The bean sorter

Mike and I flew through yesterday like two Energizer Bunnies.  There is no doubt that things are at peak on the farm.  All I know is that both of us were up and running a little after 5:30am.  When I went outside at 6:30am to feed and water the chickens, Mike was busy packing up some green beans to take over to the Middlefield auction.  The farm had an order placed for 475 pounds of yellow wax beans and more bushel boxes were needed.   We buy those in Middlefield so Mike packed up some green beans to sell to offset the cost of the fuel needed to get there and back.  I think he left for Middlefield somewhere around 7am.

Meanwhile I was off to work at the clinic at 8am.  What a day.  I really don't know what happened.  At one point in the afternoon, Amy came back and said she had never seen the waiting room so full.  Oh my!  I hate making people wait, but it seemed like EVERY pet that came in was REALLY sick.  Those cases just took time.  I had a few routine appointments at the end and fortunately everyone was really in a good mood and understanding.  Most people really do understand that the really sick animals need to be seen first.  But at the end of the day, I think all our heads were spinning at the whirlwind of patients that we saw.  Wow!

I got home about an hour later than normal with my head still spinning.  Mike told me a few tidbits from his day like how the bean picker broke and he thought it might end up a major repair, but it held up for the final 150 pounds of beans that needed picked.  Whew!  Also he mentioned how hard it was to run the bean sorter all by himself.  After we said a few hello's, I headed outside to tend to the meat chickens still out on pasture and Mike head back to the field to pick more produce.  12 more days and the meat chickens will be butchered.  I was thinking about how I dread doing this chore when I get home from work.  That is until I actually get out there with the chickens and then all the dread goes away.  I really really do love raising chickens.  They are friendly and entertaining.  It is a satisfying feeling being able to raise our own chicken to eat from day old peeps all the way to the freezer.

After chores, I started dinner while Mike continued working in the field until just after dark.  When he got into the house I told him that after dinner, I would go with him and help him run the bean sorter.  So we ate and headed over to Covered Bridge Gardens to sort beans around 8:30pm.  This was the first time I have seen the bean sorter in action.  Basically it takes the beans, stems, leaves that are picked by the bean picker and helps sort out the beans from everything else that gets sucked up into the bean picker.  I worked at the start where the beans feed through a brush-like screen.  My job was to pick out large leaves and stems and make sure everything was feeding through the first part OK.  Mike worked the second part where the beans vibrate down a corrugated metal tray and he picked out leaves and stems that the first screening missed.  Then the beans fall into bushel boxes where they are packed up and ready to ship.  We worked until just after 10pm.  Here's a few more shots of the bean picker.

Bins of beans picked earlier in the day by the bean picker are lined up at the start.  You can see there are a lot of leaves and other debris that the picker picks up along with the beans.

The presorted beans are dumped into the starting area.  This is the area I worked after Mike dumped the beans for me.  OK, I am a weakling.  I freely admit it.

Mike worked the area where the beans would vibrate down the table to the waiting bushel boxes.  As you can see there are not very many beans going down the table.  This is because everything was getting gummed up at my end because I was trying to take a picture.  I must say that Mike was very patient with me since I really didn't know what the heck I was doing at first.

At the end of the day, Mike had picked and boxed the Fresh Fork order of 475 pounds of yellow wax beans, 900 purple bell peppers, 10 bushels of eggplant and 4 half bushels of squash.  Our farm is also supplying our own CSA's this week with cauliflower, white eggplant and golden zucchini.  Plus of course all the smaller pickings for the farm markets.

All I can say it was a day that was go go go from 5:30am to 10:30pm.  That is how things go during peak season.

Oh, and sorry Mick.  I broke your broom while cleaning up the barn.  Oops!  *grin*