Hot Harvest Day with a Helper

It's a swelteringly humid day. Despite the heavy rain this morning, things didn't cool off much.

The end of a long day is brightened by a little helper who takes on the task of bringing in the harvest extras to our kitchen. Normally I try to keep the kids out of Eric's way on his busiest day of the week, but today Sylvia asks for a special chance to help out.

And help she did. You know Sylvia's growing up when she does more direction-following than climbing, jumping or randomly hitting objects with sticks she's picked up off the ground.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with all these tomatoes...

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Written by Michelle Cohen On Tagged ,

Harvest Day

Mondays are harvest days here on the farm. They are probably the longest day of the week as Eric picks the fresh produce by hand, cleans it and packs it up into the delivery boxes that go out on Tuesday.

The process begins with rinsing out the blue harvest boxes on the screen table near the house.

The kids agitate for a trip out to the garden. We won't get in the way, we promise.

Next a walk out to the garden.

Sylvia learns to walk between the rows rather than trample everything in her path.

Sylvia learns to walk between the rows rather than trample everything in her path.

Eric picks basil for this week's share. It's hard work balancing speed and efficiency with the care required to keep the basil intact and in good shape.

Nothing says "summer" to me more than the scent of basil. Yum.

Only a few pea plants still have fruit. The kids scavenge for the remaining sweet and crunchy peas.

Rose teaches Sylvia how to snap the ends off the pea pods.

Next to the fading peas are the rapidly growing corn plants, getting ready for their late summer glory.

Corn!

The harvest box filled with freshly collected basil comes back to the screen table.

Ready to be washed

A quick rinse and the basil is ready to be bagged and packed for delivery tomorrow morning!

Eric tries to minimize handling to keep the produce at it's freshest

Who's excited for tomorrow?

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Written by Michelle Cohen On Tagged ,