As the winter draws to its inevitable conclusion (really!) my mind goes wandering through all the things necessary to get the farm running. And as I jumped from one thought to another, I got stuck on employees. I know I've written about staff before and I could go see what I said so as to not repeat myself, but I'm not going to because I'm kind of on a roll here.
We've had a very interesting time staffing the farm. Farmer Bill's first employee was our son, who was finishing a gap year. If you've ever started a business from scratch you know how difficult the first year can be. You've put a lot - in our case all of Farmer Bill's retirement savings - on the line. Some things work as planned, many others do not. Throw in whatever weather issues the spring brings - there are always weather issues for a farm - and let's just say that it wasn't the best situation for the father-son relationship. But the years have softened the memories and the two men have forgiven each other & get along very well now.
The next employee was a man about 10 years older than Farmer Bill. Farmer Bill had hoped, from their early conversations, that the man would be helpful working with machinery since Bill has never felt really comfortable as a mechanic. Stan (not his real name) had been a farmer himself. He had raised grain crops, thought raising strawberries was a crazy idea and, as it turns out, wasn't really interested in learning anything new, and wasn't really that good at troubleshooting machinery. He was, however, pretty good at complaining when things didn't work right (often that first year), the weather didn't cooperate (when does it ever?), or he was asked to make yet another run to town for parts. Because of his unrelenting negativity Farmer Bill finally had to let him go.
One year early on Farmer Bill advertised for pickers. Other growers we know said "Local kids are a great labor source." And, "Farm wives love the chance to work for a few weeks and make extra money; we've had the same women back year after year." So we advertised in the local paper and with the local job service office. And waited. And waited. And nobody called. Well, that's not entirely true. One man called, asked what we were paying, and hung up. I think it was about $0.50/pound then. Which meant that during the mid-season a good picker could make between $15 and $20 an hour. When the picking is not so good, our best pickers still make close to $10 an hour & the rate is never allowed to drop below minimum wage. But it is part time and it is seasonal - a couple to several hours a day for 3 weeks.
Over the years we've had a lot of people come to pick strawberries. A few kids, but mostly adults. Women are generally better pickers than men. Men tend not to pay attention to details, picking berries with bad spots on them. And they tend to pick less gently, crushing the soft tops of the ripe berries. It's hard to convince new pickers to leave berries with one little bad spot on them behind. Yes, that spot could be cut out and most of the berry usable, but they're picking for resale & we have to get good money and repeat business for our picked berries, so we can't afford to sell berries with soft spots.
One year two girls showed up to pick in shorts and halter tops - assuming this was going to be a sunbathing opportunity I think. I remember two boys who picked one season - they were 15 - and incredibly slow - and picked every little nubbin off the plants no matter what we said to them. So while not the best pickers, they were tenacious, which is a quality Farmer Bill truly admires. He thought he might like to have them do other work for him the next year. Unfortunately, their tenacity meant that they were able to got 'real' jobs the next summer when they were 16.
And one of my favorite memories is the woman who met Farmer Bill at a market, or maybe she came to pick her own and got to talking to him there. There was some crisis - I think it was really hot and we had a lot of berries ready to pick so we were doing a big push. She probably said she enjoyed picking, he probably said would she like to get paid for it. At any rate, I was there one morning before work, greeting pickers while Bill finished getting the irrigation started on another field, when she arrived. I went to greet her - and she looked right past me looking for Farmer Bill. When I explained that things were running a little behind and it would be a while before he was available so I was getting pickers started, she ignored me, saying she had made arrangements to meet Farmer Bill there. Two customers were picking for themselves in an adjacent field & she looked over, said 'Oh, there he is.' and started walking towards them. I told her that wasn't Bill, she said it looked like him. I said no, it wasn't him & I should know since I'd been married to him more than 20 years. That stopped her in her tracks. She looked at me for the first time & it dawned on me that she hadn't known Farmer Bill was married. She didn't stay and work.
So every year has it employee challenges & we don't know yet what they will be for this year. But it's pretty certain there will be some!
