One Potato, Two Potato

Our friends are hobby farmers and several weeks back they asked if we would help harvest their potatoes since it takes at least three extra people. I didn't know what exactly we were signing up for, but we said, "sure!"

So Saturday morning we got the call that it was potato harvesting day and that we should meet them at the field at 4pm. It was a gorgeous day outside, so we put on our work clothes that afternoon and headed about 5 miles away to their field.

We arrived just as the potato machine was pulling up. I had no idea how this thing worked, but I was about to get my first lesson. There were three conveyor belts on the machine: one big one in the middle and a smaller one on each side of that. There was enough room for three people to stand on each side of the machine, and thank goodness for that, because it took all the hands we could get. This crazy machine dug up the dirt where the potatoes were growing and put the potatoes and dirt on the conveyor belts. It took the small clumps (assuming they were dirt) and shoved them to the small outside belts, while the larger clumps (assuming they were potatoes) were shoved down the big middle belt where they landed in a large bin that would be transferred to a truck later.

Our job was to get the dirt out of the middle belt and put it on the outside belts, while also checking the small outside belt on our side for little potatoes that should be on the middle belt. For both jobs, we had to watch our fingers so they didn't get caught in either belt. The belts were only made of little metal bars going across about every inch (so dirt could fall through), so it was easy to get yourself stuck in between the bars.

You'd think with six people at one time that this task wouldn't be so difficult, but sometimes we'd have to yell at the man driving the tractor to stop for a minute, because there were more clumps of dirt than we could fish out in time! It was crazy!

I asked if anyone knew about "I Love Lucy" and her time spent at the chocolate factory. (Unfortunately, they didn't.) That's exactly how I felt! The conveyor belt was going so fast and we couldn't keep up watching both belts....dirt here...potatoes there! I kept yelling to the other side, "save the little ones," because I could see them falling off their side when they were too busy getting the dirt out of the middle.

There were eight rows of potatoes to harvest and each row took about 15 or 20 minutes on the machine. After the 4th row was done, our shift replacements arrived so a couple people could take a break. We told the replacements how fast we had to work and sure enough, their first row was a piece of cake with very little dirt on the main belt. They thought we were crazy, until they experienced the madness during their second row.

After our evening of harvesting, our friends made dinner for all six of their helpers. It was delicious, but I want to know when I'm getting my free potatoes!!!  Hahahaha!!!

(Sorry I didn't get any pictures of this. I forgot my camera that day.)