Category: Maine Farms

Prem Pak, The Maine Trucking Company Hauling Potatoes, Paper Products

In 1963 My Dad And Mom Bought Their 1st White Tractor Trailer Truck

Then Kept Adding To The Fleet That Hauled Their Own Home Grown Potatoes And Brokering Other Farmer’s Spuds To Truck Them To Boston, Hartford, New York City. Then Returning To Wakefield Or Medford MA For A Back Haul Of Paper Products… French Fry Cartons For Potato Service In Presque Isle, The Packaging Used Up in Madawaska For Jade East Cologne. Here Are Some Of The Fleet, A Couple Drivers Spotlighted That Just Turned Up Hidden Away At The Farm. Estle McPherson And Dean Lynds I Think Are The Two Of Many Prem Pak Had Up In The Cab And Behind The Wheel. All Powered By Cummins Diesel Engines. Most Trailer Great Dane Models Bought New. To Haul The Trailer Truck Loads.

Proud Of A Trailer Truck, Prem Pak Transportation Driver Poses Before Climbing Up In The Cab Over.

Elmer Snell And Al Packard And Gerald Prosser Lifted The Cab Or Opened The Hood Of “Ole Elmer, Dopey” That Kept Everything Running Like A Top! Who Did The Oil Changing, The Wrench Turning Mechanics For The Fleet. Doug McNutt, Albert Fitz, Jeff Bossie, Jack Graham, Roger Oliver, Carl Cottle, Sandy Graham, Reuben Albert. Joey Nadeau, Charlie McAtee, Wayne Drake, Sonny And Bobbie Howe Are Just A Few Of The Drivers That Come To Mind. Fee Free To Add More.

Jack Graham With His Super Sized Blue Bottle Of Malox Under His Arm Drove The White International Transtar With The 903 Power Plant. My Favorite Driver Was Elwood Kelley Who Drove The 335 Powered Peterbilt And Took Me On Many Trips Riding Shot Gun To The City As A Little Kid Who Helped Unload In The Produce Markets On D Street, Hunt’s Point, Etc. Trading A Left Over Bag Of Russets Or Whatever Variety Of Spuds For Fresh Florida Oranges, Grapefruit Or Melons. Then Eating Whole Fried Clams At The Belle Air Diner On RT 128 Leaving Boston. Kelly Loved Kids And Was An Expert Driver. The Big Farm Barn Worked Excellent For A Truck Terminal For The Ten Trucks, More Trailers.

Alison Britton The Sign Painter Before Larry McCarthy Took Over Lettering New Trucks Or One’s Fixed After A Wreck Hitting Deer, Trees, Etc. Prem Pak Had ICC Transportation Rights Purchased When McCauley’s Express In MA Was Bought Out Before Deregulation Of Transportation Happened. http://staging.meinmaine.com/…/dopey-was-a-single-screw-with-t…/

The Old Veteran Drivers Did Not Have Automatic Transmissions Or Electric Fifth Wheel Lock Switches. No Wireless Cells, No Texting “I Just Got Pulled Over By Smokey Bear Whipping Out His Portable Weigh Scales.” As He Climbed The Ladder, Asking For The Log Book. No No… Truckers Used To Drop The Coins With The Correct Change Standing Out in The Cold Using Pay Phone Land Lines. Cupping One Ear While Pressing The Dial Number Phone Tightly To The Other Ear. Trying To Hear Without Outside Wind Blowing, Other Trucks And Cars Zipping By On Lines Where You Got In The Habit Of Shouting When Making Long Distance, Person To Person Calls.

Part Of The Fleet Of Trucks Hauling Maine Potatoes To The Markets. The Others On The Road.

Had No XM But Lots Of Bootleg 8 Tracks, CB Radios With Antennae Whips On Both West Coast Mirrors With A Line Hooked To A Linear 75 Or More Watt Amp To Boost The “Breaker Breaker 19 Got Your Ears On?” Channel Signal For The Best Chatter Reception.

Chain Drive Wallets Tethered To Your Belt Loops With The Leather Held Together By The Big Silver Buckle. Heavy Boots And A Heavy Club To Hit All 18 Tires To Make Sure They Did Not Go Square Many Mile Markers Down The Road. A Flat On The Inside And The Wrong Size Spares In The Trailer Rack … Oh Oh. Better Call John R To Ask What Do You Want Me To Do Now. Overweight In CT Where They Throw You In Jail. Yikes. Overdrive Magazines, Others Quite Exotic Under Tucked Under The Sleeper Bunk Mattress.

