Last week we realized that the weather was about to change and serious rain was coming by the weekend. We still had a large patch of golden beets in the field, and it looked like if we didn’t get them out before the rains came, we would have a real problem on our hands because it is hard-to-impossible to use large equipment in a really wet field, and very difficult to harvest the beets by hand in those circumstances. It was suggested that we ask for help from members of our community, offering some of Nash’s sausage and veggies in exchange. On Friday, over 20 people came, rolled up their sleeves and got to work. It boggles our minds sometimes when so many members of our farm community heed a “call to action” and show up to help us out.
Of that 20 there were at least a half-dozen children from home-school families. The beets had been brought to the surface by machine, and the kids immediately started collecting them into small piles. The adults followed, pulling the tops off the beets and filling first buckets then bins with the golden harvest. All in all they filled about 10 bins that will be covered with straw and taken out and washed as needed over the winter.
We expected to take the better part of a day with the harvest, but with so many willing hands, it only took four hours or so. Afterwards, everyone retired to the Community Barn and enjoyed a delicious Farm Lunch prepared with Nash’s veggies and grains by Store staff members Mary Wong and Courtney Franklin.
As we approach Thanksgiving, we feel an extra sense of gratitude to the people who support our farm and store, who show up happy to help, who purchase a Farm Share box in the Spring, who pack the boxes all season long, and who support saving farmland in our area. You all are the ones that make this work worthwhile. Many people want fresh, organic, local food, but there are only a few who really understand all that goes into producing it.