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To: DelaWhere

It would be fun to see how he does it, when you get a chance and find ‘free time’.

If the photos are too big, we can’t open the thread, or I can’t as I am on dial up to the internet.


410 posted on 02/09/2009 11:53:13 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny ( http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2181392/posts?page=1 [Survival,food,garden,crafts,and more)
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To: nw_arizona_granny

Granny, I will be glad to take those pictures to show y’all.

The owner and his family are part of my ‘Extended Neighbor Family’ - (I hope our readers are developing ENF’s - They can be crucial to survival in really hard times.) I have know Joel’s family very well starting with his grandfather. His father is now 84, has parkinson’s really bad, but still gets out in the field driving equipment and runs their 3,000 acre farming operation along with his brother and their 5 kids and grandkids. They are all just about the nicest people you could ever meet. To give you an example of a ENF, I offer and on occasion do help them if they are really short handed for a driver - or whatever, then in the spring when they are harvesting peas - which they grow several hundred of acres of - and the viners are huge over a million $ each (they have 4) Anyway, I buy about 100 pounds from them. They always tell me that they won’t charge me for them and I always insist on giving them $25 for them. They get about $450 a ton from processor/canning company, so I insist on paying just above that.

I have some 3 X 6 wire grates that I put a piece of 6 foot screen on, put it on a very slight incline across a pair of sawhorses and pour some on the top end and using garden hose, spray them really well. This way, any sand goes through, and the bits and pieces of leaves are plastered on the screen and clean peas make it to the bucket on the bottom end. I then divide them up - Daughters, Wife’s Aunt, etc. and while my wife delivers them, I start canning.

We do the same process with lima beans (except they are a little higher in price and I use a 1/4” hardware cloth in place of the screen) I always take my $4.98 WalMart fish scale along and weigh them in my 5 gal. storage buckets - that way there is never any feeling of anyone getting the short end of the stick. I feel better about it and so do they.

For any readers who want to consider getting products in this way from farmers, please note - while they may really want to talk to you, they are in a push to get their crop harvested at it’s peak - it means more money to them - also please, please leave attitudes somewhere else - don’t just drive across their field and blow your horn at them expecting them to come running - won’t happen and you will probably be ignored or run off. Always go into the field the same path that their hauling trucks take - first you stand less of a chance of getting stuck and while they are unloading is the best time to talk for a few seconds. Be polite and be a good neighbor!

Granny, don’t worry about picture size - I’ll keep them small. Earlier this year I fired Comcast - They raised the rates and I revolted over $96 a month for cable and internet. I have no use for MTV, BET, or their All 0bama channel and I have gone back to dial-up too - hey, I had dial-up long before they had always on high speed. I can adjust! Maybe think of $96 a month in terms of peas..... Yep, that’s 2 1/4+ tons (4,608 pounds) of peas a year! Don’t think so...

Sorry for rambling - your post was so concise and I gave you the long version answer.


430 posted on 02/10/2009 6:20:05 AM PST by DelaWhere (I'm a Klingon - Clinging to guns and Bible - Putting Country First - Preparing for the Worst!!!)
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