View from the Cab: What's for lunch?

By: Kent Casson

What’s your favorite part of the day? Mine would have to be lunch.

I always look forward to opening that lunch box in the tractor each day during the harvest season. Farm lunches come in all shapes and sizes. Some may include junk food while others are healthier. It is possible to have a combination of healthy and not-so-healthy foods. I usually try to include a fairly balanced meal complete with a sandwich, chips, piece of fruit and dessert.

Perhaps your field meal consists of home cooking or a few items to snack on throughout the afternoon. My grandpa used to always have Twinkies, Snickers and Pepsi in the combine which is why all of my cousins wanted to ride with him instead of my dad. Sometimes farmers run on sugar and caffeine this time of year and that’s alright.

My favorite saying is, “it’s noon somewhere” when it comes to eating lunch at 11 a.m. or even sooner. What is it about sitting so close to that packed lunch that makes us so hungry by 9 a.m.? If hunger strikes extremely early, I’ll reach for an orange, apple or the occasional banana.

Since I don’t always indulge in sweets during the rest of the year, harvest is a great excuse to down a pop or two along with a candy bar. Mom used to deliver field meals in the spring and fall and some of my favorite dishes were meatloaf, bread crumb potatoes, fried chicken and pork cutlets. This type of food is good out in the field but you may have to sneak a nap in at some point.

We are spoiled now that the combine cab has a built-in refrigerator under the buddy seat. Gone are the days when we had to carry a big cooler up into the cab. Prior to this combine, our last machine at least had an outlet so we could plug-in the fancy refrigerator-type cooler that was a bear to lift up the steps.

Our family has a great start to the harvest season as we are down to the home stretch on corn acres with only a couple of fields left as of this writing. Nights are short and the days long but that is expected each September and October as we work to bring in the 2021 crops. We have started cutting soybeans but have plenty of acres left before we put this harvest season in the books.

Hopefully the weather cooperates for the rest of the season and any downpours or excessive rain events hold off for a couple of weeks. Moisture levels on soybeans were getting pretty low during those hot days last week and a little rain actually wouldn’t hurt anything. Soybean harvest was a bit slow going at first but things should pick up as we roll through October.