Part Of A Family Owned Trucking Company, Prem Pak Hauled Potatoes Down Country, Paper Products For A Back Haul Load.

Fans Keeping The Fog Off The Inside Of The Windshield. Heaters Not So Hot Blowing Ice Cold Air. So Wearing Long Underwear And Dressing Warm A Must. Cussing At Air Brakes That Froze Up. Wipers That Won’t When You Need Them Most. During A Snow White Out As You Creep Along And Are Gonna Miss Another Birthday, A Holiday When Told To Turn Around, To Fetch Another Back Haul With Only Five Stops. Your Truck The Home Away From Home.

And Hey, I’m Broke Down With A Full Load On The Side Of The Road South Of Dallas. You Needed Tow Trucks Lowering The Big Hook With Jimmy Ritchie’s Help At Houlton Truck Garage. Using A Dead Man Block And Tackle To Pull You Back Onto Your Feet Or Out Of The Ditch Hole. Not To Just Open Up A Lap Top To Keep Them Running On All Cylinders And Pointed The Right Direction Down The Highway.

Trucks Hauling Freight. They Unlike The Railroad Could Give Overnight Service For Just In Time Inventory Control. I Hear Truckers Get Blamed For All The Accidents But Know First Hand They Go Off The Road, Avoid At All Costs Hitting The Car With The Texting Or Hammered Driver Behind The Wheel Causing The Costly Wrecks And Canceled Carrier Insurance.

You Can Not Stop 73,280 or 100,000 Pounds On A Dime When Driving An 18 Wheeler On Black Ice Good Buddy.

That’s A Big 10-4, We’re Gone Bye Bye…. Cue Dave Dudley, There Were Quite A Few Entertainers Mining That Behind The Wheel Pulling The Air Horn Musical Theme. He Was One Of The Country And Western Truck Driving Hit Makers. Tap The Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-kUyV76X-g For Some Tuneage That Ties Into This Blog Post Theme. Maine Trucking, As A Little Kid It Was Need To Travel In The Rigs And See The Bright Lights, Big City. Transportation Is The Second Largest Industry In Our Country. Don’t Believe It? Shut Off A City With Truck Deliveries For A Few Days And Hear The Whine, Feel The Pain.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

November 19, 2017
Food Insecurity, What Does It Mean To Mainers?

Food insecurity, what do the two words mean if you live in Maine?

Well for starters, the first time I heard the expression “food insecurity” I did not think about not having enough or any. But where did the food come from and what was it sprayed with, how was it handled by field workers, in transport from field to my point of purchase, etc. I grew up on a Maine potato and grain farm and we had lean years but always ate well. With big vegetable truck gardens, an endless supply of potatoes and a root cellar stocked from dirt floor to over my head to draw from to make it close to home hands on foodstuffs. For true field to table, fruit orchard, poultry, beef, dairy critters to provide what went into the meal production.

Food insecurity is defined as …

Trimming Beets At Nature’s Circle, A Local Organic Farming Operation In Northern Maine.

“food in·se·cu·ri·ty

noun

the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. 1.”more than 800 million people live every day with hunger or food insecurity as their constant companion”.

They says food insecurity and poverty go hand in hand too.

Not knowing where your next meal or snack is coming from messes up the three meals a day routine, the you can’t have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat.

In a state like Maine where farming is big, agriculture is all around us. Going hungry is harder to fathom. You can always glean fields, there is plenty of food harvested but lots more left behind to just rot into the ground. Help yourself, just ask the farmer and say thanks. Because more mechanized farm operations don’t get everything from the field that could be what’s for your breakfast, lunch, dinner. But it is not economical for the big scale farmer to go back and scour because hundreds of acres to harvest before frost sets in and that’s all she wrote.

But the quality of the food, the nutritive value especially for youngsters with developing brains, growing bodies. Plenty of good food wins the day. Not tons of convenience items with empty nutrition that can be bought cheaply. But rob dietary nutrition of the essential vitamins and trace element ingredients. The eight out of ten folks living in a city where the most jobs are don’t have the same options for free food straight from the field to supply what is on the grocery list. They can’t have a garden because just no space around them in the hustle bustle.

Reduced quality, less variety adds to the food insecurity discussion to broaden the scope as defined by the USDA. Discomfort, weakness, illness with prolonged food insecurity is a cancer of a different type. Than the ones that attack certain organs or that like to spread and travel around the body like wildfire. That claim the lives of loved ones in our families and communities.

Do you worry about food running out and your cupboards being Old Mother Hubbard bare?

In cities, just in time grocery store stocking the shelves would mean havoc if trucking stopped for two or three days. Storms and weather disturbances bear this out as panic happens on the retail level.

Family Farms, Maine Has An Increase And The Average Age Of Farmers Is Dropping!

Like a cold Maine winter challenges the wood pile supply when you have five cords stacked in the shed or filling your cellar but are chewing it up quicker than you planned.

Knowing you may not have enough fuel or food for your family to keep them warm or fed is what keeps a parent awake at night. When money is short, programs to take up the slack get over taxed, reduced or phased out altogether.

Food and shelter, safety are the biggest basic needs a person could have. Providing for your family, the young sprouts is a component of love as a good parent. Which everyone needs to feel important, to feel loved, worthwhile and have hope. Good food, in great supply is a wonderful basic staple. And can the locals in a small Maine community prepare it just so.

Anyone working in education knows the anxiety of kids skipping meals because there is nothing to to feast on.

And what it does to add to the distraction and dull the focus of the student needing the education. But the lack of energy or oomph. Just not feeling up to par because of sheer hunger. The week before a school vacation are happy times for those heading out on a tropical sea cruise or a visit to see Mickey or Minnie in the sunny south. But when your Maine home is cold, there is no food and the atmosphere is stressed because of missing parents or ones that fight, there is nothing to look forward to when a vacation arrives. School is the routine, with food injected to round out the day in the classrooms and roaming the halls in the educational shuffle from the gym to the library and hopefully not detention.

The days heading out of a school vacation back into the three “R’s” in the classroom are hard on educators and students too.

Because the adjustment from a week, a holiday that was not fun with no food, cold and harsh conditions at home. All that follows the unhappy student back into the rows of desks with the black board upfront and the apple on the desk. The hungry child living in poverty conditions did not get a real vacation and has to begin feeding the mind and nourishing the soul to develop skills to be self sufficient outside of the educational bubble.Have you ever run into someone that was poor growing up and did not like it, carries a chip on their shoulder of bitterness and regret? It isn’t fair for a kid to be hungry, to go without food.

The Bees Are Busy Pollinating The Maine Potato Fields In Summer.

Or I know of someone that knew hunger growing up and missed meals, went to bed hungry and who now works at a food pantry because of it. To make sure less kids and older know that same feeling down in your gut of going without food or good nutrition.

Do you support a cause like backpack for kids in your local area?

Who fill up the empty sack to have bus drivers distribute to households that lack much in the cupboards at no fault of the child in those homes.

During the school year, backpacks with non-perishable items are filled up on a Wednesday, taken to the school on Friday, and head home with the children to be returned via the child turning in the empty bags on Monday.

Everything repeated the following Wednesday which is fine as long as the yellow school bus is on its run. Reducing hunger for children is so important to their education, esteem, general well being. Summer away from school’s dinner bell ringing or if the back pack support team needs a break in the food line bucket brigade, kids go hungry of the good stuff, any foodstuff and on their own in fending for themselves.

Low cost or free meals that are nutritious and balanced are provided to over 31 million American students in our country.

The US Census ties poverty levels to the number of reduced or free hot lunches or breakfasts provided to students in an area economically challenged. Hunger is one of the leading obstacles to education in our country.But the argument parents always used about finish your plate and remember all those starving kids halfway around the World.

When you scan a row of kids at a concert or at a sporting event or out in the community and obesity seems to be another dietary problem. Not because of not enough food but poor eating habits of the wrong items or too much that adds the weight and affects the health of the youngster. Who is carrying around the physical weight beyond the design of his or her body along with the self esteem issues for being large.

Seed Potatoes In Maine, The Best Creates Large Yields Of Great Nutritious Produce.

Part of fixing health care and making it more affordable starts in good eating habits as a kid.

Obesity affects genetics, alters the behaviors and attitudes of kids that get less and less exercise the larger they become. A healthy diet, a child physically active is happier and not eating out of boredom or self medicating to band-aid a larger dietary wound.

Good diet, eating habits and nutritious food helps children grow strong, maintain a healthy weight throughout childhood. And leads to less burden on the expensive health care system because a healthier population does not depend on it so greatly.A harmony, a balance of energy goes into activity and calorie consumption. From the right foods and beverages to prevent excess weight gain.

Healthy eating, being physically active helps to prevent chronic diseases that are killers like type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Eating balanced meals, combined with exercise improves mental clarity and helps reduced mood swings. To stave off depression because of the poor self image from overeating, under exercising and being out of control with food consumption.

