by the onion field to cut a crate of broccoli rabe and spinach. I sliced a quick crate full of rabe, then we finished off the spinach. Washed and chilled.

According to the boss, this could be the week for buying a new van. He only buys domestic made cars and machinery for the farm (strange then that he only buys foreign cars for his family)-- so its gonna be Chevy or Ford. The boss wife is a gifted negotiator, so he's waiting until she has a free day to head to the dealership. Stretch and I saddled up to go pick the hilltop field's strawberries-- except the van was outta gas. So we piled into the boss's wife's SUV and rode up-- felt like going to soccer practice. --Aside-- the boss has real interesting... music taste, he upped the volume on some top-40 hits of the week station on our ride.

Over the weekend the hilltop strawberries turned around, (it wasn't too great but) a lot more berries were ripe for picking. We filled up four boxes (32 pints) before lunch, with quite a few left for the picking. Last week's rain must have made me sun-soft, picking out in the full heat was oppressive. On the ride back to the farm store the boss pointed out the turkey nest that the foreman accidentally ran over while mowing down a field with the tractor-- big eggs were smashed all over the place.


The boss wandered into my pizza shop at lunch. He sat down and we talked up-coming markets. The town board convinced him into joining a new market at the town center-- unfortunately, its the same day as one of the old reliables. The boss hired a new kid today to work part time. He figures that between Rhode Island, NYU and the new guy, running the new markets shouldn't be a problem. Before the boss sat down I was flipping through a sports magazine, so we chatted about a NFL dropout turned professional crossing guard who has the strongest hands in the world.


Viking and NYU both have Mondays off, so no post-lunch hanging out today-- straight to work. Stretch had the trays and pints already, so we hiked back up to the strawberry fields for picking. The boss came to join us after a while and we polished off the sparse remaining rows. Before heading back with the berries, we checked out the beet/spinach/arugula/rabe field NYU and I weeded last week. Everything is growing fast, but detailed weeding is needed between the plants. The boss revealed his plan for a new work/wrecking crew-- I'd be in charge of NYU, Stretch and the new guy. Tomorrow will be our test day, weeding on the hilltop. I felt bad for the foreman, hardly ever see him out of the tractor these days-- definitely a solitary way to pass the days.

Back at the farm store we unloaded all the strawberries and got set for raspberries. Stretch was given 3 pick buckets and set up in the raspberries at the far end of the lower fields (picking the first of the season). I wasn't so lucky. The boss set me up with the trimmer to saw down the weed forest enveloping all the lower field rows. I ran out of string several times, but the going was quick-- then the serious business began, h hand weed the travel lane between the fava beans and sweet peas. The lane had been overgrown with  tower weeds with waxy leaves resistant to herbicide. I gave 'em hell.

Through some miracle of the work-trance I managed to finish the entire 500 yard lane right before closing. Stretch dumped off his day's raspberry picking-- the boss was unimpressed and gave a brief lecture on the maturity required to get. a job. done. Felt bad for Stretch (i've never picked raspberries yet) , so I snuck him a cookie from the kitchen. I checked over the greenhouse before signing out-- and the boss caught me. He decided, in addition to a work crew, I needed to look after the sprouts from now on-- get them watered in the morning and make sure they stay hydrated on hot days. I hope a raise is creeping down the pipelines.

Bumped into Wild Woman (she owns and cares for the horses) on her way up from the barn. She refuses to wear shoes, even around the horses. It was the best news she heard all day when I mentioned the raspberries Stretch dumped at the store. She hustled in to lift a pint, and I headed home.


Plugged in the camera, a picture day is immanent. I wanted to wait for Darlin's next visit, but things are developing week by week now. No one would recognize the farm if I waited another few days.

On to tomorrow!

A Reputation

Rained last night-- mist/ light rain all through today, weather picked up after close. The temperature held at a steady 58F.

(Last night had another long boot repair session-- they were dry as bone by morning.)

I met the foreman and NYU outside the greenhouse this morning. We hitched up the wagon and loaded it with 30 of the rusted iron trellis posts-- I could see where this was going. I tossed the maul and pry bar in with the posts, NYU found an old, bent iron bar with a flat end-- perfect for tamping down the soil. The foreman drove the muddy path down through the tomato fields to the two un-trellised rows of cherry tomatoes, and we set to work. The foreman drove over the row with the tractor and wagon, NYU dug out 3ft deep every 14 plants-- I bent the posts' cross pieces straight and bashed that iron into place. NYU and I took turns packing down the soil around the posts, we agreed it was too early for this sort of work.

Finished up laying the posts and we headed back to the farm store. Mouse might be rotated/ phased out of the kitchen, the girl who ran the baking last Fall has come back-- she has one of those pompadour/ponytails. Pomp wasted no time setting things straight (she's definitely a capable baker/cook). I sampled the first cookie batch, and she has both Jockey and Mouse beat. As it was her first day this season, the whole gang stood in the kitchen chatting for a while-- then back to work.

