Lunch in the field, is it just me.

ewald said:

It isn't nonsense, because we don't stop - the pressure we all feel doesn't make sense.

So I agree and disagree with your post.

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If 20 min can't be spared for a bite to eat and to stretch the legs, then there is something badly wrong with the system.

My dad was working at a neighbouring farm, was brought in for lunch and proudly told they would be having Chicken for lunch.
He juked going past the byre as he normally did, the lady of house notices this and my dad explains how he had a fear of the barstewart rooster lighting on him.
She just nods and pulls the pan from the cooker,

“See how you get on with him today……”

He eats some but could do no more, ate the spuds and went home after some more work.

He waits three more days before going back up, lunch comes round and with some trepidation sits down but feels some relief that the rooster will be long gone.

“We kept you some chicken!!” Says the wee woman whilst kneeling into the stove………..

One time I was away helping the silage contractor, we all got invited into the house for our tea. Never seen a spread like it. It put a Xmas dinner to shame. We all waddled out of the house burping and farting, and still had 4 hrs to go.
One of the trailer lads threw up after half an hour. Thank Christ I was on the buckrake.

Hutterite colonies are famous for their field food. Women come to the field with tables chairs and everything needed to feed everyone. Our fields border each other in a few places and if working there we get an invite too. No shortage of food and laughs. Different sense of humour thou.

We were shearing out in an outlying block a fortnight ago, grabbed a barbecue at the garage and some sausages and burgers etc and had a right feed at lunchtime.

Used to shear to the country in my youth and since you were working side by side with the farmers you tended to eat with them as well, some good feeds were had and some rumbly house keeping was witnessed. One that always stands out in my mind was a new customers farm two of us went to shear at, he was a youngish guy 25-30 and told us during the morning that he was only married three weeks and his new bride was from the town and not a country girl and when we went in for lunch it would be the first time she would have catered for visitors. So at lunchtime we duly went with him to the farmhouse for grub and what a feed it was the bride had enlisted the help of her mother and they had put on a spread fit for a king, soup and wheaten starter, meat veg and potatoes main, ice cream and pavlova sweet, then tea, cake and biscuits. We had to be literally rolled out of the house. Luckily we had his sheep finished before we ate and may have had to have a snooze in a layby before going to the next customer.
The next year the two of us were looking forward to visiting that customer as the meal had left a happy memory with us and when the time came he rang to organise a date and we went again to shear. As luck would have it we organised him in the morning so as we would be finished for lunch but he never told us he had upped the flock by 80 so we had push on to make sure and be finished by lunch but still had time to ask was the bride still with him and how was married life and he assured us all was well. We worked hard got the sheep done and the gear packed away just before lunch. "You'll be ready for a bite after that" he said, "would do no harm" my mate said as we shared a knowing glance and a wink. Right get stuck in then he said as he opened the back of the van to produce a family circle tin of very plain sandwiches, 3 mugs and a thermos of a warm brown substance that we couldn't work out weather it was tea or coffee. The honeymoon was over..............

Still Farming said:

The "healthy brigade",be along soon!

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if all that was being offered was chips n coke, I wouldn’t bother stopping . . .

Pennine Ploughing said:

It's really amazing how the farms you don't get fed at, are the ones that think their feeding the world, and folk should be grateful,

I still help out at 1 Farm, where you get fed at every meal time without fail,
The old wicker basket and tea in milk tins, always looked after there, and not only do they have time to stop, but make everyone else stop to eat and drink, and if its a long day, 1 very good hot meal in the house for everyone,

Work none stop eating on the go, I did it in my 20s 30s 40s, but not now,
And if not supper supplied by 7.30 pm, I just end work and go home.

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Used to do full sit down meals here.

Couple of times contractors refused to stop,so the sit downs stopped.
You can't expect someone to do all the prep and it just be brushed to one side.

Hilly said:

My mrs makes my lunch at 12 everyday and if she out leaves me somerhing , she makes evening meal every night for us all. i dont like missing my lunch hr .

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you are absolutely spoilt. you had better look after her good and proper.

Av Gorritt said:

Interesting to recall the provision made for "outside" men in hayfields . I've had just about every permutation from a full "Sunday dinner " on a sandwich - roast lamb, roast potato sliced , little bit of veg , and lovely gravy - all on a big thick sandwich in the field , this from a retail butcher/farmer . right back to nothing from another local farmer , who brought out a basket with lunch and a brew for his staff , but nothing for the baler driver (me) and I was gagging . Mostly however the people that I worked for were very generous with food , grateful also for the fact that I was baling their hay Rather interestingly , I bought a new "New Holland hayliner baler one year , and paid for it with that season's baling ! Mind you I worked till dark many nights , and even afterwards by headlights if the dew hadn't come down .

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the nh hayliner 68, 10 strokes per bale and it would work non stop.

Bob lincs said:

When we had a JD tin side CTS we had to stop and refuel most evenings as the fuel tank was tiny that was a good excuse to stop for tea . Nowadays bigger tank plus auto steer we tend to eat on the move .

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‘On the move’ of course referring to the drive back to the field from long Sutton McDonald’s… does the new fasty fit through the drive-thru??

