Incoming rant…..
So I am a farmer for a seed farm which also is a market garden, and I have to chase my boss around for my pay!
Not every pay day, but every other one. I know how many seeds we sold all winter, and he's rich enough to have all the beds sprayed with fish emulsion on top of the dump trucks full of mushroom compost he gets yearly….
Last week he was away, and I handled all farm work alone. I picked and refilled the farm stand multiple times a day. Picked, packed, and delivered to the produce place. I did back and forth to the Greenhouse to water the 200 potted speciality pepper plants that seem to have NO purpose in zone 7b in the beginning of August. He says he's going to sell them, but they're not up for sale online, I manage all the online plant sales! Who's going to buy pepper plants in August? They're his own hybrid plants he developed that are his school district's (he's on the school board) colors.
He also bitched at me for cutting two sun flowers for my MIL for watching my child….
“Those are for charity money for the library….”
I hope he's just saying that….. I would rather the money go in his pocket so I didn't have to chase him on pay day, or deal with him picking fights to avoid having to pay me.
I really like and respect the guy, he's a talented gardener! When I explain to others about where/who I work for, I always joke that he's like a super villain, and we're like henchmen. A lot of the staff are failure to launch guys he grew up with…. people and an atmosphere I like most of the time.
Yesterday I asked what he had planned for today, he said computer work. I said, cool from office or home, he says it didn't matter.
8a rolls around and all of a sudden he sends me a screenshot of a text with the produce place owner, saying how much they liked how I picked and packed our specialty cherry tomatoes.
He says for me to come do it, and to pick up a useless failure to launch guy another 10 minutes past farm to come help me.
Why the I need help all of a sudden…..
“What time” he asked…. Which is a trap, because I don't do time. I am not good at it, he should buy me a watch if he wants me to work on those kinds of numerical measurements.
I am not up all the way yet, I said let me see if the baby is awake yet, maybe I could sneak out now and get it done and be back before my partner leaves for work when the sun is high in the sky (noon)….
Distractions, baby almost awake, tools MIA, and I say, I can't make it early I would try to be there around 1130.
Planned yesterday to do what he said we would do, he screwed me all up.
I tell him I will do it without the useless help…. and I sit down at the computer to do the listings, because I can pick and pack and have the cherry tomatoes done while the baby naps in the air conditioned van if I do the computer stuff first.
1p he sends me some messages with ?
I tell him I am working on listings….
HE says what part about picking tomatoes FIRST don't I understand….
The part where you said “first”?
He talks some s76t, says he will go pick himself and do the listings himself, and to not bother.
In the office in front of coworkers he bitches about me bailing on picking when he told me ____ not to!
People say I should start my own farm….
I did lease land, and I priced out good compost, but what I could afford was only horse ____. I got it by the 5 Gallon bucket full in a borrowed truck.
Farm ownership for me alone is too difficult.
The crop census was too complicated… Record keeping, getting washing and packing stations up to code, insurance, proving germination for seed sales…. I'm not made for that sorts of stuff.
Weeding, picking, packing, planting, fencing, working hard and fast in all kinds of weather and conditions I am 2 people in half the time. Website management, listings, online marketing, direct sales, and even envelope stuffing, again 2 people half the time.
What time will I be there? Well just because you asked it's going to be at least 30 mins to an hour past that…..
Give me a task, I will get it done. I should be treated like a secret weapon, but I am making $15 an hour and getting 0 of the plant sales commissions I was promised. Honestly it doesn't even occur to me to pace myself working because I am hourly and I would not do it anyway, because I am paying for childcare.
I am in other farming groups where people who have NEVER farmed before post about getting grants for land…..
That's who his next employee is going to be, I bet they won't last 2 days.
Who's going to pick the 6 rows of Carolina Reapers, and death Dragon peppers… Some green horn who doesn't understand the dangers of the oils! Yea, enjoy that contact dermatitis on your face because you don't know about using the right soaps immediately after…..
What are these faux farmers watching that makes them think it's just that easy?
My friend is discussing “van life” and parking on a few acres with no water or electricity….
Same person who turns down working at the farm with me.
Dude you can't live without AC, you think you'll be able to handle running an air conditioner all night on a small solar set up and rotation of batteries?
How come no one is willing to try something first? Go on a vacation and see how it goes?
You want to be a farmer, but when I called you to come pick beans with me, it was too hot?
I live in a rural pocket of urban suburbia outside of a major East Coast city. Any other farmwork would be a minimum 40 mins each way commute…I already do piece work when and how I can to supplement what I am not making here, and I am invested in this business that has already grown because of me…. but I don't feel secure in my job.
I was just thinking about childcare arrangements for the next winter when we are in high seed sales season…..but this seems short sighted.
I am still a farmer at home with 30 + birds, and a neglected garden…. Because he told me not to plant anything, and that he would grow enough for my family too….. Except the sunflowers are for the library charity, not grandma with free childcare…
Whatever, rant over.
I should go get a full time job elsewhere, right?