The failings of man and machine

Let’s start right off today with the mistake. If you pay a little bit better attention to things than we do you probably said to yourself last week,” the Chester Farmer’s Market doesn’t start till next Sunday”. Well luckily we realized this oversight of ours before packing the truck and heading to Chester Sunday morning. Unfortunately not before we put in an epic two days of harvesting, however we had a surprisingly small amount left over post market and the local Food pantry will benefit. On that note, we are looking for a volunteer on Wednesdays to bring food to said food pantry. They are in Middletown and are open from noon to 4 on Wednesdays. Now that the season is in full swing we are often working well into the evenings so the run up to Middletown is hard to squeeze in. Please let us know if you are interest in helping us donate left overs, we will make it worth your while in veggies too.

Now the failings of our mechanized friends. We’ll start off light with the story of our tractor. Mostly reliable often fickle is the John Deer. About a week and a half ago with the hopes of moving the bolting Siberian Kale plants that were just pulled from the ground the tractor was positioned at the back of a high tunnel. The kale was hauled into the bucket and Joel hopped on to start the tractor, then nothing. Not a thing, no attempt to start, no stall, just disappointment. Luckily we have a local friend whose enthusiasm and knowledge for fixing tractors is matched only by his generosity. After diagnosing our regular problem of a loose negative cable on the battery, we discovered the cable needed to be replaced. Simple enough and done within the day, but unfortunately not the cause of our troubles. Next thing to do was bypass the safety switches one by to see if one of those is the issue. Nope, now it’s time to remove the starter and have that tested and possibly replaced. That’s this morning, stay tuned.

Luckily we don’t rely too heavily on the tractor and much of the needed work can still continue. One thing we do rely heavily on though, especially in the heat is refrigeration. So let us set the stage for you all. As previously mentioned our enthusiastic over harvesting had the cooler completely packed to the brim Thursday and Friday. So much so we had brought several crates of carrots to our new, generously donated (Thank you Jillian!) flower cooler in Middlefield. So it’s Friday late afternoon and Joel is returning to Durham with the trusty farm dog, Sid. Friday night procedure is meeting Jen and David after the Madison Market to unload the truck and repack the coolers for Saturday. They would be back soon so Joel opened the cooler not looking forward to unpacking the tetris that existed within. However the horror that awaited was worse than could be imagined, the cooler was warm, not cold or cool but warm. The temp had seemed off earlier but we dismissed it to the high temps and frequent opening, but that was not the case. Luckily we do have another walk in cooler in Middlefield. A simple enough solution just a lot of extra lifting. Though it is a little streak of bad luck, we had the means and redundancy to continue work without interruption. In addition to that it has us looking at our overall refrigeration in a more proactive rather than reactive way.

Speaking of reactions, we were really pleased to the amount of people who came out to the Durham Farmer’s Market at it’s new location 144 Picket Lane. Right down the road from the Town green, with better parking, bathrooms as well as the option to be inside on stormy days we have high hopes for this new location. Come Say hi to Sam who some of you may know from filling in on Fridays and Saturdays, he’ll be heading up the Star Light tent in Durham.

On to plant sale; At the point most of you avid gardeners have full plots, despite the cool nights we’ve had. We still have some beautiful basil starts and a small selection of garden staples. Flowers are done for the season as are most other herbs. Our website is up to date with what we have, and we will bring some to the markets but this is likely our last week for plants. Last Tuesday was spent planting and pruning tomatoes. That had us thinking most of you are probably getting ready to prune your tomatoes. Here is our Tomato Pruning Refresher blog post. Check it out if you’re in need for some pruning advice. It’s tomato finger season around here for sure!

Have a great week!