Summer CSA - Week 10

I am making up missing eggs this week, but from now on please take eggs only on the weeks when you are due eggs.

Whew! Monday was one of those days when it seems like the work is greater than the worker - namely me. I am sitting at the computer, flithy dirty, sweaty - and probably a bit fragrant - writing you a note. Eeeek!. It is time to begin the main onion harvest. The key is to let the onion tops drop, dry out and then pull them out of the field before the August rains hit. I do not have an onion harvester, but we do have five acres of onion. That means we go out with the tractor and three to four people. The tractor carries a pallet behind it. One guy alternately drives and gathers onions. Two people crawl down the field on hands and knees pulling onions and tossing them into the wheel row. Then the extra guy and the driver play "catch" with onions. We plant three rows at 15 inch spacing, that run 500 feet each. So that is 1500 feet of onion per set. I am one of the crawlers. The guys rotate who drives, digs, pitches and catches. The onions were beautiful and I loved watching the pallets stack high. The weight of one pallet is about 850 pounds and it takes two pallets to handle one set. That is a mucho big load of onions.

Now, do you wonder why I am one of the crawlers? It is Mr Big Bad Bull Snake. The guys decided I should have a fifty-fifty chance of encountering him. But, guess what? No Mr Bull Snake when I am around. Go figure! I am the one who wants to see him and he is always missing when I harvest onion.

Actually, this job is tons of fun. Can you picture three men playing catch with onion all day long? There are high flies, ground balls, fouls, right in the strike zone and sometimes line drives right into a zone no one wants to mention. Talk about hot, sweaty, and tons of fun. When you use our onions, know they were harvested with great joy.

Please note when ordering onions, we are transitioning from fresh to "skin on." The transition takes a few weeks. During that period of time we cannot wash down the onions or it will ruin the skin.

Your box
Cauliflower
Sweet corn
Cantaloupe - at long last
Cucumber
Yellow bell pepper
Purple bell pepper
Green Bell pepper
Alisa Craig sweet Spanish onion
Arugula