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How To Deliver Field Meals: 8 Essential Tips For Farm Wives

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Harvest is here and I’ve got 8 field meal delivery tip and tricks to help you feed your farmer without losing your mind. Stick around to the end for my free harvest meal printable with 18 free meal ideas!

This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. See my full disclosure HERE.

It is that time of year again here in Indiana. The crops are nearly ready and our combine has been pulled out of the shop. My farmer is eyeing the weather, checking fields and itching to get started. Which means it’s time for me to start thinking about feeding our harvest crew.

I’ve learned a lot over the last nine years as a farm wife. I wanted to share my best tips for feeding a crew on the go. These tips are also great for feeding sports teams, tailgating enthusiasts, or anyone needing to eat on the go.

1. Get a Headcount and make a Plan

The first step to a successful field meal delivery is having a plan. I start with how many I need to feed – usually between four and six farmers. Plus my kids like to eat with their dad and the guys.

Also consider the most likely delivery method you’ll use. Will you package each meal individually? Serve buffet style? Will your farmer stop to eat briefly or will they need handheld meals? We usually do a mix of all of the above.

Ask any new crew members about allergies, dietary restrictions and food preferences. I wouldn’t make yourself crazy with customizing every meal, but it’s good to keep in mind.

This is also a good time to take requests. Sometimes it is hard to think of tractor meal ideas so ask your farmers for their favorite meals from years past.

2. Make a list of your favorite field meal ideas

This is often the hardest part of field meal delivery. what meals do you cook? It is time consuming, but I highly recommend making a field meal list that you can reference when you’re feeling uninspired. It takes time to compile your list the first time, but once you’ve started it you can continue to add as you try new recipes.

You can organize it by meat, cooking method (ie crockpot meals, sandwiches, etc.), season, or just keep a running list. I recommend making note of any particularly popular recipes so you don’t forget year to year. You can also note for each recipe any tips or tricks for delivery to your crew.

Download my list of 18 easy field meal ideas

I created a little PDF download, so you can have 18 of my easy field meal ideas in one convenient place. Grab it HERE.

3. Have the right tools

Make sure you have all of the tools to make field meal delivery easy. A woven office organizer helps me keep plates, bowls, utensils, and napkins organized.

I often use a structured tote bag to help carry everything to my car. You could also use a large cooler, laundry basket or cardboard box. I usually feed everyone out of the back of my SUV, but if you have a small car or need the space you may want a small folding table to organize your meal in the field

Field meal tools to consider

  • Travel crockpot with latches (I use this one)
  • InstantPot (HERE and a larger version HERE)
  • electric roaster
  • casserole carry bag and hot pack (Similar to mine)
  • coffee carafe
  • drink cooler
  • cooler or insulated bags (I am considering one of these for next year)
  • camp light (HERE)
  • folding table
  • picnic blanket

This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. See my full disclosure HERE.

3. Make a map of your locations and contacts

I don’t know about you, but it has taken me years to remember where every field is. It seems like my farmer has a couple of names for each farm and I can’t keep them all straight. Avoid driving around playing “which green combine is mine?” like I did.

Add all of the fields and farm locations on your phone with a dropped pin. I would even drop a pin exactly at the best entrance to the field and add any details that can keep you out of trouble. We don’t want to be getting stuck in a ditch-hole and need pulled out.

It’s also a great idea to keep phone numbers for all of your farmers. They are busy and sometimes my husband can’t be reached. This is also great if they are in separate locations and you need to track each of them down.

4. Stock up and fill the freezer

At the beginning of the season I stock up my supplies like paper plates, cups, drinks, etc. and the most basic pantry staples like sandwich buns, pasta, individually packed chips, and seasonings. Then each week once I have an idea of what I will be making I can pick up specific items from the store with my usual grocery trip.

