Meet the Staff: Michael
This week, we get to hear from Michael! Over the last decade, he has worked just about every position on the farm, but currently, he serves as our Sales Manager.
Something that has resonated with me throughout my time on the farm is just how much you need a farmer in your life. I have known food, I have known places. I have come to know this food in this place. This farm is special, unique, thoroughly delicious. Strong, heavy, tiring. And much, much more.
I come from warehouse jobs, janitor positions for the City of Eugene, yard care, bike shops, commissary kitchens. After so many "dirty jobs," farming was the only thing that made sense to me.
I started farming when the local food scene was blooming some 10-ish odd years ago. The thing that drew me to this seasonally changing, dynamic life is that I wanted to have a piece of something that I knew would be secure in terms of longevity, and also something that wouldn't get repetitive or mundane.
When I first started, I worked the market booth position. Back then, we were on East Park St. in an older, shaded section of the park. The usual business folks and parents who would frequent the Tuesday markets were welcoming to me; the other vendors, joyful. The farm produce was a little smaller back then, but a lot of it is the same varieties we still grow today.
Things have really grown on the farm since I started too. We've gotten better equipment - pallet jacks and forklifts, produce containers that are more specific and tuned to the vegetables' likes and needs. When I started, the farm had maybe 3 scales that we would use in the field and market; now it's thrice that and a pallet jack scale to boot. We are spoiled. Farmer Jack and Hayley have dogged it out on long road trips to other farms far and wide in the PNW to seek out just the right items for us to grow, water, cultivate, harvest, and pack the goods.
I also have fond memories as the last employee to have the honor of driving Gertie, our old '49 GMC, to markets on Tuesdays and Saturdays. In reality, the truck was ancient. It was hard to steer without power anything and didn't have doors that locked or windows that rolled all the way up and sealed for weather. The radio didn't work. The battery was always dying. It didn't carry enough supplies. Overheated. Couldn't brake well. Just about any and all of the awesome things that old vehicles are known for. Many a time, I would have to call Jack or farmer Adam to help me troubleshoot whatever might have caused the drowsy fit hindering us from getting going. Finally, I got the idea to go over the night before and warm the truck up ahead of
time. Gertie approved! Next morning would come by, and she started up just fine as a summer day with no issues. I got to know lots of old ways to start a truck.
But more than that, Gertie was family. A very heavy, loud, and slow family member. Folks would always talk about the truck, ask us questions, or comment on our unique setup of having a slanted bed so that we could set up our veggie displays. Jack and his brother really built Gertie out into the fine helper at market that she was.
A fan of Gertie visited the farm some time later and brought us a really cool watercolor of her (pictured above). I loved that that was what we had become known for at market. That one veggie booth with the lil blue truck.
Back when I worked as the farmstand manager, I also talked Jack into letting me commission a piece of art for the farm. You all might know it as the "Berry Good Times" cutout board. Families coming out for blueberry U-Pick could stick their faces into the cutouts for a photo. The artist, Emily, was a little bit intimidated by the project at first, but she got it done just in time for berry season that year. All she asked for were berries and veggies in trade. Now the sign stays out in the field near the farmstand, and I'm always looking out for folks getting their berry good times in.
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