Onion and Leeks and Potatoes, Oh My!

When I was in flight attendant training, Week Three was dubbed 'Scary Week Three', because we spent the majority of our time that week reviewing all the scary incidences that can happen on the airplane. Although, fortunately, there were not any scary or unfortunate incidents happening on the farm this week, there was definitely a lot of aching backs as we really got down to business hand planting leeks, bending over to fill in onions behind the tractor, fixing drip line in the perennial garden and hefting heavy bags of potatoes around for hand planting with volunteers from the food bank. So, all in all, a scary amount of work, and it feels like we're just getting started! Let's review our week in photos.

Apr 23

Elena snapped this photo on the fly of Ken, riding his bike to the perennial garden to help 

us repair drip line. The rest of us were roaring by him in our work van, dubbed

 'The Ivory Beast'. Ken had the right idea, as the Beast died on us this week

during a spinach harvest.

Apr 24

Alyssa and I standing in from of the tractor with yellow onion starts (thanks Justin!).
We spent the day helping the Pueblo crew plant, bending over to plant onions in missing
spaces behind the tractor, or sitting on the planter feeding shoots at rapid pace into the
rotating cups to be embedded in the field behind us. A brutal day, lasting about
twelve hours, mostly bent over!

Apr 25

Our favorite couple, Elena and Jacob cutting the flowering heads off the bolted rhubarb.
Rhubarb is perennial and flowers it's second year, we cut the flowers off to grow the
stems for harvesting. This was one of our favorite tasks this week.

Apr 26

Thanks Alyssa, for getting this awesome picture of me under the rainbow in the

leeks field! We spent nearly the entire day hand planting tiny one inch leek

starts on Thursday, through the wind, rain, and screaming backaches!

Apr 27

Friday  was hands down my favorite day so far! After half a morning in the leek field, 

Justin, Ken, and I were recruited to plant Jentje Heirloom Potatoes with the awesome 

John Deere tractor which I got to drive and now must own. The photo  shows Ken 

sorting potatoes behind the tractor while Justin drives.

Saturday we worked as well, helping volunteers from the food bank and CSA members hand plant German Butterball potatoes, but I neglected to get a good pic because I was ridiculously exhausted mentally and spaced it. Grant Farms will donate that particular potato crop as part of five acres in total to the food bank come harvest time. It was a great day spent with enthusiastic people. I'll make sure to snap a shot next Saturday work day. 

Bonus Foto of the Week

The sun setting on a hard days work in the field. If you look closely you can see
the fluorescent green of the onions in the rows we planted Tuesday with the
Pueblo crew.

Can I just note that this week, I not only drove the tractor, I backed it up, as well as drive the huge flat bed truck to transport pallets of potatoes for our volunteers on Saturday. If driving crazy weird vehicles doesn't make it a great week, then I don't know what does! Thanks for checking in on us, and please feel free to comment, and subscribe!

XO,

Val