Lindsey Turpin and Cassandra Torres

Sep 15, 2021

ASHTON, Idaho - Spud Harvest began...

Every year high school students receive two weeks off of school at the end of September. Most potato (spud) farmers look for high school students to work for them. 70% of high school students work the spuds. These two weeks are dedicated to helping farmers harvest their crops. The students who work for these farmers develop skills like driving trucks, operating harvest equipment, and sorting potatoes. There is a large amount of work that goes into the harvesting of potatoes, and many farmers consider help from these students necessary in order to get their crops harvested before the frost sets in.

Mike Steinmen said, “We couldn’t do it without them”. To find out how absolutely necessary our harvest break is we interviewed several farmers and asked them a brief list of questions. We started by asking if high school students were necessary workers for the farmers. Nearly all the farmers said that at least 40% of their workers were high school students, and without them, the work would not be finished. Brett Reynolds, a local farmer even said that without these students he would not be able to fill a crew of workers.

After discovering that these farmers truly did think that spud harvest was necessary we turned to some students who have worked during spud harvest to get their perspective. These kids all said while they did not enjoy the actual job they enjoyed the paycheck and the new perspective that was gained. Hunter Hess said that his perspective on food has changed now that he’s helped produce it, “now when I eat fries I am like, wow, I have stared at a lot of those.” Spud harvest gives students a chance to learn and grow and to change the way they view agriculture. This break is only given to certain schools throughout Idaho. North Fremont is lucky enough to be able to experience this unique opportunity.