Potatoes

Yesterday, the time had come for the potatoes to be lifted. Kindly, some friends came along to lend us a hand. So, in wonderful golden October sunlight, we gathered in the field to cut away the tops by hand. These would only clog up the digger, so they were moved from the field, just to leave short stalks, as a visible guide to work along. Then we got the digger from the yard with the horses. But frustratingly, after a few attempts, we still could not get the digger's settings quite right, and the horses soon were irritated by the ever too heavy pull they were asked to do, plus the pole swinging upwards between them...We had only used the digger last year once, and that was in much drier conditions than what we were faced with yesterday. With keen helpers waiting at the side of the field, we decided that we would abandon the digger for the day and play with its settings another time. So we got our potato plough out - a routine pull for the horses - and soon, the first potatoes saw the light, eagerly collected by helping hands into neat heaps. Just before the showers started at dusk, we had gathered all potaotes with the cart and Henry brought them safely to the barn where they will dry out for some time. Another successful part of our harvest completed! Thanks to all helpers and of course, to Henry and Winnie - without them, this harvest would have meant many, many hours of digging!

We've turned our video footage of this grand day into a little film: