Skip to main content

Harvest

I am pleased to report that both the sweet potato harvest from a backyard garden in Woodland, California and the rice harvest on Pleasant Grove Farms have both reached their successful conclusion. The latter involved over a month of four combines working into the night 7 days a week cutting over a thousand acres of rice. The former entailed three people digging through 12 ft garden beds for a hour in search of delicious sweet potato tubers. Both mark the end of two very different agricultural adventures (described in previous posts). I walk away from this harvest with the satisfaction of having been part of the production of food: a milk crate's worth of sweet potatoes and well over fifty 55,000 lb truck loads of rice.

Sweet potato patch before harvest


The fruits of our labor


Peppers still going strong

With harvest completed, my farming job will begin to look more like a regular 8-hour office job. I have rice samples to sort, weigh and analyze, data to enter, yield monitor maps to manipulate. It will mean lots of time in front of the computer and less time driving around South Sutter County in a white Ford Ranger pickup listening to 97.9 lunes sin commerciales. If the weather permits, I may spend a few more afternoons working with the crew removing roots from the almond orchard, as I did this past Friday afternoon. At Pleasant Grove there are few times when numbers of people work together and I really appreciated the camaraderie, the conversation and the delicious snack of boiled peanuts soaked in hot sauce. I am lucky to work with such great people on the farm, and to find beauty in the changing of seasons in the Valley.
Labels:

Comments

Sacha said…
This is great, Reed. I love how you weave together your rice and sweet potato experiences! I hope you don't mind that I shared your blog on my facebook page... Sacha
PS we ate a meal of sweet potatoes from our earlier test harvest and they were the sweetest and most delicious I have ever tasted!
November 21, 2011 at 7:53 PM
Reed said…
Sacha,

Thanks, I was hoping you and Maris and Sasha wouldn't mind being included in the blog. Glad to hear the sweet potatoes turned out well, I am going to cook some for Thanksgiving.

-Reed
November 22, 2011 at 6:18 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Barb Wire Clothes Line

Hi People! This Friday evening finds me again in the city of Esteli, where I arrived to check email and do some other things I can't do in the village of Lagartillo. Let's see, it goes without saying that a lot has happened since last week. I returned to Lagatillo in the school bus and arrived sometime on Saturday. I was worn out since I over-did it my first week and needed a little more down time in Esteli. I was also confused about the promotion (graduation) that happened on Sunday. Turned out it wasn't Jahaira's (my host-mother, as they say) graduation, but the preschool graduation. She is the pre-school teacher, so it's a big deal, and one of her sisters has a son in preschool, so they came to stay with us, along with Jahaira's mother and brother. The house was a little crowded and full of activity, all kinds of cooking going on, especially on Sunday. The promotion was a bit long, but OK, it's good to have events like that because they motivate
2 comments
Read more

From the cab of a John Deere 8410

Ready for another day of field work Spending long days in the cab of a John Deere 8410 belted tractor gives me a lot of alone time. When I'm not staring at the sheaths of earth left tossed up by the powerful steel disks in tow behind the tractor, I watch the rice trucks on Highway 99, which runs next to the field, or I observe the chickens, cranes and the crows as they feast on insects unearthed by cultivation. And I wonder how of all things I ended up driving a tractor on a farm in South Sutter County. It is because I spent these recent days alone on the tractor--and because Fall is the season for remembering and for contemplation of life and death-- that I have resurrected up this blog yet again. Sutter County Mornings I could go back years, trying to figure out how I ended up where I am, but a good starting point would be the Summer of 2009, when I began my fourth year as the Nutrition Education Site Coordinator, aka 'Garden Teacher' at Park Elementary
4 comments
Read more

Oakland Stroll

February 4, 2008: Nervous about Super Tuesday, but hopeful that Obama can pull it off and eventually get the nomination. Slightly pleased that the somewhat more respectable McCain is leading over the deplorable Romney (even though I don't have much love for Republicans). Current Book: "China Road", Rob Gifford Current Song: "SF Anthem" Traxamillion and San Quinn First in an installment. I hope to explore East Bay neighborhoods and take pictures. I'm not attempting to interview people to get the pulse of an area, but rather capture the images that strike me and hopefully create a visual sense of the community. I plan to do this a couple times of month. Let me know what you think. This being one of the few sunny, rainless days we've had of late, I decided to spend part of my day off walking through some Oakland neighborhoods instead of doing housework or studying. I live near High Street and 580, in Maxwell Park. I headed west, along Brookdal
3 comments
Read more