Southport, West Lancashire, UK 8th September, 2015. UK Weather. Potato Harvesting in Tarleton. Dewulf R3060 self-propelled potato harvester being used in sunny dry conditions to crop fields . This 2-row self-propelled potato harvester is equipped with 4 row fingers. The machine is perfectly adapted for clods and small stones, and can be adapted for other products (carrots, onions) etc. With the harvesting period being 15-18 weeks after the time of planting - harvesting time is the beginning of September onwards once the flowers and foliage begin to die.
Potatoes are tubers. A tuber is a fleshy, food-storing swelling at the tip of an underground stem, also called a stolon. Potatoes have white, brown, purple or red skin and white or golden flesh. Indigenous to Central and South America, potatoes were probably first domesticated in Chile. They were discovered by Europeans when Pizarro destroyed the Incan empire in Peru and were brought back to Europe around 1570. From Spain they moved to England and Ireland it's said that Sir Walter Raleigh introduced them in 1586, but they were popular by 1610. Some, however, resisted them as a food for a long time. Until 1780, they were rigorously excluded from prudent French tables, as they were thought to cause leprosy. Devout Scotch Presbyterians refused to eat them because they weren't mentioned in the Bible. In Prussia, King Frederick William I threatened to cut off the noses and ears of all peasants who refused to plant them. Russian peasants considered them unclean and un-Christrian, calling them Devil's apples. In colonial Massachusetts, they were considered the spoor of witches. Ireland adopted the potato first, and even made it the foundation of its national diet a fact that was to have terrible repercussions in 1845 when a late blight attacked the potato crop and caused the famine that was to send Irish emigres all over the world seeking a better life. In France, potatoes were finally established during the famine following the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). Frenchman Antoine August Parmentier, who was fed potatoes in a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany, returned to France to find his countrymen starving. He set up potato-soup kitchens throughout Paris to assist the poor, and Louis XVI recognized his work by saying, "France will thank you some day for having found bread for the poor." Before harvesting, potato vines are killed to allow the skin to set. Potatoes need to be harvested at certain temperatures to maximize the length of time they can be stored.
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