Monday, September 3, 2012

Garlic Harvest


I know, I know, It's just that I....

It is a story well illustrated by my most recent attempt to blog. Early in the morning in late July I set out with the field crew to document the garlic harvest. We grow about 2 acres of garlic and the harvest is kind of a big deal. Among other things it signals the beginning of the end of the beginning of summer.


My job is to operate the tractor to loosen the soil and make shorter work of the difficult task of pulling the garlic out of the ground. We use our John Deere 2640 with a set of "rippers" or "subsoilers" on the back. The tractor straddles the rows and the shanks of the subsoiler penetrate the soil to a depth of about sixteen inches.


 It is literally like throwing an anchor off the back of the tractor. This process is also used late in the season on ground that we have traveled over a lot and helps to loosen the soil and break up any hard pan caused by tilling or plowing.



So there I am doing my best to get over the field and stay ahead of the crew without breaking anything.The whole field crew is out there with me; twelve guys that really know how to work, and it is a struggle to stay ahead and double back over the tougher areas while they pull the garlic and load it onto our trucks and trailers.





Before I realize it the crew has finished harvesting, the last truck is loaded and pulling out to transport the garlic back to the farm and there I am holding a camera in an empty field.




We use our now empty greenhouses to store the garlic and It was all I could do to snap a few pictures of the garlic in the greenhouse before these guys had it cleaned and ready for market.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

You have presented a wonderful story of your farming job. Every image of your story is showing its importance like why it is available here. I have many times seen a soil loosen process from the tractor so, I can easily understand whole situation of your story.

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