I have written many newsletters highlighting our amazing farm crew and the worker shares who come here and help us achieve our daily and weekly tasks. They help us bring in the harvest, weed the crops, trellis the tomatoes, transplant, harvest, bag and pack. An impressive crew of over 30 people coming in shifts, working in tandem and passing the baton like well trained track runners. They come to work joyfully, excited about their participation on a local, organic vegetable farm. But there are even more people who deserve credit for keeping our farm functional. I would like to tell you about a couple ‘behind-the-scenes’ neighbors, mechanics and truly heroic friends who keep our farm running like a well oiled machine-quite literally.
We have a neighbor and friend, Jammie Miller, who has been helping us since our very first year on this farm. His own farm and shop is just a short walk to the south of our farm. His farm looks a little more like a scrap-yard in places with old tractors, mowers, hay binds, sleds, sprayers, cultivator parts, plows, discs, and just about anything you can imagine laying around. He’s not the mostly tidy of farmers, but he is amongst the most capable. He keeps all of these things around in case he needs parts off of something. You know, just in case. Jammie answers the phone almost every time we call him, which is embarrassingly often. As soon as we have a break down-we call Jammie. He knows what we broke, how we broke it and even how to fix it with impressive speed. He has helped us re-build almost every one of our farm machines at some point or another or has helped us fix them, adjust them, advised us on tightening them, cleaning them or oiling them. He comes down on his four-wheeler to watch us city kids learn how to farm on the fly. To my amazement, we haven’t annoyed him yet. I have given him the nick name of the “Mayor” of Salem Ridge Road. He stops by to introduce himself to any new neighbor. My respect and gratitude for Jammie is beyond what words can portray in this small paragraph. I sincerely wonder where our farm would be today without him.
In addition to helping us with all things mechanical Jammie helps us butcher our steers. He is currently helping our 7-year-old son re-build an antique Cub-Cadet mower with a manual transmission. He brings us lard to render, chicks to raise, and sold us our first pony for the girls to ride. He loans us his skid steer when we need to get hay out of the field. He even makes his own noodles, smokes his own meat, hunts his how morels, and cans his own tomatoes. Friends like Jammie, his wife and three boys are really hard to find.
It doesn’t end with Jammie.
I have to tell you about John Young too. He actually is our town chairman. He’s also a fire-fighter and a grave digger in La Farge, WI. He was here today helping Adam fix a hydraulic leak on the bottom of our White 2-75 tractor which is our primary tractor that does the most heavy tillage work on the farm. John was here last week helping us get the old Farmall 140 running when it was smoking and chugging and just not running right. He helped us replace the spark plugs, knew to tap on the starter and then fixed the points and condensers on the Farmall Super C just the week before. Earlier this summer John knew how to prime our TS125A Tractor when it wouldn’t start. He helped us figure out that a valve was stuck closed on one of our pumps that Adam needed for irrigating the onions in July. He even fixed a transmission oil leak in our Ford Truck in August when it was loosing oil. Equipment is constantly breaking and we are constantly needing to fix it.
Jammie and John aren’t the type of guys who eat organic food, shop at the Co-op or whose kids go to the Waldorf School. They’re unlikely friends, but darn good ones. They like their country music, chewing tobacco and a good tractor-pull for amusement. Yes, we pay them for their help, but their bills are always fair and reasonable. We feel like more of a burden than a patron when we call them-but for some reason, they keep showing up for us. They have busy lives, agendas of their own and families. After thanking John for the hundredth time for everything he’s done-he leans in and says, “That’s what neighbors do. We help each other.” We send him home with strawberries and melons and sweet corn as small tokens of our appreciation-but these little gifts feel so small in comparison. I’m not sure if we’ll ever be able to repay these men for everything they have done for us. Maybe they like to see a young couple try to make a go at farming, maybe they’re happy to put their skills to work in a community where they can be helpful, or maybe they’re trying to cultivate a kind of community where people rely and depend on one another. Whatever their reason for answering the phone when we call so often, I’ll never know. But I do know that these men feel like true heroes to Adam and I.
Pictured below, Jammie and his oldest son re-built the bed of our GMC 3500 which was all rusted out and falling apart. Its a good truck that has a lot of life left in it and he got us up and running again. The old bed is sitting in the back of the new bed. Next chance I get I’ll run the scrap to the scrap yard.
What’s in the Box?
Spaghetti Squash- The large red squash in the box that has a slight oval shape. The squash were clipped a week ago in the field, but they are still oozing a little sticky, sweet stuff from the stem which is normal after squash harvest. Squash prefer a 50-60 degree storage temp, so do not put your winter squash in the fridge. It should store just fine on your counter top
Red Potatoes- 2.5lbs per member. These are fresh-dug potatoes that are un-washed. They should hold just fine on your counter-top for many months. Nothing quite like fresh-dug potatoes.
Tomatoes- 7 lbs per member. We grow a wide variety of tomatoes on the farm. Some are your standard red slicers, some are yellow slicers, a mix of roma tomatoes and also a variety of heirloom tomatoes. The heirlooms are all different shapes, sizes and colors. Heirlooms have a lot of ‘character’. They can be bumpy, have healed cracks, striping, and color variations. Some of the heirlooms are pink and purple. We pick tomatoes with any kind of a ‘blush’. Once a tomato has a blush they will ripen just fine if allowed to sit out on the countertop at room temperature. Do not refrigerate tomatoes unless they are getting over-ripe and you need to buy yourself time to use them up. We need to pick them slightly under-ripe so they can handle the shipment to you.
Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes- About .50lbs of sun gold cherry tomatoes per member this week. These are my favorite tomato in terms of flavor in the whole wide world! They ripen orange!
Carrots- 1.5lb bag per member. Our famously delicious carrots!
Beets- 1lb per member. Stores best in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Onions- 2 onion equivalent. May be white or yellow storage onions.
Brussels Sprouts Tops- 6 tops per member. These are the actual tops of the brussels sprouts plants. We top the plants to stimulate the plants into growing larger brussels sprouts and to tell the plants to stop putting their energy into growing upwards but to start putting energy into the sprouts. The tops can be eaten much like kale leaves. Their texture is similar to kale or collard greens.
Bell Peppers- 2 Bell Peppers per member this week. Sweet bell peppers could have been red, orange, yellow or even purple this week. Such gorgeous peppers!
Jalapeno- One green or red jalapeno tucked inside your tomato bag. These are hot
One Hungarian Hot Wax Pepper- Technically a hot pepper, but a very mild hot pepper on the spectrum of hot peppers.
Parsley– Italian flat leaf parsley bunches. Stores best in a plastic bag in the fridge. The greens can be used as an herb added to salads or soups of any kind.
Next Week’s Best Guess: Tomatoes, peppers, green cabbage, squash, potato, kale, celeraic root, onion, carrot?
Recipes-
Crispy Oven-Roasted Brussels Sprouts Leaves
Spaghetti Squash Peanut Noodles
Beet Salad with Feta and Pistachios
Shakshuka Recipe (for all of your tomatoes)
