Harvest day for us always wraps up with the pack line, and this week there were some great tunes to dance along with on the radio! We get a list from Harvie of how many of each item to pack for your boxes, so we harvest, get it all washed and boxed up and into the fridge. At the end of the day we pull everything out, and set it up in order on our pack line while someone puts the stickers on all the bags. Then we grab a bag and a crate, and load it all up. Every crate has to pass me, I double check that none of the items got mixed up and the right quantities are in the crate. Then down the line to be packed into the bag, and Steph labels and tucks them all into the bins to go to the right destinations. While it's one of the most focused attention tasks we do on the farm, the visiting relatives of our two Mexican staff have decided it's the most fun to help with too! It's a real joy to see all the good food heading out to all our families, because feeding people well is why we're here :)
Two things I've noticed of late at my "checking" station:
1) Don't be worried if you've got extra. For example if I say everyone can have a $2.50 size eggplant, and when the harvest comes in they're all smaller, we give everyone two little ones instead to make up the value. That often happens with things like zucchini, cucumbers, and eggplants. Since I put a price on each item, we make sure we fill your value! If things come in larger than expected, we consider that a bonus for you ;)
2) Did you get something twice in a row? Please don't be shy to swap. We're starting to see some of our longer term storage crops coming in which means they'll be on the list a few weeks in a row unlike summer items that come and go on a weekly basis. Last year I was able to better rotate what was in your bag by default because everyone had the same size share. This year because we have both small and regular size shares the system is going down a longer list to pick out your favourite items, so those with a small share are more likely to get repeat items from one week to the next. Either pop in to lower your preferences (this will typically happen with items you love or like) or just swap them out. If you want to learn more about how preferences work, here's Harvie's detailed explanation. If you want equal chances at everything, just rank everything a "sometimes" and you'll get my list in the order I set it. Anything that's a "not for me" you will never get, and "I'll eat it" will very rarely get filled in your box. Basically, Harvie goes down my list and pulls out any items that are ranked "love", then any items that are ranked "like" then any items that are ranked "sometimes"... until your box is full!
