Box Day!
In case you have ever wondered what "box day" is like...here is an idea:
We wake up early, just like every other day to get the kids on the bus to go to school and the youngest to Grandma's. Craig takes a last walk through the farm to observe what is happening, usually with a hot cup of coffee in hand. Today, for example, the tomatoes were wet in the morning so we waited to pick them until later morning. A lot of the tomatoes that went out today were picked green last week before a threatening frost that we dodged gratefully! Judith and Bumpa arrive to help. Judith is a worker share and comes every other Wednesday for box day. In exchange for her help, she receives a free share, any extra produce that she wants and lots of laughs throughout the day and a free lunch. Bumpa is my dad and just loves to work and loves to help. He also gets a free share and we learn a lot from him too-he grew up on a farm and did a lot of the work as a young boy. He also knows bees and we are learning that skill from him. We split up sometimes and each pick a different item, or work together on the same project. Veggies are brought to a central area where they are "field washed" which is basically a soak in cold water to get the field heat out of them. They aren't cleaned-this is your job at home :) then set to drip dry in the breeze. We sort through removing veggies that don't make the cut. After all items are harvested, we line up the boxes and start to fill them. After all boxes are filled, we load up for the various drop sites and hope to leave the farm by 2:30. Judith runs to Family Natural Foods and I go to Stoiber HealthCare. Craig goes to Blue Heron Brew Pub and delivers there and then goes in for a work shift. It is a busy, fun-filled day! There is a lot of work that goes into the finished product that doesn't happen on box day too and for all of that, I would need a much longer blog....
Jill-the farmer's wife
