Flowers and Fields

Just because it's January, and the fields are sleeping quietly, please don't assume that farmers are sitting around idly biding their time until Spring.

I rose before dawn Saturday (which isn't hard to do this time of year), picked up the Chief of Operations and the VP of Planting, Harvesting and Spraying and headed south on a two lane road covered with snow and cinders. We were to meet the President of the Produce Division at Yoder's Produce Supply, just east of Fredericksburg in the heart of Amish Country. This business is where we purchase all of our drip tape (for irrigation), plastic mulch, soil medium for seed starting, and most of our seeds.

When we arrived, Mr. Yoder was helping another customer, so we looked around to see what was new in the store. We spotted a sign behind the counter that was an excellent reminder of a basic tenet of customer service. We just might be posting that sign at a little farm I know of. 

Mr. Yoder remembered us from previous years, and quickly started to tackle our long order. By the time he totaled our invoice, and looked up, the store was full of Amish men. My heart went out to him, he was working alone and had intended to close at 11 AM. By this time, it was after 10:30. I wondered how long it would take him to serve all his customers and hoped he would remember they were doing him a "favor."

Next, we headed to Mt. Hope. It was time for lunch at Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen and our first official meeting of 2012. As we neared town, the buggy traffic increased. Something definitely was going on. The waitress informed us that it was the second Saturday of the month ... which meant it was "Horse Sale Day". (Now you know, in case you ever want to buy a horse.) They were auctioning off Belgians, Percherons, Riding Horses, and Ponies. On an average month, between 50-100 Drafts and 300-400 Standardbreds are sold. No wonder the place was so active!

We sat next to a table of half a dozen horse traders. One of them kept looking over at us with looooong, curious glances. I guess he saw the title "Chief of Operations" on my cousin's jacket and wondered who we were and what we were up to when copies of the meeting agenda were passed out. HA! If he only knew!

A lot was jumbled out on the table Saturday, and somehow, like water finding the path of least resistance, it all flows and comes together, and when mid July arrives the canopy is set up by the roadside and there is a harvest to pick.