One Last Pick: Saying Goodbye to Strawberry Season
In the offseason it’s easy to plan. Farming on paper. Numbers on a spreadsheet. A mental to-do list. A packet of tomato seeds, a few reused trays, bags of potting soil, some fertilizer, time on the tractor, get the field ready for planting, t-posts, twine…What starts out as a series of zeroes and ones, can fit into an envelope in the mail and slowly the scale grows exponentially. The present day farmer can not go back and tell the brilliant planner sipping coffee on a cold winter day that he’s forgetting something.
Calls to Farmer Mark and Lessons from a First-Year Grower
I’ve called Farmer Mark of Waller Family Farm every week with some crisis or pressing question. It starts with me texting him, “Hey Mark. Got a minute to chat? I’ve got a question about…”. 5, 10, 15 minutes later my phone will ring. It’s Mark. No matter how I’m feeling when I answer the phone. It’s like a burst of sunshine and rainbows on the other end of the line when I hear Mark’s voice. As a first year strawberry grower I feel like I’m on a roller coaster. I’ve never grown a crop with so many ups and downs, highs and lows. I mean lowest of low.