Sloshing my way through chest-high lambs quarters and picking sweet corn (of all things), I began wondering whether summer will ever end. Eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes still going strong. Highs in the high 70s are forecast for this weekend.

What? I am normally a week past the first frost and sliding my way to finish. Pipe-smoking weather…wool jackets, grouse hunting, and cool short days. But, no, this year I’m caught in a summer that won’t let go. A farm season that keeps asking me to step up and yank in a harvest that just zkeeps on giving.

It’s tough because sometime in August I always get into the mode of duct-taping the season week by week until the end. The printer ran out of ink over a month ago. Agh, just scrawl out the the CSA pick up list with a sharpie. Hand weed the fall brassicas? Nah, just mow around them a bit to make it look somewhat better. Trees? Water them later. Yard? Forget it. Fix fencing? No way.

The show’s got to go on and the name of the game is enough coffee to pull in the rest crops that are still out there. All day yesterday, three of us clipped winter squash, piled them, and threw them in the pickup box. By nine o’clock I was knocked out to sleep for the next 8 hours – a feat since I’m typically only 6 hours. A good night sleep sure helps to get us to the finish line. I might even be able to skip afternoon coffee today!

In the box:

• Red cabbage
• Sage
• Thyme
• Parsley
• Butternut Squash: The tan one.
• Buttercup Squash: The green one.
• Tomatoes
• Pepper mix: All sweet, none hot
• Head Lettuce or Salad Mix
• Shallots: Ya, they look like onions, but actually shallots.
• A couple ears of sweet corn
• Daikon Radish
• Celery

Veggie Love

Vegetables are kind of like my children.

I tend them in their little greenhouse nursery when they are young, spoon-feeding them water and delicate nutrition. As teenagers, they are set out into the wilds of the fields to fend for themselves somewhat. To watch over them to give them a chance to live independently. I wage war with weeds and pests around them, feed them fertilizer, and give them a drink when times get tough.

In the end, however, they love me back (or so we hope). Maybe it’s payment for my protecting them or like a elder tired by the end of the season, the children at some point pick up the father and carry him after a season of hard work. All I can do is give the fields and plants gratitude for the bounty.

And they do provide bounty. This week, I’ve been wracking my brain about what DOESN’T go in the box. Everywhere I looked yesterday I saw a crop looking mature and ready. Bok Choi of beautiful size. The row of russets we dug was so bountiful that we left a quarter row. The tomatoes are all huge and those Carmen peppers have a dozen fruits per plant.

In the box:

• Russet Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Carmen Sweet Peppers: Long red pepper…
• Another Colored Pepper: Luck of the draw…
• Carrots
• Salad Mix
• Yellow Onion
• Sweet Corn: This is far from ideal corn! Most of the ends never filled out…really dismal corn year, but there’s definitely worthwhile kernals on there
• Delicata Winter Squash: Yellow with a green stripe. These are often baked dry. Cut lengthwise, scoop out seeds and bake cut side down on a baking sheet.
• Bok Choi
• Radishes

Cookouts and boating be damned! I’m working through another Labor Day, because, well, that’s just what I do.

In this respect my life isn’t that different from other small business operators. We just keep chugging along. We need to keep chugging along to make the business work. But, being that it is Labor Day and I come from a proud Union household, I’ll lay down my usual Labor Day message.

It’s quite fashionable in America today to credit the entrepreneur. Whether an independent farm operator or main street retailer or some high-flying Silicon Valley type, we love to put founders and owners up on pedestals. The lifeblood of the American economy and the source of American innovation and prosperity…all that stuff.

While I’m a free enterprise guy through and through and respect the efforts of all my fellow business operators, let’s remind us today that businesses don’t run without workers. In the world of farming, farm work is a job that gets zero respect. Often seen as the ultimate dead-end job that ranks right up there with fast food or food manufacturing, this work is difficult and must happen regardless of the conditions. 90-degree heat? Let’s go harvest. Smoke from wildfires? We gotta get out there and pound this out. Rain? Suck it up – let’s go.

Maybe I’m sensitive to the role because I come from a line of farm workers – nobody in my lineage owned a farm until me. My grandfather Adolph worked his whole life for others, operating machinery in the field and tending potatoes in one of those cold and dark warehouses that lined the streets of East Grand Forks. I don’t think he often got a pat on the back or thanks for his effort. But the farmers he worked for? Most certainly. They were the ‘Salt of the Earth.’ Respected members of the community – the people who made the local economy go round.

So, today, let’s share the spotlight just a bit. Let it shine on those who toil in the background. The immigrant up at 4 am to pick out fruit. The warehouse worker knocking out another overnight shift. My neighbors who pick turkey eggs at all hours or process meat at Jennie-O. And on behalf of Lida Farm, let me thank Sylvie, Emily, and Molly for their hours spent in the field this summer – it’s physical and dirty work, but I hope you find the joy in the practice as much as I do.

In the box:

• Cantaloupe
• Watermelon: Farmers Choice – maybe orange, red, or yellow
• Summer Turnip: Kind of ugly white root…simply peel, slice, and eat.
• Green Beans
• Carrots
• Eggplant
• Two Carmen Peppers: Red and Sweet.
• Two Anaheim Peppers: GREEN and HOT! I hope you read this and don’t mix up the two kinds
• Yellow Bell Pepper
• Cucumber
• Lots of Slicing Tomatoes
• Red Onion