Pea picking time. The hard way. People really no longer want to pick their own peas. When they do, they will not maintain the discipline of staying in their row. They want to pick over the entire patch thinking they have to,to find peas. This is not the case. Some patience is required and discipline. I challenge anyone to a pick off. I'll stay in my row to the end and you pick over the patch. I will pick more peas. Picking over, you spend too much time moving and not enough time picking, compounding your frustration with the whole enterprise.
We do not do well using this method. This was made painfully obvious to us early on. As usual, when we hand pick, we left 80% of the crop in the field. With the Chisholm Ryder sidelined, we were not able to pick enough, fast enough, in enough quantity to take to the farmers market.
Enter the restoration plan. It was my intention to repair the Multi D. After evaluating my options and looking at the costs, it wasn't worth it. It is to be sold for scrap unless I get a better offer than $1000. Its replacement is a Pixall BH-100. Far easier to repair and to operate. Though smaller, it is a far better fit for our small acreage than the larger machine.
Along with our continuous sheller, our operation can run sixty to one hundred bushel per hour, pods to shelled peas. This is the sheller at work: http://youtu.be/UOkTbWkEjvk?list=UUooo9-r6Pq1-glUwemeZ0Mg
It is no longer for sale, by the way.
The new picker will arrive Saturday, August 16th and the old one is due to leave the same day. The blackeyed peas should be ready soon after.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
June 2014
This year we were reminded that there are many other threats to our crops other than weather. Wild hogs ravaged our wheat, then our rye. Both crops were totally destroyed.
It was heartbreaking. We had no choice but to replant with southern peas. Our choice was Quick Pick Purplehull and California 46 Blackeye. By the Middle of June the land was restored and replanted.
We sold a few bushel of purplehulls only to discover we had lost most of our market share over the four year long drought and our decision to abandon the fresh bean and pea market. We now realize that was a mistake. The problem was, we needed a reliable bean picker again. That situation was not resolved immediately.
Meanwhile, our garden produced some nice squash, tomatoes and cucumbers.
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