Lynn Farms is now in the business of growing sweet potatoes.
This is the first year, so it was a whole new experience for all of us. The novelty of it made it a lot of fun for all of us to be involved in. We planted 5 acres of sweet potatoes this year, and yes, we manually placed every sweet potato cutting (called a slip) into the rotating wheel on the planter and watched each slip jut up in the soil as we crept down the rows behind the tractor.
Ross drove the tractor as my dad, Greg (his right hand man), Jeremy and I frantically tried to keep slips in the planting wheel as the tractor moved along. Newt helped finish it up when the second shipment of slips came in. There was a lot of laughter. Conversation happened when we came to a stop, but I discovered that you couldn't focus on keeping up with the planter and trying to have a conversation at the same time. My hand eye coordination and my reflexes were greatly strengthened.
It was quite the team building experience, and I think we would all agree that it was a lot of fun! Now it's time for harvest... I got word from Ross that they just cut the sweet potato vines today, so they should begin harvest late next week. I'm hoping to make it over there for a few days to observe the harvest process and see what the yield is like. If all goes well, they are thinking about planting 50 acres next year. So, to all of our blog readers out there, support our farmers and eat more sweet potatoes!
