<p class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN-US">Having grown up in the city, my agricultural experience was mostly limited to a backyard garden and visits to u-picks in the summer.  I had a conceptual idea of what happened on farms: Spring planting, Summer nurturing, Fall harvesting, Winter planning - A cycle that repeated year after year.  Since joining the Organic Box Family 4 years ago my eyes have really been opened up to the great deal of hard work that goes into each season and how many crucial steps I was missing.</span></p> <p class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN-US">In addition to weeding, pest management, soil health and equipment maintenance, summers mean hard work from sunrise to sunset.  Hard work takes lots of hours and many hands.  Aside from actually doing the work, farmers also have to manage and administer to the people they employ.  </span></p> <p class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN-US">When it comes time to harvest, picking the produce is only the first step.  Depending on the fruit or vegetable, a </span>unique piece of equipment may be needed.  What about transportation from the field?  A bin of radishes gets pretty heavy, a tote of greens is fragile and needs to be attended to quickly after harvesting.  Once picked, each item has to be inspected for quality and bagged or bunched for shipping and selling.</p> <p class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN-US">Whether it is a bag of cherries or a bunch of green onions, someone has lovingly and expertly assembled that food.  </span></p> <p class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN-US">Only then does the journey begin to bring that food from the farm to market, or in our case, to the warehouse for packing into your boxes.  This step requires carefully arranging the produce into a delivery vehicle.  Then the vehicle can hit the road into town.</span></p> <p class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN-US">Once emptied, the truck then returns to the farm to be loaded again the next week, or the next day or even the next hour if the need arises.  It is true what they say: Summer is a time of hard, never-ending work.  We are grateful for the hard work of our dedicated farmers all summer long!</span></p>
