So as you can imagine, it is a frantic time in the spring to get all of the fertilizer plots established. And then making applications through the summer. So it is with great anticipation that harvest comes around and we can see what happened. A month ago was apple harvest, and believe it or not, I actually helped. This is another job of hand labor, and all help is appreciated. In fact just about everyone at the NCRS helped with harvest and others came out from the Ashley plant and the office. Below we see Zouheir and Senior Finance Manager Craig's wife Jackie helping with Honeycrisp harvest.
Craig and Horticulture Research Manager Jacob show off the fruits (literally) of their labor.
Last week it was time to harvest the Concord Grape plots. I have helped with this before, but there was a good crew in place this year. The grapes are very pretty and smell really grapey. (Is that a word? Well it smells like a thousand grape jelly jars were left open.)
Here we see Tim, Quinten and Rene's head as they pick the bunches. Quiz time: What annoying insect also loves grapes? Answer: wasps. They get so thick in the hot afternoons that harvest must quit. But they did finish.
It's not all just picking. This is research, and Tim records the plot yield.
Potato harvest was just this past week. Here is Tim at the controls of the digger as Renee and intern Jake (who was pressed into fall labor) collect the plot spuds for weights. They would be graded later.
This has been a wet fall. In fact, the field crop crew is still waiting to plant wheat. But the corn was dry enough to start harvest yesterday. It is rare to harvest corn before soybeans, but they were too wet. Nice to get started as they did here on Farm 3.
