Opening Day 2017

The farm help was up at the crack of dawn picking corn for the stand and deliveries.  Generally, when we start a new picking, we have to hand pick a few rows to get started. This is no one's favorite thing, but the kids were troopers...even with a little mud!

We treated our first 100 customers to a YUMMY sugar cookie!  (In the shape of a cob of corn, of course!)  Well, it actually may have been a few less than 100...some of us just had to have a sample and make sure that what we were sharing with our customers was good!

We had lots of delicious produce at the stand today!

Oh, ya...and CORN!

We had all kinds of GREAT help on our opening day!  This is the "corn wagon" that Brent designed and built. It works like a charm!  The only problem is turning this set up around in tight spots.

We load the pallets on the corn wagon before placing the big produce boxes on.  This makes for easy fork lifting once the boxes are full.

Here's the crew hand picking a few rows.  We put the box on the forks of the tractor and load the armfuls of corn right into the box.  (THIS IS NOT FUN!!  It's itchy, generally hot, and sometimes slippery and muddy!)

We're getting the boxes ready for filling.

Everyone helps.  Here's Little Jack helping Uncle Jordan move the load of pallets closer to the wagon.

And here they go!

Check out these handsome guys on our corn crew this year!  (Both handsome and handy...a real bonus, gals!!)

Porter's maiden voyage on the corn wagon as an official "worker."  He was as proud as can be.  He worked hard and stuck with it...and he's just five!  

This cute gal joined us all the way from Wyoming!  Wish she lived closer!  The gals on our crew can work as hard as any of the guys!

We have some unwelcome guests in our cornfield.  We've got a great neighbor who's helping us keep the corn critter-free!  We captured two of these guys during the night.  They were huge!

Dads and cousins!

And...we're open.  The littles found some dirt to use their sand toys in while their mommas helped out at the stand.  And in true fashion, all the mommas were so busy at the stand that we never really stopped or thought about taking photos!  So....sorry gals....I didn't get pictures of you two slaving away!

Uncle Bailey taught Porter a great way to restock the cantaloupes!

Our talented friend, Glori Alsop, whipped up this darling picture for us to use as our Shaffer Farms logo.  The boy on the cornstalk in her picture is this cute guy, Jack.  We're gunna have to write us a book called, "Jack and the Cornstalk!"

These two...best cousins ever.

And these two...Claire and Penelope...played with bubbles, enjoyed riding bikes in the barn, played with the babies, and had fun together!

Tiffany and Bailey helped get things all cleaned up and put away at the end of the day.  They then spent some time testing out a giant laser to see if it would scare the blackbirds out of the corn field!  It worked for the time being!  We'll hope it keeps working!

By day's end we were all pretty tired....but are excited for the upcoming harvest season!