Potato harvest has been over for the farm where I work for a few weeks now, and from what I can tell the last of the other area farms finished up last week. It’s getting pretty dang cold out, so I hope everyone is done bringing in the spuds. The cold isn’t so great on the potatoes; besides the chance of freezing, the cold raises the sugars in the potatoes, which gives it a darker color when the potato is fried. Not a desirable quality in a french fry.
This is the back end of a potato digger, which is pulled behind a tractor. The digger digs the potatoes, bringing up a really thick layer of dirt and potatoes (I’m not sure how deep it actually digs), and then somehow magically sorts out the potatoes and sends them up the conveyor and sends the dirt and potato vines out the back end of the digger. The man up on top of the digger is a vine puller, pulling out the vines before the potatoes are loaded in the truck. Once the truck is full it either goes to the processor or goes to storage where the potatoes are unloaded. There are more vine pullers stationed on the pilers at the storage to catch whatever was missed on the digger. It takes a lot of different people doing a lot of different jobs to bring in the potatoes successfully.
This is the beginning of a series on the potato harvest. Any guesses as to how many different varieties of russet potatoes there are?? Find out on the next post in a couple of days.
I love that you present this side of life to us. Your photos are amazing Toni!
a very interesting post and a terrific photo. Where I grew up (Edmonton, Alberta) there used to be all kinds of potato farms but over the decades those potato fields have been replaced by canola and houses. This brings back some great memories for me.
Diane´s last blog …Life’s Sweet Ordinary
Great action photo Toni….looks like quite a messy job!
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Oh Toni! You say Potato, I say Pototo!
Love the dust in “my” face perspective!
Ken´s last blog …Cabinet Curiosities
I love your working farm photos. This is all very interesting to a city girl like me.
Candace´s last blog …Feliz
That is quite an amazing machine. Excellent shot of this thing in action. Like the angle and the warm tones.
Wow I can feel the power of this machine. Great work shot.
BoB´s last blog …Vintage Beauty
Terrific capture. Exquisite light.
Una toma perfecta y muy bien tratada. Saludos!!
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The dust flying up into the air really makes this photos. Excellent capture!
Oh I haven’t forgot I must check out you Christmas Card templates!
Liss´s last blog …Christmas is Creeping
This is a cool shot Toni. I like the dust and machinery at work.
Hmmm…how many different kinds of potato’s? I can think of 5…
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construction coming through! what i love about this photo is the debri it’s causing and how you captured it, nice motion!
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I didn’t know that the cold weather changed the qualities of a potato and made them dark.
Interesting.
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