Onward we go! On Friday morning three people and two trucks met in Ritzville at 9 am. Going south on 395 just beyond the Coyote Ridge Correctional Facility we turned and proceeded to the Eltopia Post Office to meet a farmland owner that Terri knows.
We drive to a nearby field that had just been harvested and stop at a big pile of sweet corn sitting on the side of the field. He asked what else we could use. We told him about the potato shortage at the food bank, and you could see the gears in his mind start to turn. Saying, “Take as much as you can use, of this corn,” he turned to Terri saying, “Come see where the other fields are”. So, Pete and I got busy filling 8-grain bags with corn (90 lbs each approx) by the time she returned.
Our next stop was at a potato field that had just finished being harvested. The crew was waiting for us by their Spudnik Potato Harvester. Wow! I want to drive a Spudnik someday. Look at the size of that machine!
They motioned for us to pull up beside them, saying they would load our pickup till we say stop. It took about 2 seconds to fill the bed completely up with potatoes.
We drive very carefully on some dirt roads to where the onion field is next. We get to pick from the field before they harvest it this afternoon. Before we can start to pick, we must bag up 4 bags of potatoes out of our truck and transfer them to Terri’s truck. Otherwise, we don’t have enough room to haul any onions and corn.
You can see how the onion is planted about 4 across in a 12-16 inch row. They have let the tops dry and the picking is very easy. We quickly add 6 more bags of onions (75 lbs each) to the harvest today.
Picking Onions
2,411 Pounds
Thanks to the generosity of the farm landowner and the farmers that lease his land, we just unloaded 2,411 lbs of beautiful fresh produce at the Food Pantry this morning.
This is only what we brought back home, Terri had a full truckload that she took to her church.
292 pounds of corn
1,815 pounds of potatoes
304 pounds of onion
The three of us who volunteered, had a blast doing this. It was a beautiful drive and the whole day was full of smiles and laughter for us all. It feels good to respond to the opportunities presented to us. GIG! Hopefully, others will see what a joy it is to participate in this kind of activity making the next opportunity even more fun.