Did you or anyone grow up exposed to Maine farming?

Do you have a garden, is there space to have one where you live or does your community provide space to scratch the dirt, plant seeds to cultivate and nourish to get to the harvest stage?

Maine, lots of space and more are turning to homesteads, farmsteading because what is most important is missing on their dinner tables. Good food and Maine farming tie in with healthier lifestyles and being outdoors, working the land to be in better shape as the secondary gain. Maine farming agriculture numbers are up in more ways than one.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

February 4, 2017
Farming In Maine, The Barn Was The Centerpiece In Building Collection.

Farming in Maine, when there were seven farmers on one road.

Not one farmer in three small Maine towns. Bigger, more production but way way fewer in number now. And less of the stuck in the middle of the road farmers that were weeded out. Dying on the vine and pushed to the wayside.

Maine Farms, The Big Barn Is The Center Crowned Jewel Of The Buildings.

There is a resurgence in micro farming, locally sourced agriculture grow and raised close to home is a healthy sight to see.

But like farming without the eight row equipment and many zero place debt load, small farming in Maine takes frugal measures.

Regardless of the state of affairs on conventional, organic or whatever size spread for Maine farming, the buildings used to pull off the lifestyle.

In our travels it is always pleasurable to see a big main barn given TLC, a shot of love. Some on life support and it is a nip and tuck operation.

The Maine Barn Sitting Back On Its Haunches. Leaning, Straining And Recently Went Down Completely Like 52 Pick Up.

It’s all over happens. Too late for the new sills, the roof repair and general pulling the structure back into post and beam health that it had when hand built in the late 1800’s or earlier. The lack of a new roof covering makes everything melt into the ground.

Like a dinosaur going to its knees and never to get back up.

With the 8×8’s and old doors, the hand forged hardware to hang them recycled from the rubble. To fix another barn a few townships over in rural, sparsely populated Maine.

When you think of barn raising, where all the family, kids and old alike joined forces to put up a farm building.

The barn that was the cornerstone, crowned jewel of everything else to come. Even horses pulled those mortised beams into place to pin them securely.

And next week we set up shop with the same folks at your spread down the road a piece in Maine. Another farm setting hosting the food, the hard work and hopefully good weather holding out until voila. Another big barn in Maine dots the countryside.

Hungry? Know What You Are Eating, Where It Came From If Not Locally Organically Grown?

Besides lack of maintenance, the high cost to insure, other factors put a cross hair on the life of a Maine barn.

Lack of use because like schools, everything is on one floor now. Those expansive hay lofts on a gambrel design or gable A-frame farm barn not used for loose or square bales anymore.

Big 1200 pounded that look like huge Rolo candies now squat around a recently hayed and laid to collect pasture field operation. Where no field hand muckles on to the twin twine strings to toss up on a passing hay wagon or farm truck flat body.

No hauling it back to the big Maine farm barn depository to store inside before black rain clouds open up to spoil the haying operation.

Or placement on a conveyor pointed skyward to hoist them higher for the rack and stack inside. Why no more?

Because a farm tractor with hay forks on the front or rear spears and lifts to deliver them to be placed in a roll. Wrapped in white plastic to preserve them until needed from the hay bank. Not put under cover of a big Maine farm barn.

Oink. Wee Wee Wee .. Sing It Out Loud And Clear.

So no fear of if their is moisture in the hay, then oh oh. Heating up and spontaneous combustion ignites and no more big, beautiful barn.

Taken out of the farm spread rotation. And when a barn fire happens, like domino formation, one by one the rest of the auxiliary structures go down.

Poof. The machine shed, well house, ice house, grainery, pig shed, horse hovel, chicken coop and the farm house too!

Just farm land left, maybe no wood lot either though on top of it all. When the grass fire turns everything into the scorched Earth like the rules of war makes it leave nothing for the enemy to benefit from down the road. Al that brought into the chaos. No more buildings or remains of them to resurrect.

So barns, unless lots of money to maintain them, insure them, can die of natural causes. If no one climbs up and cables off the roof sides to hold them, suck them back together securely. Or cross braces to keep them from swaying in the Northeast gales, those winds out of the Northwest too.

Maine Is Real, Fresh, Original.

Some Maine farm barns re-purposed for conventions, weddings, family events and rented out to earn their keep.

To pay their way. Conversion to truck terminals is one use the barn I now care take and own was. Now used for storage of campers, antique cars, recreational boats and other motorized adult “toys”.

