After a very crazy month or so, the weather folks are predicting our first hard freeze, a season ender, overnight tonight. We have done very well with the harvest this year. Considering how the weather was all summer, I certainly cannot complain. But we are still rushing around today. A couple of our school age cousins are coming after school and we will finish getting in everything that can’t freeze. Mainly it is just squash and pumpkins that are still out in the field.
This is the time of year when all of the buildings are packed with seed waiting to be cleaned. Once that is completed, they are germination tested and assuming all is well, packaged. This is what we are in the midst of right now. We hope to be switched over to “Packed for 2012″ labeling by the middle of next month.
My Dad is spending most of his time these days shelling and cleaning beans. His time is definitely appreciated as we would not be able to get them ready for sale for months and months without it. He has done this for us for many years now and I think I about have him overwhelmed.
With the new tractor and tiller and the new trellising system, we planted about four times the row feet that we normally do. My thought was that if we weren’t able to harvest all of the crop do to rain and temperatures at the end of the season (typical here), we would at least have one or two good pickings resulting in a decent inventory. Well, with the mild summer, a crew of two people dedicated to weeding and watering all summer, and a hot end of summer in September, we got multiple pickings to the point that we were able to pick the vines and bushes clean! Excellent But, not for Dad. He isn’t getting any younger and if I am going to keep increasing the size of our grow outs, I have to mechanize. Now that I have a shop, I hope to experiment with various leaf shredder to thresher conversion designs. Hopefully I can come up with one that shells the beans without damaging too many seeds.
Not a lot else new here . . . we are all in the harvest, seed cleaning, testing, packaging and otherwise preparing for the 2012 garden season. I hope that you all are enjoying fall. My lunchtime is done and it is back out to the fields for me.