Category: Farm Mom

Photo Friday, Grass Seed Harvest

Grass seed harvest has begun…well then it started raining so it stopped.  But it will pick up again once things dry out.  Until then here are a few photos from the first few days.


This is tall fescue seed that is being harvested.  It has been cut and cured on the ground for about a week.  Once harvested the seed is trucked to a cleaner, tested for weeds and germ, then sent all over the world for golf courses, laws, sports fields, etc.


Here are some photos from day 1 of harvest out in the field.  We run two combines, one John Deere and one New Holland.



Davor is learning the life of harvest, which means family time is spent out in the fields.  The boys and I bring dinner to the crew every night, and sometimes Hoot and I get to drive the “bines” (as he calls them) while the drivers take a break.  I use the term “sometimes” very lightly, it’s hard to keep that boy out of those combines!



 

 

So while this break because of the weather is frustrating, we will get back out into the fields soon.  Until then we will enjoy a little slower pace this weekend, and pray for more sunshine to show up…very soon!!

Pea Harvest 2016

Peas are always our first crop that gets harvested.  Usually around the middle of June, large pea harvesters pull into the field and start to pick up and de-pod the peas. If you can believe it, these huge harvesters actually operate gentle enough to take the peas right out of the pod while out in the field.final-101

Then they haul the peas in trucks to the cannery where they are washed, blanched, frozen and put into bags, ultimately landing in soups, pre-made food, and in grocery store freezers for you to buy!  Our field alone will produce about 160,000 lbs of peas!!final-105final-104
The harvesters showed up very early in the morning.  So as we drove into the farm Hoot just about lost his mind seeing those big machines working already!  It didn’t take long before he had his papa by the hand and was telling him it was time to head out to the field.  Once there he ate his body weight in peas, and had a ball watching harvest! final-103

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Here’s a video that I took so you can see the sheer mass of these harvesters.

The headers are picking up the vines along with the peas, cracking open the pods, removing the peas and then the pod and vine material comes back out the back of the machine.  Once the harvester has gone through an area all that is left is a row of “trash”.  final-107

And how does the saying go….one man’s trash is another man’s treasure or something right?  So after harvest is over we have one of our neighbors come in and bale the vines and pods off the field.  He then uses it for feed for his cows.

So what is next for this field?  Since harvest for peas is so early, this year we are going to attempt to double crop this land.  After removing the vines and pods, we headed into the field and started to work the ground again.  We plan to plant a late planting of green beans.

If you want to see some more photos of our farm and more specifically of pea harvest last year please check out ItsMomSense. Farming in Focus – May.  Happy Friday!

 

Photo Friday…Dinners All Around!

For photo Friday this week I thought I’d share one of those, “How do you do it all?” moments that me and some of my other farmer gal friends had this past week.  It is no secret that while running a house and a farm, life can get crazy, hectic, downright overwhelming to be honest.  So a few of us decided to try to ease the pain on one of the sticking points in life…dinner.

Dinner in our house during the summer months of harvest is tough when your family is out in the field until all hours of the night, sometimes even overnight.  We also feed our harvest crew every evening that they are working, so every casserole, every slow cook meal, it all adds up to a much easier and yummy-er time for all.  It takes a lot more than just a harvester and a truck to get our crop to market, sometimes…it takes dinner!

So we found a “chief” to be in charge (Kathy because she has done this before and her kitchen is beautiful!) and we all showed up to be the “Indians” for the afternoon.  

And for a few-ish hours we chopped, sliced, diced, browned, measured and labeled to our hearts (or more than or heart’s) content.  

We all walked away with a cooler filled with 5 delicious meals all ready to bake or slow cook. 

Carrying out such a huge pack of food was one thing, but catching up with friends, teaching our kids tricks of cooking, and just plain drinking a glass of wine together made the night well worth it!

Davor was particularly impressed by our efficiency…or maybe not by the look on his face!

 

So happy Friday! And I’m hoping to include some photos and recipes as I use up my home cooked meals, so stay tuned!!