Bins and Modules. You know harvest is approaching when you see the bins.

Fresh wooden container bins are stacked on a flat bed semi. You know they are headed towards the table grape vineyards in the southern San Joaquin Valley because of the long, unpronounceable, Armenian name hand-stenciled on the side.

Dull-red, grape bins sitting along side a wine grape vineyard with a “harvest bins for rent” sign.

White marshmallow cream puffs anchored with tarps are this year’s cotton modules that line a farm to market road.

Another year is over. Good, bad, or indifferently, the growers must now account to their bankers, packers, retailers and customers. Then, they start lining up their credit and resources for a new year. For some, they will celebrate and the cycle will continue. For others, it will not.

For many, they will question why they go on – but, they can’t help themselves. They must farm like an artist must paint. It is inherent. It is who they are.