The work wasn't exactly back breaking, if back soring was a phrase I would use that, but you get the idea. Picking potatoes isn't the easiest or cleanest line of work but when I was finished, and got all the dirt out from under my finger nails, I felt extremely accomplished then was quickly overcome with a dread of , how are we going to eat all of the potatoes kind of feeling.
Potato recipes to follow and storage info to follow!
As I was digging up our lovely Yukon Gold potatoes it made me think of my Great Grandfather William Dungar. William immigrated from England to Canada in 1904 (well after the good old pioneer days) when he was 16 and worked as a farm hand in Lindsay Ontario.
I was lucky enough to have been given his diaries from 1917 to 1920. His diaries are a great read and a piece of history some might say because he was fighting for our country in World War 1. It's his diary from 1920 that has really stuck with me though. After the war he resumed his life as a farm hand and through the summer months he recorded all the produce the farm harvested, most of that harvest included potatoes. He would write from day to day, 8 bags of potatoes, 10 bags of potatoes and so on.
I can't begin to imagine what a 12 hour day of field work must have been like 94 years ago, 2 hours were enough for this Not So Pioneer Life. I've grown a new found respect for those farmers who planted and picked by hand but also for the farmers of today that sell their harvest from homemade fruit and veggie stands on the side of the road.
My potato harvest is quietly drying out between sheets of newspaper waiting to be stored in a cool dry place until we need them.
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