What do farmers do in the winter?
Harvest in the late summer is an exciting time on the farm. It’s when we harvest our blueberries and apples at their peak of ripeness. Then we carefully package them to make sure our customers receive them in excellent condition. But though our trees are dormant in the winter our work isn’t over. Like other farmers, we spend the winter planning, repairing, etc. etc. A farmers work is never done. Here’s an idea of what we are accomplishing in the winter.
We plan, plan plan.
All of us on the leadership team are working hard to review last year and plan ahead for 2020 and beyond. We have found that our farm design has to update and change every year if we’re going to stay in business. Winter is the time to assess and plan for the changes.
We do our homework. (OR? We practice our presentation skills.)
We meet in small groups to review and plan, then we present our findings to the whole group through PowerPoint presentations. This helps everyone understand the big picture and stay on the same page.
We update our software. (OR? We modernize outdated systems! OR We learn new technology.)
Currently, Farmer Bill & Office Staff are working on a new software accounting system. This will allow us to customize our bookkeeping to match our business design and save time. Gone are the days of loading separate information into the system.
We hit the city.
COF Natalie and Marketing Manager Hailey recently visited Seattle to connect with retailers interested in organic fruit and observe what people in the city are looking for when they visit an organic farm. They’re busy updating our farm store and customer experience.
We count, count, count. (OR? We do math. OR? We estimate fruit production.)
Our Horticulturist Phil and Supervisors Rodolfo and Carlos have estimated our fruit production in each of the orchard blocks for this coming year and thereafter until 2023. Based on that information, they have also estimated the numbers of guest workers we’ll invite from Mexico with the H2A program.
We go shopping!
Our Mechanic Gerardo is shopping for used packing equipment that we will use this coming harvest season so we can sort and pack our fruit. We started a small packing operation last summer and this coming summer we want to pack even more. This way, we can control the quality of our fruit from the farm to the consumer.
We Prune.
Supervisors Carlos and Rodolfo are leading the crew through pruning all of the orchards. They model the technique for each block and teach the crew along the way.
We do a little traveling. (OR? We network.)
Bill & Angell recently traveled to San Francisco to talk to potential fruit buyers. On the same trip, they attend a Sweetango meeting in Phoenix to hear an update on how the marketing and production went in 2019 as well as future plans.