The potato harvest on P.E.I. is one of the most important times of year for farmers.
Potato harvest on P.E.I.
Island farmers bring home the fruits of their labour
Brian McInnis
October 19, 2019
The annual fall potato harvest is underway on farms across Prince Edward Island and when it will finish depends on the weather.
The fall has been wet so far and that worries farmers so they take advantage of every good day to have their machines and people on the land working all day and long into the night.
Craig Potato in Tryon and Skye View Farms in Elmwood, are just two Island farms rushing to get the crop into the warehouse.
Craig Potato is a seventh-generation farm run by Lester Craig and his wife Sharon along with their sons Mark and Brent.
At this time of year the sun sets early and quickly, but it is still bright enough for Justin MacDonald of Skye View Farms to work without lights. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
Skye View Farms is a sixth-generation farm run by Alex Docherty, his son Logan, and Alex’s 84-year-old father Kenneth. Both farms grow seed potatoes and the Craig farm is certified organic.
“For three generations, to be able to work together at the same time on the same farm and me being the sixth generation of it and we take a lot of pride in it, and enjoy everything that we do,” Logan Docherty said in a short interview as potatoes moved along a conveyor belt and into one of the farm’s warehouses.
Being organic is a point of pride for Mark Craig. The farm received its organic certification in 2005 and it offers its Simply Organic brand of table potatoes which has been certified by ProCert Organic.
Craig said the farm uses only organic spray to keep the weeds down in the fields.
This was the view from inside the cab of the tractor driven by Mark Craig of Craig Potato in Tryon. The farm was certified organic in 2005. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
Seagulls were ever-present company for the workers at Skye View Farms. The birds were having an early Thanksgiving feast of grubs and worms turned up by the huge machines. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
Kenneth Docherty, 84, helps remove debris that was dug up with the potatoes at Skye View Farms. While his son Alex is out in the fields and his grandson, Logan, works around the warehouse, the elder Docherty puts in a full day’s work. “He works like a dog…there would be days when the rest of us are laid out and he would be wanting to go,” Logan says of his grandfather. When Kenneth is not working on the farm he drives an asphalt truck. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
Like something out of a science fiction movie, a huge harvester and with all lights blazing lumbers up the field at Skye View Farms. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
Seed potatoes tumble out of the truck and onto a conveyor belt where debris or bad potatoes will be removed before they are stored in the warehouse. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
A harvester goes up and down the rows of potatoes lifting them out of the ground so the large 'digger' can scoop them up and load them into a truck to be hauled to the warehouse. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
Mark Craig keeps a close eye on the action from the cab of his tractor as it, the truck and harvester make their way slowly along the rows of potatoes. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
Logan Docherty keeps a wary eye as thousands of pounds of potatoes come off the conveyor belt and are piled in the warehouse. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
Relentlessly and almost non-stop the conveyor belt feeds the potatoes into the warehouse where they will be stored. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
As the huge digger moves along the rows of potatoes it not only picks up the potatoes but rocks, dead vegetation and anything else that gets in the way as it moves along. Most of it is filtered out and what is not will be caught by the crew back at the warehouses. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
The view is spectacular from the hill in one of Skye View Farm's fields. There are always some potatoes left after the harvest and they will be plowed under to be compost for the next crop. In times past, people were allowed to go into the fields and pick up what was left behind. Docherty says this no longer happens, but he would welcome the return of the tradition. He said there is a lot of good food that goes to waste after harvest. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
Seagulls feast on the various things that are churned up from under the soil during a potato harvest. (Brian McInnis/CBC)
Brian McInnis
Brian McInnis is a Charlottetown-based freelance photographer.
Besides CBC, he has done photo work for The Canadian Press, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Tourism P.E.I., City of Charlottetown, Downtown Charlottetown Inc. and many other national newspapers and magazines.
