Wrapping Up the Harvest

Jack enjoys the parsnip harvest

Hello Everyone!  This is Captain Jack (The Dog) reporting to you from the passenger’s seat of our mobile “Command Central”, aka Farmer Richard’s truck.  Dad and I have been doing a lot of driving over the past few weeks.   We seldom leave the valley, but we visit a lot of fields in the course of the day.  Fall is a very busy time of the year for us.  Many people think we’re winding down, but we actually still have a lot of work to do!  This has been a great fall for us in many ways.  Dad remembers having 3 feet of snow on October 31 back in 1989 or 1990.  Personally, I like snow and wouldn’t mind that, but the rest of the humans on the farm don’t seem as ready for the winter wonderland as I am.   We have harvested our horseradish, selected seed stock for next year and are almost done planting next year’s crop.  We dug and selected seed for next year’s sunchokes which are also all planted.  Of course, we have also planted our garlic and about half of it has already been mulched to keep it safe during the winter!

Jack in the truck

“Global warming” has been a blessing and a challenge this year.  We’ve had a warm fall with temperatures in September (4°F) and October (3°F) and above normal averages.  We all enjoy being able to feel our fingers as we work, and in that way we’re grateful for the warmer temperatures.  The downside of the warmer days is that crops are coming in ahead of schedule.  Turnips, radishes, etc. are sizing up faster than normal resulting in some things getting too big.  We like to “store” crops in the field and harvest as late as possible, but that just isn’t an option with some of the plantings this year.  While larger roots are entirely edible and of good quality, buyers won’t accept them thus they remain in the field and are unsaleable.

We get pretty nervous this time of year.  In addition to the temperatures, Dad’s also keeping his eye on moisture.  Last week we had 2.3 inches of rain which put a stop to our mechanical harvest.  Thankfully the ground was pretty dry and the 2.3 inches of rain soaked easily into very dry soil.  We were back in the field Monday morning, despite the ground still being a little wet.  We couldn’t wait though…we’re in a race against time with rain forecasted for this Thursday!  That means we have 3 days to maximize the harvest before we might be forced out of the field again.  Our goal is 120 more bins of vegetables this week averaging 600# per bin.  That’s 36 tons of vegetables to harvest in 3 days!  Wait…there’s one other challenge that’s part of this picture.  We’re nearly out of cooler space and bins!  We trim & wash vegetables every day to empty bins and send them back to the fields to get reloaded.  Nonetheless, we’re getting pretty slim on storage space and while Dad’s fretting in the fields, Mom (Andrea) is fretting in the packing shed.  Mom is trained as a chef and was taught to face challenges in the kitchen with no option other than to find a solution.  Sometimes I hear her telling herself “Make it happen Chef.”  Somehow it will work out, but in the meantime there’s an intense game of “Cooler Tetris” going on!  Right now we have our fingers crossed that we’ll get as much harvested as we can before the rain starts again and we’re hoping we don’t get as much as last week.

Captain Jack supervises the celeriac harvest

In looking at the long range forecast (several times a day), we know that the temperatures are going to drop eventually.  Next week they’re forecasting temperatures in the twenties.  Temperatures this low could spell the end for many crops unless we have covers in place!  Double covers with hoops to hold the cover above the plants work well to about 20-25°F.  We have already had some touches of frost and have covers in place for our remaining greens, parsley, etc.  Unfortunately they are a management challenge as they need to be removed on warm and wet days or we risk mildew setting in on the plants.

So, as you can see we are doing a bit of a “song & dance” around weather as we race against time to get everything harvested and tucked away safely in storage before winter sets in.  HVF has long been ahead of the times in supporting and encouraging “seasonal eating” throughout the winter.  Root and storage crops are an important part of our winter diet and are intended to last in storage until spring.  This is the way the settlers ate in the 1800’s and for those who are committed to eating a local Midwestern diet year-round, these late season crops are essential.  According to Mom & Dad’s estimates, we have a lot of food available to our members and customers over the next several months.  In fact, we still have Extended Season Vegetable shares available for our January deliveries.  Our sign-ups for this share are the lowest they’ve been in years, which is a bit concerning for us.  We’re hoping you just forgot to sign up for this share and if that’s the case, please send your order in soon!  If we don’t see better participation for January deliveries we’re going to have to consider discontinuing these deliveries as the economics and realities of running a truck in January just don’t balance out with the value of product on the truck.


Well, it’s Wednesday morning and we have to get our crew plans pulled together for the day.  I have another big day of hauling vegetables with my Dad, Farmer Richard.  I better eat my breakfast and brush my hair so I’m ready to go at 8 am when the crew heads to the field.  I hope you enjoy the bounty of this week’s box!  Captain Jack “The Dog” signing off.

