Where did those taters come from?

I decided to quit my job with Potlatch Forests and move to southern Idaho so I could see my future wife more easily and not have to drive 500 miles on weekends to see her. I guess that’s when I came in contact with Idaho potatoes. If you are in Idaho you wouldn’t be served anything but.

Wherever we went and ate out I would ask the waitress if these were Idaho potatoes. I did it as a lark and would get the funniest looks. The answer was usually yes, they were, or I don’t know I will ask the cook. I really didn’t care, I was just having a little fun.

Idaho potatoes got a little more close and personal when we decided to sign on and pick potatoes during the harvest.

The farmer had a huge potato digger that would go down the rows and turn up the spuds. It was a cloud of dust, but the potatoes were lying atop the ground.

We were to be paid by the half sack. However, you had to fill the sack up to about three quarters full to get them to stand up.

We had to put a belt on that you attached the burlap bag to. It had hooks on it. Then the idea was that you drug the bag along as you picked up and placed the potatoes inside. It was real dusty and back-breaking work. By the time the sack was filled to the right level, you were dragging about 50 pounds along.

It wasn’t a leisurely pace but everything was hurry.

The digger would get a couple of rows ahead and then stop so you could catch up. They didn’t want the potatoes to sunburn in the hot sun.

When I say hot sun, I mean it was really hot. The day started early and quit when the sun was going down. We both made about $15 the first day. Even though our backs were killing us, we showed up for the second day.

We did about the same the second day but it didn’t take us quite as long. That was the extent of my potato days.

A few years later, after we were married, my wife had a second try at potatoes. She signed on the midnight shift in a French fry processing plant. We thought we could handle her working late at night while I handled our two kids. Then I would attend my Nampa college classes in the daytime, and she would handle our two young ones and get some sleep.

Well, this didn’t work very long and we got out of the potato business for good.

However, to this day I always check, when buying potatoes, if they are from Idaho.

That was the extent of our farm work while in southern Idaho. However, I came to appreciate our farm laborers and know how hard they work for little pay.