Yesterday was supposed to be a Mellow Monday. Carrie had a doctor's appointment for Zoey's one year check-up, I had a date with Laura Cooper at the Leesburg Diner for breakfast. Mondays are worker-free on the Vienna farm so that we can make choices about what we do and we are not responsible for anyone but ourselves. In truth, this summer has not had many authentic Mellow Mondays, but there have been a few.
There were a couple of farm things we wanted to get done because rain was in the forecast for Monday night and the whole week was predicted to be unsettled and possibly wet. So Carrie and I planned to spend a couple of hours in Loudoun in the most gorgeous bean patch ever (they are often stunning at this time of year, and this one is exceptional), picking beans for the CSA this week.
The tiny Monday crew in Loudoun was going to use the mechanical digger to get the sweet potatoes up to the surface so they could be retrieved when we had a bigger crew on Tuesday. That is a three person job, with one on the tractor and two following behind on their knees, pulling the vines and potatoes off the digger so everything doesn't get tangled up. There were four beds left, 200 feet long, out of the original 12 beds. It was not a small job for three people, getting those potatoes to the top.
Plans change all the time, and we have to be ready for a new plan at any moment. We did have a lovely breakfast in Leesburg (Laura was en route to Nova Scotia by car, and we were just meeting at a mutually convenient place), exactly one hour long because the parking meter patrols are super vigilant and I only had $1.50 in change -- and I needed to get to the beans. By the time I got to Loudoun, Ellen had decided that we should actually pick up all the sweet potatoes and get them out of the field, not just dig them and leave them for Tuesday. She was on her knees with the crew picking up potatoes, when she had lots of other things to do.
But I really didn't want to dig sweet potatoes, I wanted to pick beans as this was my only chance until Thursday. So I resolutely went past the three people who were working so hard at a job that was bigger than the three of them, and I settled into the beans. I could help with the sweet potato project in other ways -- I started to make phone calls, even though it was slowing down my bean hands. It isn't really that easy to round up workers with no notice at all, on a Monday, but I found a supplemental group of four more people: Susan Planck and a neighbor friend plus a worker that we share with a farm next door plus a Lovettsville mom who works at the stand on the weekends. So then there were seven people on their knees picking up potatoes and I could pick beans with no guilt. Carrie joined me after dropping Zoey off at day care (not so happy because of all the shots she got at her check-up) and picking up some chicken feed on the way. We picked 21 ponies of beans, without even noticing. Instead of the usual 20-30 minutes per basket, these beans were coming in at 10 minutes a basket. That's how gorgeous this field is. Incredible.
Meanwhile, in the field next to us, the crew finished getting the last potatoes out and loaded up 132 ponies onto trucks and wagon.
Then Carrie had to go get Zoey, so she went home and Ecole and I loaded up the truck with the day's haul. We have become quite adept at filling a vehicle from floor to ceiling, layering and stacking. Every load is a masterpiece which most people would not really appreciate. I have to drive like an old lady until I get off the farm, so the crates of beets won't fall on the flowers that are tucked in by the back door.
When I got back to Vienna, my customary welcoming committee (Carrie and Zoey) were not there because sometimes our phones just don't cooperate with each other. Carrie says her phone was on Anti-Hana mode and my text came in 90 minutes later. So I unloaded by myself and headed up to the next project. It was 6 PM and I had almost an hour and a half before it got too dark to continue.
Here's the choreography that was planned, mostly. Jon had hooked up tractors for me, in anticipation of a small time window at the end of the day. He is my pit crew -- he makes it possible for me to work on two farms on the same day. He was at a Nationals game with a neighbor when I got home, but he had left everything in order. I dumped 400 pounds of fertilizer into the spreader (one 50 pound bag at a time), and went off to spread. Then I got on the next tractor and disked that all in. By now it was getting dark. I texted Carrie, and got through this time, asking if she would walk the seed in for me while I held Zoey. So she found the seeder that was hidden in the refrigerator for some reason and she got the 50 bag of clover seed and we met up. Zoey and I drove her on the golf cart from patch to patch as night fell, and she walked back and forth, cranking the handle, sprinkling the seeds that we could not see but we could hear.
It was an excellent day.
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