You Say Potato, I say Potaughto

This is it! My potato harvest post I have been working on for a few days. Jaren finished digging super early Thursday morning sometime after 1 a.m. It's been so nice having him HOME. Everyone knows I get super bored when I'm by myself. I think I've been driving him a little crazy. Maybe giving him a bit too much of "hi!" every few minutes because I'm just glad he's here.

(for those of you who don't know; my family back home in Washington owns a dairy farm. I drove tractor and swathed hay and mint(custom) and drove truck during harvest. But we harvested corn and alfalfa. I already knew how to drive and operate farming equipment. Hmm.. wonder if that's why Jaren pursued a bit harder when he found that out. "What?! I don't have to teach her?? I WANT THAT ONE!")

Last spud harvest I helped a few times by driving truck. I wasn't going to school on campus because I was off track. Instead I took online classes and did my internship so I had a bit more free time than now. Every time I would drive home and see everyone out there in their white trucks bouncin around smelling like dirt I would get really sad because I felt like a horrible farmers wife for not helping. Jaren tries to assure me that all is well, I'm going to school.

So I thought.. hey! There's always next year! But I kinda hope I'm pregnant then. Might be an uncomfortable ride if I'm nearing the end. But then again.... think it would bounce the baby out?

Hmm.... I have some thinking to do....

In the mean time, here is a whole bunch of pictures and some videos.

Here is the man who made/helped it all happen. The boy I can never get to smile with his teeth. The kid I always have to pick up after. The man that I find super cute.
Mr. Potato Head


Here is one of their potato fields. This is also the one that they were digging in the rest of the pictures.


I did it! I made him smile with teeth. (I totally have that power over him) I saw this picture after I took it and giggled. The position of his sunglasses and his cheesy smile makes this picture one of my favorites.



I'm standing behind a potato crossover looking onto two cellars with trucks unloading and lined up. You can click on any of the pictures to make them larger to see them better.


Sometimes farming is SO stressful!!!

(for the wife)

Potato digger hooked up to a tractor.


Two trucks awaiting their fate.

Of getting their load lightened. (Sounds nice, huh?)

I thought I'd show everyone how massive these things are! I stand just below 5' 4" and I fit under the tire/track/wheel thingy.


I handed Jaren the camera and made him take pictures just for this purpose (of blogging to the world) and I think he probably felt a little silly out there taking pictures like a tourist. haha. Oh, the things I make him do. :)
He is in a tractor driving the crossover which dig's potatoes and piles them onto the row that the digger will be coming along. This makes it so the digger can pick up more rows than it can by itself. It is great because it makes the process go by that much faster.

the beginning is of digger filling up a truck, then he films the crossover digging.

Jaren still in the crossover. The next closest tractor is another crossover piling potatoes into the row that the digger (a ways back there) will pick up.



The tractor windows weren't giving us the best view so Jaren stepped outside and video'd the digger filling up a truck for a few seconds.



Patiently waiting their turn



Unloading trucks


This is the front of a potato piler. It is a long conveyor that will catch the potatoes out of the trucks (at the bed of each truck there is a conveyor belt that turns on when they are ready to be unloaded. That's how they get the spuds out of the trucks) and there are a bunch of high school kids that grab all the nasty lookin potatoes out of the line. You wear gloves while doing this because your finger sometimes will get stuck in squishy yuckiness. And... you never know what might have been dug up with those potatoes.....




Potatoes going up the conveyor after being sorted through.



And then get dropped off the piler onto the massive potato pile.



Here is one of the four completely filled to the top potato cellars. After seeing the video below this should give you a good idea of just how many potatoes kept Jaren away from me.



Here is a video of two pilers unloading onto the pile o' potatoes. It's pretty amazing. I wish I had videod the pile a bit longer. Millions and millions of pounds of potatoes. It's crazy the amount.


Let's just say.... we sure like potatoes and have learned how to make quite a few different dishes with them.

Farming is a bit stressful and scary because you cannot predict the weather. You plant them and just hope you take care of them enough so they grow into pretty spuds. This year was a particularly scary year because of the winter. They planted a month later than normal (because the snow just didn't want to leave) and dug just a week later than they usually do. We are so grateful that everything turned out okay and are relieved to have one more year behind us. Since this will be happening for the rest of our lives!!

For Your Education

Some of you may be surprised to know that my Dad owns and runs a Dairy Farm with one of my Uncles. I grew up working mostly on the farm, but helping at the Dairy and with construction because they are constantly building. I mostly drove the swather which cut alfalfa (hay) and I custom cut mint and straw. (see swather much like the one I drove, below)

I drove truck during corn harvest and did a lot of manual labor growing up. I thought I knew quite a bit about farming... not a ton, but enough. Come to find out, being married to a Potato farmer, I don't know as much as I thought I did. Here are a few things that I felt rather dumb about not knowing, but have been recently discovering. I realize that some of this is probably common knowledge, so I'll take the dumb card.



(picture of field behind my house of grain babies.
Those are Sand Dunes in the background)






Grain turns gold on it's own, you don't have to stop the water to dry it out. I thought that in order for wheat/barley/oats to turn yellow you turned off the water and they dried out. Just this summer I've realized that Jaren is still watering his grain while it's yellow.... I couldn't figure out why, till I realized that that is how it ripens. On it's own it turns yellow and hardens and still needs the water.


This is almost ripened grain.







Potatoes have to be "killed" before they are harvested/dug. You don't just dig up the potato right out of the ground come fall. The plant is killed, then they drive over and "de-vine" the potato, then wait for the skin to harden and then it's harvested.

Potatoes can be stored in cellars for 10 months without going bad. As long as they are kept cool (below 43 degrees), dark and humid they are still yummy! It's quite a sight, let me tell ya. I'm going to take pictures this harvest.

Animal Cruelty???

This last semester I was sitting in my Exercise Phys class and the boy who always sits behind me started talking to me about vegetarianism. I personally love me some juicy steak and will always eat more meat than vegetables probably for my entire life. I try to be healthy, but I just can't help myself most of the time. This boy has a brother who has a girlfriend who is Vegan. The brother has decided to try it also and has been converted. The two brothers argued about animal cruelty and the Vegan in training argued that cows were mistreated and raped and taken advantage of by being milked all the time. I couldn't help but laugh. I grew up around cows, I mostly just think they are funny and I love love love milk. I decided to see what my dad would say. I told him that this boy thinks cow's are being raped and taken advantage of, to which my dad responded, "They like it." hahahaha. I really think they do. They like being milked 3 times a day and I'm sure they like their set up. They get tons of food, water, shade, straw to sleep on, 24 hour doctor that makes sure they are healthy; these cow's have a much more cush life than those who get to graze and wander like nomads. So animal cruelty? I think not.