Do you have the same love of barns and does that one structure surrounded by other buildings make the picture complete? Many are gone, but not forgotten. And a few are maintained and still standing proudly.

Add animals, crops and farm activity and all the better reaction to the big awesome barn. The barn is the charm, casts the spell has the smell of grain, hay, animals that used those standing, boxed stalls and stanchions. Food is pretty special to have at least three times a day for most of us.

Having a steady supply of quality raise it yourself food stuffs keeps the body healthy. Raising it keeps you in shape and just breaking even making you feel grateful helps your overall attitude. The way you look and approach obstacles, challenges in life is key for what you glean from the years here on Earth. On what you pass on for the next generation that is valuable in life skills.

Lucky to own one. Peddle them too. Maine farm barns, come north and can show you a few classic ones.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com | 207.532.6573

September 19, 2016
The Love Affair With Maine Cars, Trucks, Tractors.

When you grow up in a small rural state like Maine.

Where the ability to fix things, keep them going not just plunk down the cash to replace them, an attachment grows. To our Maine cars, trucks, tractors, anything with or without a motor on it.

I have a super M farm tractor I feel pretty fond of because she is older than me.

I have lots of memories on the farm working with her working potato and grain fields. And we grew up together.

1967 Ford Mustang, Wearing, Sporting Springtime Yellow Paint, Wire Wheels.

Just purchased a International Farmall 656 farm tractor that is color coded. Keeping with the red theme that was used on a hay farm by a Maine state trooper down state. That I never met but had scoped out the iron horse he was letting go of for a reasonable price.

Had it hauled up to the unloading dock they were nice enough to let me use at the Tractor Supply outlet in Houlton Maine.

Had fun driving it home during one of the coldest days of the year with the wind blowing strongly and my colar pulled up as my head shrunk down. But excitement to have gotten the new to me big tractor that I introduced to the “County”. Where farming of all types is big.

I needed a little bigger tractor with more power, a three point hitch to get under machinery and to lift up and over ledge or other obstacles found working around the Maine farm I grew up on and purchase from my three older brothers.

Speaking of my brothers, the car I almost had that got totaled but no one hurt back when I was just getting my license to legally drive at age 15.

Even though when you grow up on a Maine farm you are driving way way earlier than that. From field to field, around the farm with a variety of machinery options depending on the farm season. The length of my legs at the time and if I could reach the brake, clutch and gas pedals or not.

Cancer Ripples, Effects Everyone Around You. Hold On, Hug Tight. My Secretary Of 24 Years Wishes Youngest Well On Ride To Summer Job Down State Maine. Robin Still Ticking, Going Strong. So Is The Little Black Del Sol. Her Red Car Ruby The Mazda.

During a good potato year which you could count on back in the 1960’s about every third one, my dad custom ordered a 1967 spring time yellow Ford Mustang. I was two weeks away from making it mine. Because my brothers had their turn in high school.

It was not allowed to be taken to college and used mostly by two of the next oldest brothers when they were in high school. Kinda off limits to my oldest one who drove everything too fast, on the edge of being in not being in total control more often than not.

But Stephen Mooers, a clothes horse was a good wheel man because of experience and little fear.

Lung cancer got him when most figured speed would. Because of too many near misses behind the wheel of something pushed faster than the speed limit or manufacturer suggested.

The Mustang Ford car I waxed, drove around the yard and waited for my turn was not to be.

My brother Jonathan had a 1961 Chevy that would not pass inspection, had house glass for the driver’s side door, no reverse, and those were just some of it’s ills.

But it was what he could afford, got him around the University of Maine campus. Most of the time. Until a breakdown and much needed repairs that could not wait.

Fixing, Getting Under The Hood, Under The Engine Of Small Maine Town Pride And Joy.

He used to park the not so pretty shade of brown Chevy car in low spots of parking lots. To hide, cloak it and to try to be non-descript.

From the eyes of folks looking for current stickers, that picked up on violations in the motor vehicle department rules and regulations.

Dad agreed to let Jonathan take the Mustang out of storage, with the promise of one week it would be returned to the same parking berth.

Unharmed, no delays. The car got totaled in the “Y” intersection of the two Main Streets in Brewer on a Saturday night.

Coming into contact with a pick up moving a little too fast like the Mustang. The frame of the Ford bent and the insurance company signalling with a thumbs down on investing the money to fix it back to driving condition. No one was injured but there went the yellow car in my high school driving pair up.

