POTATO CULTURE
Backwoods Blog;
in the woods and on the road…
color slide taken by Vera Hutchinson
The story I’ve been working on for this week’s blog is taking longer than expected and my self-imposed weekly deadline came and went (sorry about that). But I did come across this photo of my grandparents working potato harvest taken by my mother, so I will post this in its place. My grandmother is working to my grandfather’s left, and you can’t really see her very well, but I recognize the kerchief she used to always wear when she was on a job. This was back when a conventional potato harvester only dug two rows at a time. Now, with air harvesters and windrowers you can harvest eight rows or more at a time and cover a lot of potato ground quickly. At one time, my father owned a one-row potato harvester that used barrels and a unique solid belt table where workers sorted the potatoes and rocks. He only used it for a couple of years, around 1970, until he up-graded to a two row and bulk bodies which was the newest innovation at the time. “Potato culture” continues to evolve from one era to the next, our memories trying hard to keep up…
In the woods,
Dave
October 13, 2022