October Snowstorm

The day dawned cold and gray.  You could sense snow in the air, especially if you had just watched The Weather Channel.  Twelve inches?  Really?  "That's crazy...those weather guys always blow things out of proportion," thought the student farmers.  But, because it's always good to be prepared, their fearless leaders, Stephen and Tyson, scheduled an emergency vegetable harvest. After all, it was the last week of the season for the farmers' market and CSA distribution; it just wouldn't do to have the rutabagas buried under a foot of snow, snug and comfortable, yet inaccessible.

Things did not start well for student farmer Liz.  The flakes had just begun to fly when Stephen instructed her to start picking and bundling radishes.  Under normal circumstances, she thought that radishes were beautiful red orbs that would look as good on a Christmas tree as they would on a salad.  But today, picking them meant cold, wet, numb fingers and knees.  Manual dexterity was reduced to zero as the temperature plummeted and heavy snow began to pile up.

Next up: rutabagas. Now the snow was accumulating quickly. The task was to pull up every plant in the field, box it, and get it to the barn before the produce was buried alive.  What a site to see! A blur of white (snow), green (veggies), and brown (dirt) moving through the fields at record speed.  By the time the sun set, over 400 pounds of rutabagas had been harvested by the group of six.

Liz arrived home anticipating a hot shower and a warm meal.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans.  The weight and volume of fifteen inches of early season snow overwhelmed trees and power lines and the electricity went out. Little did she know that power wouldn't be restored until 72 hours later.

She experienced a small crisis of confidence and wondered to herself, "Am I hearty enough to be a farmer?  Has a student farmer ever died from hypothermia?" And most importantly, "What does a rutabaga taste like?"