Have a red jeep that four kids learned how to drive in, that went on lots of trips with that went on to be a loaner to the grown kids before they got their own set of wheels.

No Injuries, Well Except The Maine Black Bear Had A Goose Egg On His Noggin. Took Off Into The Woods To Die, Live Another Day. Wondering What Hit Him.

As a parent pouring money into the fleet of tired, mileage piling up vehicles while juggling resources to get the kids educated. After that much history with a vehicle, it is hard to just let go and not feel a special place.

Especially after it hits a Maine black bear, the kids don’t roll over and as a parent somehow I give the Jeep trusted with care a lot of the credit.

Here is a picture of poor Sally, the 1998 red jeep that could be parted out but can’t quite do it. Feeling the need to fix and restore because of our history, all those kids that learned to drive with her patience.

(Yes I know what an “E brake” maneuver is and other not so smart things done over hill and dale, in the back seat with this Jeep kids.) Read more about the 1956 Ford “Heatwave” local car legend. We do blog about cars once in awhile in the Me In Maine post thread.

So vehicles, tractors, anything that we depend on or helps us have the freedom to move around and explore Maine. We don’t need the latest and greatest and the longer we use them, the more attached we get to them. Because they are part of our life living in rural Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730

August 2, 2016
Picking Maine Potatoes, My First Entry Level Job As A Kid.

Everything I apply to life I learned in the Maine potato field. Sort of.

The 300 acre Maine farm I grew up on and now own.

Maine youth help area potato farmers get the spuds into winter storage during school fall break.

Seriously, you start each morning, listening to the radio to see what time the Maine potato farmer is going to dig today.

A little frost or rain over night means a delay, or no picking. A reprieve from above in the food chain. But when you do get to the spud field after a big breakfast and carrying your lunch and water jug, you have to pick out a section.

A section is basically, how long a responsibility in the field can you handle?

If the rows are long, and one digger proceeds at a slow pace back and forth uncovering spuds to pick, you have to judge what is doable. To still stay caught up. You don’t want to be waiting for the digger. You need to avoid being hopeless behind, rows and rows out of uncovered potatoes waiting to be picked. That is discouraging but so is life sometimes. The best lessons are mistakes or miscalculations. Taking ownership, responsibility and stopping them from happening over and over. And wondering why.

Four baskets fill a 165 pound Maine farm potato barrel.

You put your ticket on the barrel and it gets plucked. Placed in a can as the barrel is hoisted onto a flatbed farm truck. The potatoes head to storage, your ticket to be counted that night. Sixty cents a barrel was the pay when my four kids picked a few years back. Before graduating to work in the potato house or on the harvester for an hourly wage. Where they thought now we are cooking. Have really arrived.

Kids spend the money if they think the item is worth six barrels of potatoes or whatever the exchange is as they contemplate a purchase. I have seen my kids pick something up, put it back on the store shelf and utter the word’s “Dad, that’s not worth six barrels of potatoes”. They worked too hard to part with their hard earned proceeds for something deemed an unfair exchange or quality for the work required to buy it. Maine potato picking video I posted.

No one leaves the Maine potato field until everyone is picked up.

No one left high and dry. If you find yourself behind due to poor section selection or the hot sun slowing down your production, others will show up to pick up your section. To add to their daily barrel tally. If you run out of barrels, you pick tops off the rows you get behind so when you get barrels, you can pick your section faster.

Digger pulled by the tractor breaks down? You head to the woods to do your business, make a nature call. Or have a snack and enjoy the break. Put it to good use to rest up. Or if hustling for a new bike, you trot down to a section that is behind that has barrels. You pick one or two barrels to tag with your ticket. You stay busy. You make good use of your time.

Another Generation Of Farmers In Maine. Remember, No Farmer, No Food!

Being outside in the Maine fall scenic foliage is exciting and beautiful. Blue skies, cold mornings, blistering hot afternoons. That’s a lesson in picking potatoes, my entry level job that was the blue print for every other job after that.

Growing up on a Maine farm was a valuable experience. And you are needed by the grower, shipper. You and he both are at the mercy of the biggest unknown, the Maine weather. Your section may grow or shorten too depending on the division marker of your neighboring picker. Who may be an ambitious little red hen or become lazy in the afternoon sun like a slug.

The field section markers may mysteriously re-adjust between where you end and your neighbor starts too.

End rows also can grow as the field lengthens. You find grass, tough picking, sods on the ends as a rule. Those are the picking ABC’s of mastering a Maine potato field. Watch the operation first hand with this Maine potato picking video .

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

March 19, 2009