Hello
We joke around the warehouse about "body by Fresh Fork." It's a very physical job and some weeks the weight of the totes becomes exhausting. This week is one of them.
This week we will feature yellow doll seeded watermelons - a smaller, sweet yellow watermelon that comes earlier in the season. It is also a variety rarely grown or offered at grocery stores.
Which made me think of David. David is the Swartzentruber Amish gent that grows these delicious watermelons. When I tell the drivers they are going to David's, I get the look that says, "Oh no."
David's Original Sin
In the early days of Fresh Fork, the "David's" were all I knew in terms of small farmers. I didn't quite understand why though.
About 7 years ago, David was looking to move away from the home farm and buy his own land just up the road (on the same road). I stopped in one day for a small order. He informed me it was at the "new farm." I said, 'hop in' and he gave me a weird look.
He climbed into my Chevy with a look of discomfort. I still remember him squirming in the seat like he was sitting on my lunch or something. He didn't really settle nor sit back.
We got to the new farm - about a half mile away - and he got out and helped me load the items. The next time I saw David, he informed me that he was "talked to" about riding in the truck. It wasn't an emergency, and he shouldn't have gotten in the truck. His father, a respected elder in the church, simply told him never again. I joke about it but getting in my truck was David's original sin.
Anything that is Un-Handy
To this day, working around David's church's restrictions is a challenge. Communication is obviously difficult - we use snail mail or physically show up to talk - but there are other challenges, including logistics.
David's particular group doesn't permit loading docks at truck height. They can have, however, a dock at wagon height. They don't have tow motors or skid loaders, or any other motorized equipment for loading.
As a result, I limit what we grow with David because it absolutely kills my staff to hand load a truck - lifting from ground level to 50 inches off the ground. It takes a lot of time and is exhausting.
But there are a few items that we work with him on - yellow dolls and sweet potatoes are a few. This week, be sure to thank Zach if you see him on the truck (Lakewood, Beachwood, Mayfield Tremont) for hand loading over 2,000 watermelons this week with David. In the fall, when we pick up 4# bags of sweet potatoes, that's 2,000 of those that we hand load.
I remember the loading scenario at David's old farm. He had a small "packing shed" for his produce opposite from his barn. It was on a steep drive with little gravel. You would back the truck between the two buildings hoping to not take out the gutters. He had a plank that was mounted to the side of one building, and it would lower between the two buildings to create a narrow walkway for loading. We would walk one box at a time from the packing shed out onto the plank and load it onto the back of the truck where we would build a pallet. When the pallet was complete, you wrapped it and pulled the truck up on the level where you could move the pallet into place. You would then back the truck down into the "dock" and start the same process all over again for the next skid.
David's new farm isn't much better, it's just level. We now load from the back of a wagon up onto the truck one box at a time.
As I've got to know the Amish more, I once asked someone about their rule book. They said there isn't a book, but they read it at church twice a year and discuss the rules and interpretations. It takes quite some time.
I asked, knowing this guy was an Old Order Amish (not as strict as David's church), if his "rule book" took quite some time, how long does it take to read the rules for a church like David's (Swartzentruber). He laughed and said back, "Their rule book is real short. Just one sentence. Anything that is un-handy."
Trevor