“We are making 80 to go boxes to go out to the fields for dinner. We have one head cook who is in charge the meat. There are 3 cooks who work on the side dishes. They all work together on the menu. The girls start doing the rotation jobs, cooking and baking at age 17, after they are done with school work. Then at age 50 we retire just from the rotation, because when the boys marry they bring the bride to the colony, so there is no shortage of that age range. When you are 50 we keep working, we are part of the work force just not…

“I’m 21 years old; I started driving truck when I was 17. This truck has 18 gears and it was hard in the beginning, but now it’s no big deal. I haul 33 ton each load. The beginning of the summer I clean the sheds, then wheat harvest starts and I am back in the truck. I have about two weeks off between wheat harvest and potato harvest. My Dad is in charge of the sheds and that’s why I work the harvest. I will take over his job when it’s time. I love harvest time, it’s very fast paced. Everybody is go, go, go. One accident I remember was…

“I do all the cleaning in the milking parlor. There are 20 milking machines here so that’s a lot of cleaning. I come in and clean them twice a day, after each milking. Soap and brushes that is what I use. After I clean, I separate the cream to make butter. I make sure the kitchen has 25 gallons of milk every day. I also make cottage cheese. Once a week the ladies, that are over 50, take turns to help me clean the upper part. I do all the rest myself. Every Sunday evening I do a more thorough cleaning and then once a year we do a real…

“We do everything out here. Sorting, piling, sod picking, weeds, backing up trucks, scraping, everything, but drive the truck, maybe next year. We also bag some potatoes for samples and somebody comes by and picks them up. I love working out here.” #agriculture #hutteriancolony

”It doesn’t get boring, trust me. I have experience doing a lot of jobs. I run the scraper the piler and  I separate the vines and rocks from the potatoes. I work here from 7am to 8pm, but the day goes fast because we are really busy. The thing with the piler is to never have trucks wait for you, so always be ready. Nobody is waiting then, the digger in the field or the trucks, time is precious around here. Sometimes it gets too warm for the potatoes, we don’t want baked potatoes in here. We monitor the temperature of the potatoes coming off the trucks. If it get’s…

“I am driving the spud digger, harvesting here for the next 5 or 6 weeks. I drive about three miles per hour right now, but when I get closer to the pivot I have to go slower because there is more sod. Last year we grew grass in this field so I deal with a lot of sod. The sorters have to deal with all this sod too; they have to get it out before the potatoes go in the shed. If we have sod in the sheds it blocks off the air, without air the potatoes rot in the shed. I am in contact with the trucks all the…

“I am 18 and I have been working potato harvest since I was little. I worked after school, but this year I am out of school to work full-time. I am learning to run the piler because I will have my own crew next year. This is a new piler, so I am learning how it works. It’s a hard job, it keeps moving. I like that we always work together, we are always helping each other, and nobody has to work alone. If we have new ideas, we are encouraged to voice our opinion. They are always open to new thoughts. I am graduating this year so after school…

“This is my truck; I drive this water truck when we are doing potato harvest, keeping the roads from being so dusty. When it’s not harvest time I use this truck to haul fertilizer. I am hauling all the liquid fertilizer to use on all the circles.” #agriculture #hutteriancolony

“When we have a baby, we can stay home for 8 weeks, you don’t have to do any chores. It’s like maternity leave. We always have a caregiver come to help out the first 4weeks. Typically that is your Mother or Sister. To start back on our cook weeks, our baby has to be 14 weeks old. After the 14 weeks, we are back to our regular rotation to cook and bake. Grandmas,then take care of the babies during the times we are working. I am married and have three girls. I love the community life, being all together.” #agriculture #hutteriancolony

“I’m 17 years old and I am here from Canada for the potato harvest. We work long hours during the week and we are so tired, that’s all we do. We get up at 5am and we work ‘till 8pm. During the day we have lots of fun out here with the girls. We talk about things, people and we laugh a lot. We make our own fun. On weekends we have a gathering on Saturday night. We have other colonies come and we all gather for food and games, we play volleyball. We talk and make friends. We look forward to that.” #agriculture #hutteriancolony