Once I’ve stocked up my supplies from the store I begin making what I can ahead of time. I like to make (or you could buy) cookie dough and meatballs in bulk for the freezer. Generally, I like to have 2-3 casseroles in the freezer at the start of the season.

These items are a lifesaver as a working mom. When my day doesn’t go as planned, and it does regularly, I can pull one of these casseroles out and serve with salad and my quick cookies. Or I can warm up meatballs for subs or Swedish meatballs. Dinner done and dusted in under 20 minutes.

5. Organize supplies in your car

I like to save myself some time and sanity by keeping whatever supplies I can in my car during harvest and planting seasons. The desk organizer that I mentioned in Tip 1 keeps paper plates, paper bowls, forks, knives, spoons, salt and pepper, and a sharpie in my car, ready to feed my farmers.

I keep a roll of paper towel, baby wipes and paper grocery bags in there as well. I like to have a big wool blanket for the kids to sit on and a folding chair though I rarely use it. Lastly I keep a camp light with a hanging hook. I have lights in the back of my car, but sometimes it is in fact dark when I arrive with dinner. A little extra light makes a big difference. Think of it as mood lighting!

If you have a smaller vehicle or don’t have room to keep these items in your car, keep them gathered in a box or basket so you don’t have to stress about forgetting something when it’s time to go.

6. Check the weather and other meal providers

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law both bring meals out to the field as well. So its important that we communicate which nights each of us are providing food. It’s also a great idea to communicate what we’ve made so we don’t repeat meals too many times. Let’s face it our farmers are grateful for whatever food they can get during harvest. If they have to eat lasagna two nights in a row they won’t complain, but if you communicate with the other meal providers it helps.

Another idea is to choose designated nights of the week for each person bringing food. This way if you’ve got commitments throughout the week you don’t have to rush home to feed a bunch of hungry men. Another bonus to this method: if you know you’re responsible for three days a week you can prep those three meals on the weekend and make your weeknights a breeze!

Lastly be sure you’re watching the weather and talking to your farmer. Harvest for us is often stop and start. Between equipment breakdowns, rain, and crops just not being ready we often have breaks in our tractor meal needs.

7. Containment and temperature control

If you’ve ever delivered a meal to the field you know that making the food is only half the battle. Delivering the food before it gets cold and before the sun goes down is the other half. Luckily if you’ve followed these tips you’ve got the right tools for the job.

Obviously you can transport some meals right in the cooking dish. Casseroles, Instant pot, and crockpot meals travel well just as they are. If you make a big pot of soup or your crockpot isn’t a locking lid style, place these into a large cardboard box or laundry basket to contain any possible spilling. Another tip is to put two large rubber bands around the pot and lid to make an X shape. These will help hold your lid in place.

If you’ve made hot sandwiches wrap them in foil and put them in a warm crock pot. You can pour boiling or hot water into your crockpot or roaster to heat it up quickly. Then pour the water out and add sandwiches back in. You can use this same method with a large cooler if you deliver individual meals in styrofoam trays.

To keep things cool without the watery mess. Use frozen gallon jugs of water or water bottles as ice packs. This is great for cold sandwiches in the spring!

8. Bring a trash bag for field meal clean up

Remember the grocery bags from Tip 5? Yeah you’re gonna need those. As much as I try to limit the waste my meal delivery creates, it is just a reality that you’re going to have trash to clean up and bring back home. I keep a couple of paper grocery bags for this purpose. It is also a great time to clean out any trash that has accumulated in equipment throughout the day. Snacks, sandwich wrappers, drink bottles etc all seem to pile up and this is a great time to get those cleaned out. Your farmer will appreciate a clean cab. Once you get home the whole bag can go straight into the trash.

And those are my 8 tips for making field meal delivery so much more efficient. Don’t forget to download the easy field meal ideas I use every season. This will help you get started on your field meal prep and give you some tried and true field meal inspiration.

If you found these tips helpful pin this post or share it with other farm wives. Or leave a comment with your favorite field meal tips!

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