Slightly off topic. My mother would feed and water several Young Farmer members when we were building the trailer(float) for the county show(Complete with water tank buried in it). And because of this several of them turned up at her funeral several years ago. Always great fun. Happy Days.
WB

bobk said:

Bottle of water and a pack of fishermans friends do me

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Think I’m addicted to fisherman friends

kiwi pom said:

Rule number one, never get separated from your lunch bag.

I've noticed a lot farmers don't prepare a days food before starting work though. Always able to pop back to the house or have someone prepare it for them.
Must be nice

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Cutting on my own I often nip to the freezer for an ice lolly when I tip a load

Sid said:

Used to do full sit down meals here.

Couple of times contractors refused to stop,so the sit downs stopped.
You can't expect someone to do all the prep and it just be brushed to one side.

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i have, on the few times it’s been offered while contracting, been very grateful for meals that have been brought down to the paddock. However, they have always been something that you could eat on the go - auto steer makes that a lot easier.
Have very rarely stopped for a full sit down meal, but personally, I find it very hard to get going again & a heavy meal just makes you feel a bit dozy tbh

as a contractor, clients don’t really like to see you stopped without a good reason . . .

when I was going huge hours in cabs, I pretty much had a 4 litre water bottle, 2 x flasks of black tea, some pieces of fruit, say a banana & apple, a muesli bar & 2 sandwiches / rolls. That was it. Occasionally, if I was lucky, someone might bring out a hamburger ( a proper Aussie hamburger, not the Maccas poor excuse ) at night.
But really, I prefer not to eat much while in a cab / behind a wheel, my priority is keeping up the liquid intake

As for stopping for lunch, with my Council job we have a 15 min smoko & 45 min lunch. My team ( Parks & Gardens ) ALL HATE the 45 min break & we get away with a 15 min lunch & knock off half an hour earlier, but HAVE to include the 45 min break on our timesheets as we are not allowed to have a short break . . . If the office knew we were doing that we’d be shut down
A lot of us ( P & G only has 9 staff ) don’t even bother stopping for lunch if we are on mowers etc

Back in the nineties when good old john major was pm i had just got a tenancy on 900 ac and rmployed a squad of kiwis laying concrete, doing harvest etc who lived in one of the farm cottages.
My live in girlfriend at the time objected to feeding them as she was a townie.
After the first two loads were laid by 10 ish i got them all in the house for a big fry up.
Still keep in touch yet.
That was summer 95, far hotter than this, and those guys kept at it without aircon when all around the workers were quitting at 5 with the heat

Farmer Roy said:

i have, on the few times it’s been offered while contracting, been very grateful for meals that have been brought down to the paddock. However, they have always been something that you could eat on the go - auto steer makes that a lot easier.
Have very rarely stopped for a full sit down meal, but personally, I find it very hard to get going again & a heavy meal just makes you feel a bit dozy tbh

when I was going huge hours in cabs, I pretty much had a 4 litre water bottle, 2 x flasks of black tea, some pieces of fruit, say a banana & apple, a muesli bar & 2 sandwiches / rolls. That was it. Occasionally, if I was lucky, someone might bring out a hamburger ( a proper Aussie hamburger, not the Maccas poor excuse ) at night.
But really, I prefer not to eat much while in a cab / behind a wheel, my priority is keeping up the liquid intake

As for stopping for lunch, with my Council job we have a 15 min smoko & 45 min lunch. My team ( Parks & Gardens ) ALL HATE the 45 min break & we get away with a 15 min lunch & knock off half an hour earlier, but HAVE to include the 45 min break on our timesheets as we are not allowed to have a short break . . .
A lot of us ( P & G only has 9 staff ) don’t even bother stopping for lunch if we are on mowers etc

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Was a lovely salad spread so nothing too heavy, but not really able to convert to eat on the move.

If I'm in the cab I agree, liquid, some nibbles,fruit etc but nothing heavy. Any baked goods are too much nowadays unless with indigestion remedies for dessert.

No flexibility in time ,45 minutes is way too long, is not nice and doesn't help.

I would sooner have 20 mins and then a siesta at 4ish

My Grandmother would always take tea down to the field being combined at harvest time.
She’d pack the hole spread into her duck-egg blue coloured Renault 4, including a Tablecloth to put it all on and trundle down to the fields.
There were flasks of Tea, Marmite and Jam sandwiches with the crusts cut off and always Battenberg cake.
Milk and sugar always put in the cups and saucers before the tea was poured in too!

It was the highlight of the day, for everybody.

About 45 years ago, my next door neighbour married a Nurse, who’s family had nothing to do with farming.
One day his combine broke down and he sent his wife to the dealer to pick up some parts.

When she got there, the stores manager asked what Combine her husband had, that he needed the parts for.
She replied “I don’t know, but it’s blue and I take it tea every day at 4 o’clock.”

“That’s alright, Mrs Upsdale,” he said. “That’ll be a Ransomes Cavalier then.”

Two Tone said:

About 45 years ago, my next door neighbour married a Nurse, who’s family had nothing to do with farming.
One day his combine broke down and he sent his wife to the dealer to pick up some parts.

When she got there, the stores manager asked what Combine her husband had, that he needed the parts for.
She replied “I don’t know, but it’s blue and I take it tea every day at 4 o’clock.”

“That’s alright, Mrs Upsdale,” he said. “That’ll be a Ransomes Cavalier then.”

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The power of a good store man,worth their weight in gold

Very under rewarded