A day in the life of harvesting

We spent this morning harvesting, which we do throughout the week. It’s a great way to jump start our mornings and awaken our sense of farming. Being out in the fields while the sun is starting to peak and the dew is glistening on the plants is just beautiful. These are the days I love farm life!
This morning we all jumped in the back of Andy’s truck and recapped on what’s going on in everyone’s life. We all live very different lives, but as soon as we step onto the farm, we come together. Between jokes and helping hands, we are our own crazy little Sol Flower Family.
Andy drove us down Wiltsie Bridge Road on the back of his truck, letting the wind act as a caffeine boost. We arrived in the fields and unpacked the truck of our harvesting tools. There is usually one person we designate in charge of numbers prior to harvesting. They let us know how many of each vegetable and variety we need to harvest and tell us when we have cut or picked enough. This morning that person was Andy; he seemed the most awake. He yelled out the numbers and we all started picking, first starting with kale and working our way to rainbow chard. We picked leaf after luscious leaf until we each had gorgeous edible bouquets of veggies in our hands.

We filled our buckets and set them aside in the shade, diligently working toward the next variety. We were done in less than an hour. Once we finished, we packed up the truck, said goodbye to the rest of the crops and tried to find room to sit or squat as we drove back to the farm.
It seems a Sol Flower tradition to sing absurd songs loudly and out of tune while washing and packing our freshly harvested yield. Smiles across every face, our morning of harvesting is coming to an end… until tomorrow.
We harvest almost every day of the week. Mondays for the Berkshire Co-op, Tuesday for the midweek CSA, Wednesday for our restaurant orders and Thursday/Friday for the weekend at the store, CSA and farmer’s markets. As the summer rolls on, harvesting will continue to play a priority role and consume more time in our days. Makes sense, right? More crops and varieties, more harvesting. Literally from farm to table! We try to harvest the same day or only one day prior to when our produce is needed to ensure quality control. We’ve been told how vast our veggies are and how long they last. It’s great to hear that since that’s our goal.

So go enjoy that yield!! You know where we’ll be…