Friday, October 07, 2011

A VERY FINE CARROT HARVEST

For the last two weeks we have been seeing fine arrays of carrots appearing at the part of the farm nearest to us. They are carefully lifted out of the trailer, which is usually hitched to a tractor, and are laid out, again with care, onto the tarmac. The soil is then washed from them with a high pressure hose. 

Not long after the cleaning treatment, the carrots with their long elegant green fronds, are deftly tied by hand into presentation bunches. When the shallow boxes arrive from local retailers, the bunches are gently placed in them - there's no rough handling - and the carrot boxes are lifted into the vehicles. That is the last we see of them. 

These are some of the carrot harvest : 
P1010107-Freshly-harvested-carrots-Wb
General Farm workers have to be multi-skilled and multi-taskers on some farms. At the farm near us, they usually work in the agricultural machinery repair business, and fulfill the tasks required to keep the farm running. 

Checking two kinds of stock:
P1010110-2011-10-6th-Stock-Check-Wb

I buy eggs from the farm; one of the workers who lives on site keeps chickens and collects eggs from favourite laying places, about three times a day.  Having seen those gorgeous-looking carrots, I decided it was time to return some empty egg boxes, buy anew, and see if there was any other fresh farm produce for sale. The shop at the farm is not a farm produce shop, it is an agricultural vehicles spare parts business. (Farmers have to be versatile and be able to diversify these days to make a living). The eggs are sold from the spare parts shop and sometimes, if I am in luck, I'll be able to pick up some other fresh farm grown vegetables while I am there. 

I was lucky, not only were there some eggs left for sale, there was a small stand outside the shop, on which rested some swedes, lovely big light green cabbages and guess what.....a couple of bunches of those luscious-looking carrots. My purchases of six eggs, a swede and a bunch of carrots cost me the princely sum of two pounds sterling.

:D
P.S The pictures were taken from a distance.

2 comments:

keiko amano said...

ZACL,

That sounds very satisfying shopping. When I was small, I ran to a tofu shop to buy a piece of tofu, and so on, and I had to be very careful bringing eggs home in a bag made of newspaper. There were no good packaging. I've never seen a swede, so I look up the dictionary. It came from Sweden to Scotland, it said. I'd like to try that.

ZACL said...

Hello Keiko,

You may know the root vegetable Swede as a Rutabagga. I am given to understand they are the same vegetable with different names.

It gets even more confusing in Scotland because a Swede become a Turnip, or, colloquially, a 'neep'. A turnip is a different root vegetable that is smaller and other varieties of turnip also vary in colour and size. A turnip is also a turnip in Scotland and does not have a different name.

My farm shopping was very satisfying. Since then, I have had a large Swede and a big green cabbage left for me in my garden (thrown over the fence) a surprise gift from the farmers. It is our second cabbage from them.

Thank you for your comments.