By Kimi Owens

Two months have rocketed by since my last entry. Remember how I was told it would get busy? I was braced for it, mentally pumped up, all my energy primed to go and of course nothing could prepare me for the reality of watching the packing shed’s transformation.

One morning I came in to find boxes upon boxes being moved around, opening up surfaces and equipment I’d walked past every day and yet had never seen before. I discovered that what had seemed like tables were actually the long rolling belts where fruit is sorted as it comes in from the orchard. The area where I’d seen them assembling the boxes for the treasured CSA members committed to the off-season was the proverbial tip of the iceberg. With a flurry of dusting and cleaning, the packing shed’s winter dormancy was coming to an end. The first of the cherries were due to come in at any time.

A new, larger packing shed had been built and first used in last year’s harvest, but that behemoth would remain slumbering a little longer. All the action started here, right outside the office door, and I could watch it come alive from my desk.

My first test was shipping out all the pre-orders for cherries. The news that they were picking the earliest variety, the Brooks, and that were going to ship for mail order came with hardly any warning. The day remains a blur in my memory. Handling orders for kitchen goods in comparison to handling a slew of orders for customers who had in some cases placed their orders months previous was a hair shy of overwhelming. Luckily the only big screwup for that first “real” day on the job was not getting the customer copies of the packing slips printed out in time to go into the boxes!

In the weeks that followed, the hills surrounding me on my commute went from green to golden, and I learned fast what worked and what didn’t. One of the first things that became apparent was that I needed to be out there early and grabbing a few of the fruits coming in to taste test. The bigger lesson came that no matter how well-prepared I thought I was, things could change at the last moment and throw all my plans to the wind. And although I knew most of the crew hired on for the summer would be new and not returning workers, it didn’t quite occur to me that there would be a learning curve for them as well. New hires out in the orchard were more likely to be accustomed to working on farms which ship fruit intended to ripen during transport. New hires in the packing shed had to find that delicate balance between ready to eat and able to survive a trip across the country.

Working here has proved to be well-aligned with my ethics in terms of farming and in terms of customer service. There’s always room for improvement in any system, and it makes all the difference to be part of a team that isn’t satisfied with the status quo. Quality has been the highest priority and I’ve watched first hand how hard everyone has worked to address the issues that pop up in managing the more unique parts of the business like mail order and our CSA program. There has been a lot of adjusting on the fly, trying out new approaches when a process proves to be impractical in its implementation, and as we push into the very height of the peach season, being a part of upholding and improving the quality expected of Frog Hollow is a crucial part of what gets me looking forward to coming to work each day.

Of course, each new variety of fruit that I’m treated to helps a little too.

Farmer Al has been saying that this coming week of the 12th is going to be the week for the much loved Sun Crest peach. Even now, the orders are rolling in for the peach made famous by David ‘Mas’ Masumoto. I’m hoping to see even more orders over the weekend because there’s something exciting about being one of the few organic growers to ship this heirloom variety.

Plus, I’ll be obligated to taste test a few extra.

Photo of the Frog Hollow box by Kimi Owens. Photo of the East Bay California Hills by Flickr user di_the_huntress.
Both images are licensed Creative Commons Attribution.