HARVESTING POTATOES

In 1958 we bought our first tractor. It was a Farmall 100, and was one
year old, but had been used very little. When Joe drove into the yard driving
that bright red, shiny tractor, we thought it was a very powerful motor drawn
vehicle. In fact, this tractor, now an antique still exists on the farm today.

This tractor was used on the Beater digger to turn out the potatoes in the
fall. At that time harvesting potatoes was a strenuous job, for the potatoes
were turned out in rows. The potato pickers came behind, crawling on their
hands and knees, while pushing the bushel size basket in front of them.
They picked up both the potatoes on top of the ground and those that were
covered when the second row was turned out. Two men standing behind
the pickers emptied the baskets into one hundred pound bags that were left
standing in the field and loaded on wagons later in the day.

Students were given two weeks holidays during the Harvest season, and
they were happy to be employed, so often our help would be students. The
employees were fed two meals each working day.

Working outdoors gave the employees a big appetite, so one had to
prepare an abundance of food. Pies were usually the dessert of the day.
It meant that pies had to be made prior to the season, and stored in the
deep freeze. It was the era before cake mixes or other available mixes,
french fries, frozen vegetables or very few meals already prepared. Even
pizzas were unheard of at that time. This meant that all the meals had to be
prepared from scratch. There was no bakery nearby, so biscuits and rolls
were made every day. It meant that one had to be out of bed at five o’clock
in the morning, because there was only one oven for baking. We were using
a wood stove, so the fire was lit early so that it would have sufficient time
to heat up.

The first task of the day was to make two pans of biscuits, and when they
were removed from the oven, I was off to pick up the workers. Joe was in
the barn milking, but had to move quickly in order to be in the field and have
potatoes turned out before eight o’clock when the help arrived.

Everyone was served a full course meal for dinner, and again for supper.
There were three tables set for meals. At times there were as many as eight

82