August Farm News
As expected, we kicked off harvest on July 21, starting in the Soft White Wheat fields around Pullman. We’re about two thirds through that particular crop, and things are looking good! Soon we’ll move on to cutting Hard Red Winter Wheat, and then shift into the fields that were planted in the spring. Combines and tractors are running well and we haven’t run into any emergencies serious enough to sideline either people or equipment. Our field mechanic, Tyler, said that, while he didn’t want to jinx it, this season has gone very smoothly so far, with the longest breakdown being resolved within a couple of hours. (Everyone please immediately knock on all the wood…)
What happens on a harvest day?
Besides the literal operation of the combines and tractors during a harvest day, there are several other tasks which require constant and repeated attention. Once a day, usually in the morning before getting going, all machines are dusted off with leaf blowers. Everything is fueled up and greased or lubricated as needed, and a thorough 360º visual check is done to make sure nothing on the body or undercarriage is broken or damaged.
Our harvest crew this year is 18 guys. As mentioned above Tyler is our field mechanic, and Kevin, the owner, is a jack of all trades who can step in at a moment’s notice to any position. We’ve got five combine operators, three tractor drivers pulling grain carts, and eight truck drivers with double trailers transporting product from the field to storage bins and grain elevators.
A time for everything and everything on time... Right?
This is the first year in a long time we’ve had a full returning crew and zero rookies! They all meet up at the shop bright and early at 6:30am to discuss the day and split into groups to be driven out to the field. Our amazing admin manager Laurel makes lunches every day for everyone (a big favorite is a chicken and bacon sandwich with pickles) which are delivered around noon, and dinners prepared by Linda (Tyler’s mom) are brought out in the early evening around 5:30pm. Operations start winding down around 8:00-9:00ish, and everyone is usually back to the shop to debrief and head home by 9:30pm. Of course, as anyone who has ever talked to a farmer during harvest time knows, none of this is set in stone and can change from one minute to the next with barely any warning (sorry, families)!
The cleaning plant in Palouse is humming along full speed ahead, as well, and we’ve already processed 67,000 pounds of this year’s SWW (the rest is in storage, awaiting its turn). This will flow to the production line to be packaged as berries, or to the flour room to be stone-ground. Then it will be stocked the the warehouse, and soon find its way home to you!
Keep an eye out for our upcoming Back to School sale which will run August 19–28. We have a few surprises up our sleeves this year and can’t wait to share them all with you!
Cheers, friends! See you in the next one.