Howdy Folks,

Chris turned 49 on Monday! It seems like ages ago when I met this very handsome energetic fellow. A little hat’s off to his tenacity and grit. He is a major backbone to Who Cooks For You Farm. His ingenuity and boots strap techniques with a no holds bar attitude is why Who Cooks is always in 5th gear. He has created a joyful place to work for our staff, and a beautiful place to raise a family. At the farm there is a constant push towards better and more, as the life cycles of nature's gems are cultivated with care! Each day, week, month and year, Who Cooks has been a place of growth and discovery all along while growing food joyfully. Through major loss and turmoil, and huge successful harvests, packs and distributions, who cooks keeps evolving, due to Chris’ eagerness and inquisitive nature, each year the food tastes better, looks better, as do the fields. He’s always got his eye striving for less hard movements for all of us here and also for the plants to be at their best. The biology and science of it all, is in a constant state of flux that is being monitored with an open heart. Change is always happening here, as growth makes for transformation, here is where Chris’ light is always on and the discoveries are happening quickly, and there isn’t a beat missed. A great example. We had a hike planned for today, but the weather is perfect at the moment to lay plastic for the garlic. It could be done later, but once it rains it could stay wet and it would be hours more work and harder on him and the ground. The hike got postponed and plastic got laid. With farming family is a vital part of the puzzle, but a lot of the time our adventures have to fit into the farming schedule as good timing makes a successful farm. We can always be together and go places, but when the weather is right you do what you have to do first.

Chris and Andres tag teamed the effort to get some machines rolling to help with produce preparation for distribution. These machines are huge time savers. They got our very oldest machine up and running to help us clean onions. This machine is 13 years old, we bought it brand new and it was a big investment for us at the time. We used it for maybe 5 years and then it got upgraded and has been sitting. The belt got repaired and we added a bin dumper alongside the entry conveyor so that a bin that holds around 800 lbs of onions can be hydraulically lifted and slowly dumped onto the conveyor. This machine requires two people to operate. One person on the bin dump side, making sure the onions enter into the machine level laying against the dry brushes that rotate the onions, slowly brushing off the loose dry skin, so the onions come out clean and polished free of dirty loose onion skins. This job does require a face mask and it is done outdoors so the dust coming off the onions can fall to the ground or go to the wind. The clean polished onions are greeted by another person, at the other end of the enclosed rotating brushes. Here they are checking to make sure the onions are good and free of bruising or wounds, here any bad onions get thrown to a bin below along with excess dry skins and the clean polished onions to a separate bin at the end of the conveyor. When this machine is running it does sound like a big popcorn maker, as there is a belt on it that doesn’t seem like it can get enough grease. It will be quiet for a little bit right after it gets greased, but then it starts popping again. But hey popcorn making sounds and clean onions at what feels like warp speed, awesome! So this sunny week outside all the bins of onions are getting their turn through the onion cleaner. It feels great to have this very time consuming task be tackled all at once.

Next week I’ll tell you about the brand spanking new root washing jacuzzi that finally found a home in the packhouse layout.

Have a great week.

Your Farmers,

Chris, Aeros and the Who Crew

Summer 2026 Week 21 Newsletter