To continue the theme of random experiences while on PEI, I went to a farm.
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| So Many Spuds! |
Yup I did. I don’t think I have been to one before. I even missed that time you go when you’re in 4th grade when they try to scare you into being a vegetarian. I’ve been to ranches in Texas and near very dry crops in Kenya, but not a real farm, so this was a big day! I went to a friend’s potato farm. The directions I received to get there were so quaint I couldn’t have made them up. ‘Go through Hunter River and when you get to a giant lighthouse, turn right. You’ll pass a shooting range and when you see a yellow house on your left you’re nearly there.’ I love PEI!! Oh and somehow I totally found it, even with my appalling sense of direction. Granted, I passed it then flipped around and came back....twice.
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| During the grading process post cleaning |
I was shocked how much mechanization is involved with delivering potatoes. They had a giant storage unit, more commonly called a barn, with millions of potatoes. There were so many spuds, they looked like peanuts. Then a tractor takes a load of these potatoes into a wagon. From there they have an assembly of conveyor belts that successively remove the dirt, then using density drop the rocks out, clean the potatoes, separate them to two lines to be graded (QA check), then lift them into the truck. Neat! There was one person on the tractor, one moving the conveyer along the truck, and four people to perform the grading. A team of 6 can fill a truck of potatoes in only tem minutes. It’s amazing! I can only imagine how tedious this must have been before machines were widely available.
I left the farm much more aware, covered in PEI red dirt and hungering for some McCain fries after seeing the main ingredient. Oh and did I mention it was cold? like 0 degrees celcius cold. These farmers are a tough lot!
Yuck
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