By Ren Miller

In 2017 when Rusty and I read the book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, by Jessica Bruder, we knew that life on the road isn’t easy for a lot of people. Many of our fellow vanlifers struggle to make ends meet while living on the road. Luckily for us, we both have retirement incomes, and I still work as a freelance writer. So, money isn’t an issue for us as long as we stick to a budget.

Nomadland (the book, NOT the movie) is a glimpse into the phenomenon of older Americans who adopted transient lifestyles after the recession of 2008. Many vanlifers and RVers in their 60s and 70s are trying to live on Social Security, which in many cases barely covers their gas and groceries. As they travel across the US, some of them look for seasonal work to supplement their incomes.

Common job options include working in Amazon warehouses during the holidays, or working the fall sugar beet harvest in Idaho. One such vanlifer is our friend, Joe Hartman, whom we met in 2021 along the Natchez Trace Parkway. When I saw on Facebook that Joe got a job with Amalgamated Sugar last September, I wanted to hear all about his experience. Then when we found out he was going to be at Quartzsite the same time as us, I had my chance to talk with him in person.

Joe Hartman, who just turned 70, is not afraid of hard work. In fact, he embraces it with almost a spiritual vengeance. Having owned his own organic farm in West Virginia years earlier, Joe was up for the challenge that agricultural work entails.

Joe heard from a friend that Amalgamated Sugar in southern Idaho was hiring, and he applied for a job. The sugar beet harvest begins in late September and concludes by early November. Jobs include piler operators, sample takers, weigh masters, and equipment operators. Joe was offered the job of piler operator, one that carries a great deal of responsibility and also requires 12 to 14 hour days.

I can’t imagine working that kind of physical job outdoors from before dawn to after dusk, but I can see why Joe decided to do it. “I’ve never been afraid of hard work and long hours,” he says. “And the pay is excellent.” In 6 to 8 weeks, Amalgamated Sugar employees working the harvest can earn up to $10,000. And as gas and grocery prices rise, many vanlifers and RVers, including Joe, are feeling the pinch.

Sugar is big business in the agricultural world. Some of our sugar comes from sugarcane, but most of it comes from sugar beets. The period during which sugar beets are first harvested and piled (when Joe was working) through to the last beet being processed is called a “campaign.” During the campaign, sugar beet factories operate twenty-four hours per day, seven days a week. The campaign typically begins in September with harvesting and continues until the available supply of sugar beets to process into sugar has been depleted, which generally occurs in May of the following year.

Joe described his job and relationships with other employees as “an interesting dynamic.” As in any working environment, there is a certain amount of drama, and many employees just aren’t up to the challenge. Many people quit their jobs early because the work is just too hard. Injuries are common.

As a piler operator, Joe orchestrated where the beets were piled after they were harvested and delivered by a stream of trucks to the piling areas. They bounce from trucks to conveyors to hoppers, removing the leaves and dirt along the way. The beets get weighed; samples are taken regularly, to test for their sugar content; and they’re kept cool and well-ventilated in the piles. Then, over the ensuing months, they get sent to the factory for processing.

According to the Amalgamated Sugar website, Idaho farmers harvested 40.56 tons of beets per acre on average in 2022. The harvest record was set in 2016, when the state’s farmers averaged 41.42 tons per acre, due to the perfect cool weather conditions that year.

I asked Joe if he would consider working the sugar beet harvest again, and he readily said yes. When I asked him if he liked beets, he laughed and said “No, I hate beets, and I don’t eat sugar.”

© 20023, Karen Miller. All rights reserved.