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We are still trying desperately to sell the remaining shares. I’m not sure what happened but it seems that any interest in veggies has — much like the rain from the last two years — completely dried up. We even tried giving Mark Zuckerberg some of our hard earned dough to gin up some business but the success of this endeavour closely correlated with his endeavour in creating a Metaverse, which is to say nobody showed up. So please continue to spread the word any way you can! Here is a link to our online store!
We also have a promotion going on until the end of the month. Use the promo code EARTHDAY2023 and receive $25 off your VeggieShare!
The potato planting party is still on for Saturday May 6th starting at 1:00 and going until done. I hope the tractor is fixed and available otherwise you all will be doing a lot of digging! But seriously, please come out and lend a hand, see the farm and meet some of your fellow members. It seems like those who make it come back year after year so they must find it rewarding!
For those who still owe for their share (and not on a payment plan), please send in your payment as soon as you can. If you don’t know what you owe let me know and I can get you that info (that’s a lot of rhyming words!). We take checks, Zelle, PayPal and cold hard cash.
Farm News
Well the outdoor farming is underway and I must say it has started out with a bang! Maybe that is a bit of a misstatement. I think it really should say: Well the outdoor farming season was underway and I must say it came to an end with a bang! I hear the confused looks on everyone’s faces right now. How can the farming season be over? Well, I didn’t say it was over. I said it came to an end. And the bang is what caused the outdoor farming season to cease — though temporarily. I suppose if I want to tell the whole story I’d have to start way back in 2002 when I bought our main tractor. (Cue fuzzy fade to a black and white scene from the past).
Way back in 2002 when we first started farming we invested our hard earned saving into a 1976 Ford 4600 tractor. Why this tractor? Because we found it locally and it could do the job we required. Now I don’t know how many of you have existed since 1976. I suspect there are a few us us left, but for those who are newer than the ’76 models, let me tell you once you pass the age of 45 everything starts to fall apart. Though upon further review, it seems to me that this tractor — and in fact all our equipment — is constantly falling apart. So perhaps the falling apart starts much sooner, like right around the time you get the equipment home.
Anyway, we’ve replaced many of the parts on the tractor and this year we get to do it some more! In this particular case I was tilling the soil getting it ready to plant. If you don’t know anything about farming we try to do tractor things in a straight line, then turn around, and do it back again along the edge of the previous pass — over and over and over again. I was doing this very successfully yesterday, when after the seventh pass, while doing the usually turning around part, I suddenly hear a loud “clunk”. Clunks are never good. And this clunk lived up to clunk’s reputation.
Since it came from the front — and probably more importantly since the steering wheel suddenly became really easy to turn — I guessed correctly that something in the steering mechanism broke. Upon inspection I determined it was the drag arm end. I’m sure that was your first thought as well. Or course this is a part that isn’t something the local hardware store stocks. Nor does — surprisingly — the local-ish Ford tractor dealership. I say surprisingly because you would be amazed what tractor repair shops stock! I once got a carburetor rebuild kit for a 1946 Allis Chalmers Model G from the shop just down the road!
Now having the steering go out like this doesn’t necessarily end farming until we repair it. In fact, if I could farm in a circular pattern I would still be out there tilling! But since I started linearly I feel I have to keep being linear and therefore am stymied until the new part arrives.
The forecast called for rain last night, today, all the rest of this week, and through the weekend so this is probably the best time to have something on the tractor break — well maybe second best behind never. I’m not sure why it is but it seems like they always break when you use them.
That’s all for now. As always, do not hesitate to send in questions, comments, suggestions, orders, jokes, etc. And don’t forget to find some more people to buy our delicious, nutritious veggies!
This Week’s Joke
How does a mathematician plow fields?
With a pro-tractor.