It takes 39 steps to walk the length of our hayloft. Each May we sell the few remaining bales from the previous season, sweep the loose hay out for mulch and compost, and ready the haying equipment. Then, with each sunny stretch, we begin to pack the loft full, from back to front and up to the rafters. Our barn can fit several thousand bales, and we carry or “bale brigade” them, one-by-one, from the open end door to the stack. It’s a lot of schlepping with 50 pound hay bales! While 4 people can fill a trailer in the field in about 15 minutes, it takes 6 people upwards of an hour to unload the same trailer into the barn. I think you’re beginning to see the bottleneck!
This week we began the process of installing a new-to-us hay elevator in the rafters of the loft. Using this year’s 20′ tall stacks of hay bales as scaffolding, we are hanging wooden supports from the dusty rafters. Next, the green-painted metal sections of track will rise into the air, linking together like so many pieces of an erector set. Finally, the clankety elevator chain will run the length of the track in one continuous loop, with metal fingers every several feet that guide each bale on its way. Ultimately we’ll be able to plop a bale from the trailer directly onto the bottom of the track, watch it climb to the top, and cruise down the length of the barn before being deposited on the top of the stack. A moveable off-load chute, akin to the switch point on train tracks, makes it so that we can adjust where the bale leaves the track as the barn fills. Although this elevator is probably 30+ years old, we feel like we just leapt into the future in terms of efficiency and innovation. We’re currently enjoying a little rest between first and second cut, but I dare say we’re looking forward to our next round of baling to take it for a test drive!
Cheers
Norah and the Sweetland Crew
Week 12 Harvest
| Crops | Half Pint | Brimming Basket | Veggie Monster |
| Corn | x | x | x |
| Carrots | x | x | x |
| Summer Squash | x | x | x |
| Cucumbers | x | x | x |
| Eggplant | x | x | x |
| Summer Crisp Lettuce | x | x | x |
| Mesclun | x | x | x |
| Kale | x | x | |
| Green Cabbage | x | x | |
| New Potatoes | x | ||
| Sungold Cherry Tomatoes | x | ||
| Arugula | |||
| Savoy Cabbage | |||
| Romaine Lettuce | |||
| Pac Choi | |||
| Sweet Peppers | |||
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Farmers Choice Shares Includes items with x
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Free choice shares choose any 7(HP), 9(BB), or 11(VM)
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What’s Cooking This Week
You can find ingredients for all of these recipes in our farm store! We source meats, dairy, grains, beans, sweets, and more from local and sustainable producers. Don’t forget to use your CSA member discount by entering your account phone number in our POS (member discounts are automatically applied to LocalLine purchases for off-farm delivery). Have a recipe you’ve been loving? Share it with us and we’ll feature it here!