It’s a family effort
Dad is 81 years old, and very fond of complaining about how he lacks the physical strength to be helpful around the farm. Well, that just is not the case, he’s been tremendously helpful along the way. After we did the first round of honey extraction, a time crunch presented itself. Our new bottles arrived, and the first opening at the Ocean Grove Berry Farm was imminent, so time was of the essence to get the honey bottled and labelled so it could be available for the first day of U-Pick raspberries at the Ocean Grove. While he may not have the physical strength for driving a shovel or pitchfork anymore, Dad can drive the Nassenheider Fill-Up machine as well as anybody. With Dad filling, Chris doing lids and labels, then myself keeping a supply of empties and stacking full cases, bottling a round of honey can be done in short order.
After the honey was all bottled, next came the first garlic harvest. Getting it all out of the ground is the first step in the process, but, it still needs to be hung out to dry. Once again, we put the family to work, and here is Dad busy tying bundles of garlic preparing them to go into the drying area.
There is plenty of work to go around, and everybody gets a chance to contribute along the way.