It's Potato Time!

Yeah - the trucks are rolling, the equipment out, the dirt turned, and potatoes are being harvested! I was visiting teaching night before last and the lady whom we were teaching asked if we had gleaned any potatoes yet (for those of you who are not familiar with the term - it means take what you can use, and applies to not just potato harvesting). Yikes! I hurried and gave the lesson and was out the door so I could get some good harvesting in before sundown. I called my sister Julie and told her to hurry and bring a bucket or box for us to use.

For those of you who do not live in Idaho, the harvesting of potatoes is all done by machinery. About 3 weeks before harvest, they kill the plants (some farmers just roll over them with heavy equipment - others spray them with a chemical that kills the above ground part of the plant, others wait for the first freeze). This process actually sets the skins on the potatoes. If they skipped this step, the skins would come right off. Once the skins are set, large machinery comes through and "digs" the rows of potatoes up. This same piece of equipment has a conveyor belt. As the potatoes move up the belt, the dirt and vines are shaken off and then the potatoes are dropped into a huge truck that rolls along side the harvester. Click here to watch a short video of an actual Idaho potato harvest.

I explain all of this for a reason. The trucks only make one pass over each row, and they have to turn corners with a machine that has zero turning radius. Tons of potatoes are left on the ground - especially at the corners. The farmers are more than willing to let the average Joe go in after the machinery is done and get as many potatoes as you can find. Otherwise, they rot in the ground. So needless to say in just under 30 minutes, Julie and I were able to get a good size tote full of potatoes.

Potatoes on the ground after the truck has run through the field

We decided it would be great fun to take her 3 little boys out yesterday after school for their first potato harvest. At first we were met with quite a bit of opposition to the idea - they were just too busy playing with friends. But after my assurance that it would be fun, they reluctantly got in the car. Once we hit the fields, they were off having the time of their lives. They compared it to an Easter egg hunt - with the coveted prize not being the most brightly colored egg - but the biggest potato. Let me tell you we found some WHOPPERS. Nothing like these ever make it to the stores. You could feed an entire family on 1 potato!

Bryan, my nephew & his HUGE potato

The potatoes are "California Whites", which the farmer explained to us are strictly a "processing" potato. They do not kill the plant to set the skins on these ones. They are meant for the processors who make them into french fries, dried potato flakes, frozen hash browns, etc. They are not good for baked potatoes, but they make excellent mashed or au gratin potatoes. The russets are being harvested later this week so we will head out and get some of those also. Believe me when I tell you there is NOTHING like fresh potatoes.