Trust and Obey. In Mark's gospel, Jesus says to Peter, "I tell you the truth, today before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times." Well maybe Peter had some things to answer for, but there was no denying God's love around here this morning. The faithful bakers were up well before any rooster crowed making pies: peach pie, plum pie, Aunt Wilma's rhubarb pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, cherry pie, and then the sticky buns came out along with semel, whole wheat bread, and that's just the goods the Hooley house contributed to the sale, which began today. By the time we transported the fresh, warm baked goods to the church, people were already flocking through the doors. By days end I heard the sales total neared fifteen thousand, and Anna, the organizer could be heard lamenting like a night owl that she would end up losing sales because she didn't have enough merchandise. In her defense, it's as difficult to predict as Andy Hooley's seed business where he has to predict three years out what varieties will be needed, what the yields will be, what the weather will be, and what the price of wheat will be. It's not mandatory that a grower be a Trust and Obey Christian, but I can hear a few verses wafting through the breeze around here. There was little for me to do during the day shift, so I tagged along with Gary. We first toured Andy's operation, which he dumbed down enough for me to make some sense of. He was in the process of cleaning a few "cans" (Each can holds a ton and a half) of soft white wheat outside his huge storage building (Which holds 500 or so cans). His cleaning machine, which he designed and built himself, was busy shaking the beards and chaff off fresh soft white kernels. And while we were there, he took time to zip around in his Hyster forklift, more specifically known as "Wiggins", to dump a few tons of clean seed into the semi-truck of one of his customers. The whole event took about fifteen minutes. Andy guided Wiggins toward a can, scooped it up in the two steel arms, scooted outside to the waiting bed of the semi, raised the load, and skillfully twisted the can so the grain poured out perfectly. Not a kernel spilled. He was also simultaneously treating some of his wheat for different customers who needed a wheat variety that would grow in soft sand as a cover crop. After the load of grain left, Andy loaded ten cans of dry beans that had been grown and harvested earlier by the Hooleys (All are involved: Gary, Loey, Andy, Sarah) onto the flatbed semi-truck they call "Rio". It's a venerable seventies vintage Diamond Rio that Gary bought used. It ably hauls beans (And other crops, I would guess) to the bean warehouse that Gary has done business with for thirty-five years now. I rode along just for the cultural experience (As Andy phrased it). Gary coaxed Rio's gears the whole four and a half miles to the KelleyBean Company Warehouse. He nosed Rio onto the scale, where the workers danced along a catwalk probing the grain for a sample. Others walked along beside the truck with labels to identify the grower, the bean variety, and the date. Inside, they determined moisture content and the "tear" (Amount of dirt, rocks, sticks, and other debris) from the probed sample. Gary gets paid for the tonnage of what's left after the tear is shaken out in the mill at the warehouse. We took two loads, and during the whole season, Gary averages a little over ten trips to the bean warehouse. Today, we didn't have to wait, but at the peak of the season, there's a line waiting for the scale. So you see, even on days when the ground is still to wet to be worked, there is work to be done. As usual, I peppered Gary and Andy with questions, which they politely answered because they're on their best "guest behavior" ( and because that's how they are). I'm fascinated by the complexity of the farming process, and as I'd willingly tell anyone who'd listen, "I couldn't last two days working as hard as these guys do." Around 4 P.M. Judy and I went back to the church to help with the night shift. I made myself useful as the greeter at the door (I can handle small jobs). When people come through the door, I say, "Welcome, please write your name and address on the mailing slip so we can send you a flyer about next year's sale". It's the kind of banter I'm good at, so I enjoyed doing it. Tomorrow, we'll be needed for longer periods at the sale, and a repeat of the pre-dawn baking process will happen. As we speak, Judy is baking semel, and undeterred, Loey will be up before the rooster crows to once again signal that life is good, especially today.
The Hooley baked goods amounted to about half of the goods displayed this morning (And the same will happen tomorrow).
I think this is Loey's imitation of me doing Tai Chi.
Andy at the wheel of "Wiggins"
Andy and Archie in a rare (Posed) moment of pause.
Bottom line: "The check is in the mail".
"Rio" sidling up to the scale.
A partial view of the Andy's cleaning machine. (He took some offense when I called it a Rube Goldberg contraption, I guess because Rube's machine never worked). Andy's works well, and it can even shut itself off when it gets full. Amazing.
Wiggins dancing out the big door of Andy's shop.
This handful of dry beans has what the growers call "tear". Gary's goal is to have about four percent tear per ton. Regardless, he's paid for what they get after milling.
Andy's machine cleans the wheat seed to less than one percent of chaff. This handful shows some treated wheat. Year to date, Andy has moved around one million tons of various soft white wheat varieties through his operation.
Besides semel and rosemary walnut bread, my bunny had time to core a few apples for tomorrow's pies.
No comments:
Post a Comment