In the Maine potato field during harvest of the golden spuds, the workers get hungry.
Calories are burned rapidly when the mornings are a little cooler. When the manual farm labor is a little more severe, heavy while working the Maine fall potato harvest season.
I have been getting up for the last three weeks before 5AM to cook a hearty breakfast of home fries (brought home by son working the harvest) with french toast, an fried egg over easy and bacon strips. While he fuels up, special care put in to creating a lunch and snacks for the day to keep him from ending up with a stomach screaming “empty”.
It makes me remember my Mom and the work she put in to the lunches for the potato fields she made for myself and three brothers. Ring dings, mountain dew, vienna sausages with mayonaise, and a variety of cream puff, other snacks.
The field food tastes so much better outdoors and when you are very thirsty, extremely hungry sitting on a Maine potato barrel.
The local Maine potato farmer my son Alex works for has about 800 acres to dig, harvest, store in the dark bins. Alex, fresh out of college is working hard to save up some money before shoving off to Colorado for the winter ski season to work at A Basin. He raked Maine blueberries, the subject of an earlier MeInMaine Blog post remember? Sure you do. (Smile).
I appreciate the work both my Dad and Mom did on the Northern Maine potato farm growing up.
And am glad my kids got in on the experience that is your basis for all jobs after that. What you learned in the Maine potato field is how you approach future employment opportunities. What you spend your hard earned dollars on has to have real value, or the money stays in your wallet too. The value of a dollar… you know when you realize how much effort it takes to make it with any entry level job.
Knowing how to work, liking to work, being dependable and creative in getting the job done is a skill kids should never be without or lacking. Or they will come up short in the harsh reality of the world around them and will not be able to fend for themselves. Managing money is easier if it takes a lot of effort to make it in the first place. You don’t spend it like a drunken sailor or adopt an easy come, easy go attitude about the stack of dead Presidents.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com