Lettuce find work and prosper

Suddenly, summer is here. After much moaning from the locals about the recent winter weather (don't forget January is the summer here) the sun is blasting and I have gone and got myself a job in a greenhouse.

The Lettuce Man is a friend of the Marine Farmer. No need for sea legs here, but a good eye for the best Basil, and not being afraid to get my hands dirty.

My first day had nothing to do with lettuces. Rick (The Lettuce Man) gave me a detailed lesson in 'bush carpentry'. The task was to move a 3 metre wide outhouse down a 3 metre wide lane and then with no space for rotation, slide its 6m length off the trailer and into a 6m gap. Chocks of wood, pipes to roll it on and the Egyptians would have been proud of us, except for the chainsaw which to them would have been considered cheating. I didn't have my camera for the work in progress but the picture of the cabin in place may still express the exacting nature of the task.

Chainsaws saved the day otherwise the job would have need a dangerously long amount of time lying under the cabin balanced on jacks and too many layers of 4by2. And so it seems that every true Kiwi man has at least one chainsaw. To get anywhere in life it seems a necessity.

Today, after sorting about an acre of Basil, we had to clear the root systems from the white hydroponic trays. The produce is not grown in soil. Instead the pumice or soil sacks are placed in a conduit through which water and nutrients are constantly pumped. The greenhouses produce 1500 lettuces a week which are supplied directly to restaurants and supermarkets. If you buy one in NewWorld or eat at one of their client restaurants it is likely to be 3 -6 hours old. That's fresh. The farm runs as ecologically as possible, so their produce is clean and green in all senses of the words.

On Monday I am doing some awareness raising for World Vision on a stall at a mall in Christchurch. I won’t be surprised if I need a chainsaw.