Harvest!

It's been a few weeks since I updated this space. Harvest has begun. Actually, we're nearing the end in both the garden and the orchard. 

We started harvesting our hazelnuts mid-September. One of my brothers-in-law came out from Montana to help us, and I am so grateful that he was here. With his help, the operations ran a lot more smoothly. 

We started the season with some stress ... our sweeper (which is used for the first step, sweeping the nuts into a row) was at the mechanics, the sunny days were running out, and we didn't know when we would have it back. We got the sweeper back, with its repairs complete, and off we went. 

Because it had been so dry, the dust was flying as the Mr. ran the sweeper across the orchard. And then it was time for the rest of us to get to work. I drove the tractor that pulled the picker; one of our offspring would follow behind making sure everything was running smoothly. My brother-in-law loaded boxes onto our trailer and took it to the processing plant down the road.  But to begin the harvest, we had to deal with some weeds that had sprung up after the last dragging to get the road cleaned. The sweeper was able to get the nuts into the rows, but the picker was having trouble getting all the nuts up out of the weeds. It works really well on dirt though. As one of us drove the tractor/picker, the others would go in front raking the nuts into a position that the picker could grab onto them and not the weeds. Thankfully this wasn't every row. But we all were very tired and sore that night.

We started on a Thursday after my husband came home from work. We ran until dark and then got up the next day and started in again. By late Saturday afternoon we were almost done. The rain was hovering, and we were hurrying to get as much as could. We loaded the last box just as the rain began to really come down. 

The second picking, a few weeks later, was not as intense or exciting. We still had to deal with working around the raindrops, but we got the boxes loaded and delivered. 

We have possibly one more picking to do, and then we sit back for a day and prepare ourselves for the pruning and suckering season.

On the other parts of the farm, we are harvesting pumpkins and cornstalks. These are just for fun and decoration, so it isn't stressful at all. The brothers will be harvesting field corn soon though, and that will take some work. 

The garden has come to an end. I picked our last sweet corn this week. My basil is still going strong, and I will be drying that soon to use in the kitchen. 

Walnuts and chestnuts are coming down. We picked up 14+ buckets of walnuts this year. I am really looking forward to eating those! One of my favorites. We haven't gotten out to the chestnuts yet. There has just been too much other stuff to do.