Pepper Alley

It's a chilly and foggy day on the farm. Fall is in full swing as the temperature hovered around freezing last night. Trees are changing color, it seems, over night. Where do I find myself on a Monday morning? In the heritage seed garden, but only for a moment. The plants are looking shabby and only one thing really needs to be done, harvest a few things for seed. The problem is that by the end of the day I am in no mood to sift through sloppy tomatoes. I decide to look up these tomato varieties on the internet because all the markers have disappeared. The Heritage Seed Collective is a site in development, but the varieties are listed there. I used a search engine to find images of each. I took my time. Why go out in the cold when I can enjoy my tea? I find Meg in the kitchen, she has brought her "little" brother Mark to join in the work for the day. And a day of work it turns out to be. We start in the high tunnel weeding and pulling out a big patch of Sicilian squash. It is an interesting squash that is very long and cylindrical like a zucchini but some of the biggest ones grew to over four feet in length, some of them become curved depending on where they grow. We then do some hoeing in that same area. My heart almost stops as I slash downward with my hoe and notice a toad buried in the dirt, I miss cutting him in half by half an inch. He is a fat little fella, I have awaken him from a coma under the soil. At first he's very stunned I move the toad outside where the danger of hoes is much less. We plant lettuce in that area. As we finish Meg comes in and tells us to meet her in home field tomatoes.


When we arrive all the wooden steaks have been removed and are lying up and down the rows. It is our job to pick them up and bring them to the end of the row where the custom can be loaded. An easy enough task, but when you have to carry the steaks, awkward and heavy as they are, for about fifty yards it becomes more strenuous. This was just a warm up. Lynn wants us to pull out all the plants. Five 350 foot rows of plants, I can hardly believe it all the peppers, saladettes, and cherry tomatoes, done-finished-finito for the year all in one afternoon. I get the row of all striped German tomatoes, the largest and probably the hardiest of all tomatoes. These plants got big and tangled too. I could not keep up with anyone else, I assumed peppers would be easier for Mark so I let him have them. By the end of the row I am happy to have a little help from the other folks who have already finished their rows. I wonder if there is a noticeable difference for them between our respective rows. 

 

Just when it seems the fun is over we get to pull out all the plastic sheeting, a job that is actually never fun. Meg leaves us to do this job as she searches out an apartment for when she leaves at the end of next week. My row again seems to be a tough one to work with but Mark is having even more problems. I assume it is just a case of finding his groove with the new task, and some fatigue. This time I find a mole or vole, I can not discern which it is, under my plastic. He can not find a place to hide, so I pick it up (with gloves on) to see its beady little eyes, they are no good for seeing where to go in the daylight. I let him live even though it is policy to kill such "pests", besides there is plenty of food to go around. Bridget gets two rows done as I wrap up my one. Not all rows were created equal. As we pull out garbage bags to clean up Kristen calls us in for lunch.

It is hard for me to say how much I liked the soup that Kristen has made today without it sounding like I am blowing smoke. The soup was excellent. Kristen's homemade chicken stock makes a great base and has plenty of flavor from the get go. There are carrots, potatoes, couscous, sausage, and basil leaves. I think there could have been turnip, but I wouldn't have known. Kristen has also made biscuits, with Ella "yella" butter and I detect some corn meal in them, which are an excellent side.

Meg returns as we finish clean up of plastic and wooden spikes. We clean garlic till the end of the day. The barn is dark except for light which shines in-between each slat long cross sections of light. Each one a half inch gap between the weather beaten boards. I am told the gaps ensure that the hay or straw in the barn dries out and doesn't spontaneously combust due to high temperatures created in decomposition! Mark and Meg stay till the end of the day.




Why were all the students at Vegetable High in the gymnasium?

They were there for a pepper-ally.