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i can’t sleep so here are some pics from my farm apprenticeship
(i’m sharing bc despite gardening for the past 2 years i was still unaware of how large scale farm organic operations worked and i thought others might relate to that!)
box pack day happens twice a week. it requires about 30 people hoisting hundreds of bins of produce out of three 18-wheeler sized coolers . we arrange the bins in the specific order they will be packed (usually roots to the bottom, greens in the middle, fruits on top)
^^750 boxes. which we put together. it’s super fun! my goal is to get down to 10-12 seconds per box 
on harvesting days we have to get enough for 750-1500 csa’s. so we count out that many rubber bands and put 100 on each carabiner and clip them to our pants. this way we don’t have to count the bunches of kale or carrots—we can just cut and band mindlessly.
it’s fun to race and see who finishes their bands first. kale, beets, radishes, carrots, are things that we rubber band
harvesting sunflowers are my fav. there are three roles. the stripper assess which sunflowers are best for harvest. they sue one hand to hold the neck of the flower while ty hey use their other hand to quickly strip all the leaves off in one swoop.
they move at the speed of light honestly. they are looking for flowers that are mostly closed but have at minimum 3 petals “lifting”. then the cutter speeds down each row looking for each stripped stock and cuts at a downward angle. as their hands get full, the runner swoops in
we grab as many flowers we can handle and run them back to cool buckets of water in the truck. i did 3,500 steps on this activity alone haha
then there is regular old hand weeding. we usually weed several acres a week.
then there’s the transplanter. this baby’s sits 6 ppl in addition to the tractor operator. each pair is responsible for transferring seedlings from their flats to these small, rotating slots that plant it in the ground. i find it’s stressful haha. but also fun
a brief and shitty clip of it in action
squash and cucumber are collected in buckets. u also prune along the way. after u fill up two buckets you walk them back to the truck (and struggle doing so if you’re me lol)and record the variety and weight. then transfer them to bins. usually 2 buckets = 1 bin
this is 1,200 garlic. it takes 6 of us about 10 minutes to harvest. kinda badass tbh. another fav activity of mine
here’s a random clip of lettuce seed. the seeds are coated in clay bc they are so fine and tricky to handle. once in contact with water the clay dissolves! i’d never seen this before and it really makes the lettuce seeding process SO much easier
i have to get some@pics of all the other stuff (greenhouse/seeding days, mushroom cave, mushroom harvesting, wash up station, the coolers, etc.) i think@it’s important to see where food comes from! and know the very very hard work that is behind it
know tht i’ve worked various hard and shitty jobs in my life but i have never worked this hard. it’s unreal how much of your mind body and soul it requires to do this work. i’ve been thinking a LOT about all the migrant workers whose days probably look like mine in many ways
the sad difference is (to an extent) i am valued by my boss. i am provided w all the proper gear. the farm is organic, so i don’t come@in contact w dangerous pesticides. most sad of all, i garuntee most migrant pickers r far more efficient than me!!! tht said, eat local produce!
today’s as wildly busy. i couldn’t get pics of much beside baseball with the overripe green machine zucchini
pinting the cherries + a post box pack sprawl. our boss buys massive trays of iggy’s to reward us for the grueling labor 
also there was a food fight w the rejected cherries lol.
another sunny harvest 
. i wish every depressed person could harvest sunflowers as therapy. it’s probably the most healing thing i’ve every experienced. maybe one day i’ll grow fields@of@sunflowers for the sole purpose of treating depression lol.
. i wish every depressed person could harvest sunflowers as therapy. it’s probably the most healing thing i’ve every experienced. maybe one day i’ll grow fields@of@sunflowers for the sole purpose of treating depression lol.
we did a “bulk harvest” today which is essentially clearing out a field of a particular crop to store for the remainder of the season. we bulk harvested 15,000garlic and it was awesome !!!
we had to bundle two bunches of garlic and tie both bunche with tautline hitch knots so they can be tightened as the garlic dries. the process from harvest to clean up took about four hours w all hands on deck