The Asa Lift & Its Operator

by Lisa Garvalia

Parsnips being harvested with the Asa-Lift

Living on a farm myself, I have a deep appreciation for the use of good, efficient equipment. One example is the round baler which has taken the place, on many farms, of the need for a square baler. The square baler requires someone to pull the tractor over the windrows, while the baler makes the squares, then the bales are thrown onto the wagon that is attached to the square baler. If the square baler does not have a “kicker” to throw the bales onto the wagon then someone has to manually pick the bales off the field and throw them into the wagon. There is usually someone on the wagon to stack the square bales up neatly in order to get a maximum load on the wagon. When the wagon is full, it is pulled back to the barn by another tractor and the bales are manually loaded on an elevator and dropped in the haymow. There is also someone in the haymow to stack the square bales neatly for maximum storage with less waste. I am tired just writing about the whole process.

The Asa-Lift

Now that I have given you an example of the efficiency that certain farm equipment can bring, let me tell you a bit about the Asa-Lift, our single row root crop harvester. I had the pleasure of hearing about the workings of the Asa-Lift from the main operator, Rafael. One of the most important things that was stressed in my discussion is that the settings on the Asa-Lift must be precise in order for it to operate at its best.  That being said, there are a lot of things to pay attention to so the precision is there. The front of the Asa-Lift has a leaf row cutter that separates the leaves from one row to the next.

Leaf row cutter, plow & torpedo bars

 There is a plow that lifts the plants out of the ground and 2 torpedo shaped bars that rotate and pick up all of the leaves from the plant. A belt grabs the leaves and moves the plant upward out of the ground and toward the topping bar. The dirt is cleaned off the plants from below by rubber fingers, and metal topping bars cut the leaves off the plant. After the leaves are cut off, the produce then travels farther up the conveyer and drops into wood bins. The bins are waiting on a flat rack, or wagon, that is being pulled by another tractor alongside Rafael with the Asa-lift.

Rubber fingers to clean dirt

Asa-Lift harvesting with the 2nd tractor pulling flat rack

In total it takes two tractors, and 4-5 people to make this operation work. Both tractors must travel in synchrony to make this work. One or two people ride on the flat rack to “catch” the produce with the pad and one to pick out the leaves and culls. One person also walks behind the Asa-Lift to watch the operation and pick up any leftover roots from the field. Rafael has many different things to pay attention to when he is operating the Asa-Lift.
He has to make sure that everything is working correctly because if there is one setting even a few inches off, it can either do damage to the crop, plug up the conveyer, or the dirt may not all get cleaned off. Another thing that is always on his mind is the safety of everyone around the Asa-Lift when it is in operation. He likes to work with the same crew as they are familiar with how it should be running when it is working properly and also the things that should be watched for safety reasons. On the tractor with the Asa-Lift is a small square box of controls that is right at the fingertips of Rafael and it runs all of the different components of the Asa-Lift, from the PTO to the pumps to moving the conveyer. Rafael is very keen to listen when the machine is running as he can tell by the sounds if something needs to be adjusted or looked at.  Rafael has a very important job running the machine and he takes it very seriously. If one small thing is overlooked it can cause something big and unpleasant to happen.

Topping Bars

Rafael running the Asa-Lift

Now that I have given you a brief summary on how this machine works, let’s look at what kind of efficiency it brings to Harmony Valley Farm.  When it comes to purchasing tractors and equipment, farmers must take into consideration many different things to justify the expense. Besides looking at the cost, they also look at how the equipment may improve quality of life and time saved.


With the Asa-Lift they can harvest approximately 9 different root crops and they can fill up to 40 – 50 bins per day depending on the produce being harvested. Now if this were to be done manually, it would take 10 people 4 hours to fill 6-8 bins with produce. We still have many crops that involve lifting crates and hand harvest, but whenever possible we use pallet jacks, machinery, and forklifts to harvest and move heavy roots.

The Asa-Lift was purchased from Denmark because no machines are made in this country for small vegetable farms like ours.  Another important benefit of the Asa-Lift is that it can be used at any time, even if there has been a stretch of rain, where manual harvest would be affected. This should give you an idea of why the Asa-Lift is such an important piece of machinery. Besides the time factor, it also saves on back strain that could be caused by all of the manual work that would need to be done.

Bins of celeriac being harvested by the Asa-Lift.
Vicente is on the flat rack catching celeriac and
pulling off extra leaves. Each bin holds 600-800 pounds of roots!

There are many other pieces of equipment that are used on the farm, all of which help to make the job easier and more efficient. The time that is being saved along with the health of the workers is taken very seriously. My hope is that you have enjoyed reading about the awesome Asa-Lift, its operator Rafael, and understand our appreciation of its usefulness!