This rather rusty piece of equipment is a sweet potato digger. It lifts the soil around the crop and gently shakes away the soil depositing the potatoes on the surface behind. The new harvesters lift the potatoes onto a larger conveyer where they are sorted into bins. This machine came from Chris Estrada who helps us source our cuttings each year for this delicious crop. There will be much work replacing bearings and painting this digger. It is a great project for Kikki. He is not happy unless he has lots to fix and repair.
The cuttings for this years planting are growing nicely and just emerged in Chris’s beds. Chris was a certified organic grower up until about five years ago. He had to sell out and find other work but is now back in business for himself the last two years. The cuttings he is growing are on land that has been fallow for two years. He is not able to be certify this until three years have past. We will plant the cuttings at the end of the first or second week of May.
While I was picking this up from Chris he was able to get us organic sweet potatoes for your box for this and next week.