I stacked 40 or so empty pick crates back up in the barn, then the boss finally arrived. More CSA this afternoon, and our stock of strawberries was running low-- with Bah and Old Rudolpho out picking peas, it became our problem. We loaded the new tractor's front loader with cardboard baskets and the pint containers-- then hiked up to the 5 rows of strawberries on the hill top.

Things didn't look good. There were long gaps in the rows, and the berries were tiny, cracked, molded or mis-developed. The foreman sized up the situation, and we decided to get on with it. Strawberries-for-sale have to be perfect-- full deep red ripe (no white tips), larger than your thumb and free of marks (no rodent nibbles/cracks/etc). All the seconds (flawed but still edible) head to the kitchens for jam. We covered all five long rows in a depressingly short amount of time. The catch: 10 pints of sell-able berries and 20 pints for jam. Another 10-20 pints worth of berries were left in the field-- they need a week more to fully ripen. It was just about lunch, so we carted the berries down and split off.

(Wasn't paid in time for the city trip this week, so I ate in the car while driving a few towns over to my credit union. Got back crazed and still hungry.)


After lunch Rhode Island packed up the boss's wife's car and headed out for the first farmer's market of the summer. The rest of us had to get the CSA ready. Easy and NYU set up the wagons, then we piled on the produce. Noticed the cooler was nearly out of bok choi-- the foreman and NYU set out to cut another eight crates worth. The boss had other plans for me. He had picked up another bale of soil and a big round of broccoli needed to be seeded.

I headed into the greenhouse and set out 20 trays ( ~100 plant plugs a piece). I set in the soil, watered 'em and waited a few minutes as they soaked. I poured a heap of seeds into an ice cream cup and started seeding-- first you compress the soil with your fingers, drop 1 seed per plug (broccoli seeds are pin head sized), cover with a 1/4in of soil and then soak the whole lot over-- then repeat for 20 trays. I lost track of time-- in a seed trance. When I finished, I stalked up the hill and found NYU had just got back from picking. One hour had passed-- that was some damn fast seeding right there. I helped NYU wash up the 8 crates of bok choi, then we rolled it all into the cooler.

The CSA members were pouring round, picking up their week's share-- when the boss came to ask a special favor. His wife and daughter had just pulled in after a three day road trip (coming home after college graduation), and the daughter's car was stuffed full with her stuff-- he asked me and NYU to go unload it for them. Sure why not.

I'd never been further into the boss's house than the kitchen, but this time we got a full tour in between lugging boxes and furniture. NYU and I stared at a wedding photo on the wall-- the boss 40 years ago, long hair down his shoulders and one mean handle-bar mustache. The professor (the boss's wife) said they had terrible weather on the drive-- they stopped one night rather than be swept off the road in a flood. It looked like the boss was in the middle of major renovations-- we packed all the stuff in a stripped master bathroom. Despite all the unloading, I still haven't so much as met the boss's daughter-- though the professor thanked us over and over. Walking back to the farm, NYU and I had a few laughs-- this job...

Time was slipping by this afternoon, but one big task remained. While we were busy unloading, the foreman had cut a thousand or so lengths of string-- it was time to tie up those cherry tomatoes. We each took a few hundred lengths of string around our necks and marched through the tomato field. The foreman explained the business-- tie a knot around the plant's base (needs to be a little loose, as the plant's stem will grow as the season progresses), carefully spiral the rope through the tomato branches (hefting it up, but not too taunt that parts of the fragile plant snap off) and then tie the rope onto the line of wire running along the trellises with a slip knot (the knot allows quick untying for readjustments).  We knelt down and got to it. Bah, Old Rudolpho and the latter's grandson Jay-jay , joined in the marathon stringing.

By the day's end we had several hundred plants strung and 4-5 rows completely finished (17 rows to go).

On the way out I picked up a bunch of stuff to bring Darlin in the city. Got some strawberry jam, lettuce, chard, and bok choi. The beekeeper finally came by and bottled up the first honey run of the season-- grabbed a jar of that for Darlin. Just as I was about to leave the boss stopped me.

2 things I don't like much-- complaining (as Perkins sings best: don't tell me your troubles, I've enough of my own, just thank god you're livin', drink up and go home) and bragging. I don't mean to be doing the second one, but: the boss gave me the week's paycheck, then gave me a pat on the stomach with the flat side of the butcher knife he was holding, he said-- I wanted to tell you, I'm damn proud of the work your doing. You like what you do, and you got a knack for it-- really shows. Take it easy this weekend.


I'm damn proud that the things I do can make a tough old man say stuff like that. I nearly forgot all about the late paycheck... almost.


Riding to the city on a bus right now-- typing in the dark. What a wet week. Happy to be dry and on this bus thinkin.

See ya on monday and take it easy.