Ton Hopper
A cloud of white clay dust erupted from my jeans as I slapped his hands on my legs, trying in vain to remove the dirt from my hands. I always remembered that Mississippi hot morning in September, when I was when I was visiting my cousins and helping to dig sweet potatoes. We decided to finish early so we had the time to go fishing later before dark. For them, to dig the roots of gold in the earth was a life for me was something that stood in the way we have fun.
My uncle and my father were brothers. While my father has left the company to continue the work of others, his brother stayed home and reared children and sweet potatoes. Lots and lots sweet potatoes! I do not think I ever aspired to have his children reach such lofty heights agricultural, but the seeds of success had been planted long ago and after a half century, seem to have matured.
That morning I learned something very important for the sweet potato business. It 'hard work! The old adage that the farmer worked from dawn to sunset is a myth. Many times I visited my cousins and I found them straddling the old John Deere at midnight, anticipating a storm of rain moved in from Louisiana.
Perhaps it is because of these early encounters with the 'taters lying on the ground just turned to my uncle plow that made the sweet potato favorite food of mine. I like them because they taste so good! I ate them baked, glazed, candied and even as a handful of fruit, which was delicious. There are literally hundreds of ways to prepare them!
Cultivation of sweet potato has come a long way from sixty acres of my uncle 'taters 50 years ago. Remember that would drive the tractor for the vines of potatoes and cut them off with a pig of Bush. Next would plow the potatoes, leaving them exposed so that the family could take them and put them in baskets. They were then taken to the barn where they were placed on screens and washed with a hose.
Were then packed in bushel baskets and loaded on two truck and a ton and a half. My cousins and I woke up before dawn the next morning and headed to Memphis, where the potatoes were delivered to grocery stores. That was my early memory to display a city slicker's farm life of potatoes.
A lot has changed over the years. Instead of an acre patch little 60 'tater, my cousins produced 2,500 hectares of sweet potatoes this year in several variations. Having exhausted their own land, leased it seemed that every vacant lot or field found and planted more potatoes.
That little tractor 'my uncle was replaced with a dozen or more huge machines that are capable of plowing 28 feet of clay Mississippi in one step. Still gathering potatoes by hand, but this time it is done by a couple of hundreds of migrant workers following the crops.
The potatoes are then dumped in bushel baskets, carried in a hopper and loaded onto a conveyor belt. They then moved to a wagon in which they are sorted and graded, in Big Ones this box and small in another. This is just the beginning of the harvest.
Hence the transition to a huge machine potatoes, where I washed and waxed, selected classified again, packed into boxes and then transferred to warehouses for storage of potatoes. Some are shipped to canneries, while others are stacked in huge 18 wheels that go to just about every State of the Union. Some are even sent to Europe.
I left out the part where there are days of inactivity in winter. With over one million tons of potatoes in the shed and spring fast approaches, it's time to start preparing once again for the next harvest. These an endless cycle that leaves little time for fishing. I love my cousins and the successes they've done, but I'm glad that my father decided to leave the company. It 'very too much work for me!
About the Author:
Bob Alexander is a true son of the south, USA. He is well experienced in barbeque, fishing and leisure living. Visit his site at: http://www.bluemarlinbob.com
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Sweet Potato Barons of Mississippi!
Conrail SD80MAC HO Scale
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