It is getting very old looking at snow falling like it is again today! I rather look at old machinery like this old potato planter. But this potato planter would have trouble planting through the snow and I bet your butt would get rather chilly on the metal seat since it is below freezing outside.

There is an old wives’ tale that planting potatoes should always be done on Good Friday which would have encountered a frozen ground this year. The tradition of Good Friday planting seems to originate in Ireland. The potato came from an area around Peru and came to Europe about 1570 but took a while for the potato to catch on. In the 19th century, many Irish Protestants refused to eat potatoes on the grounds that they weren’t mentioned in the Bible. Irish Catholics skirted the issue by planting them on Good Friday, thereby baptizing the little spuds and making them holy.

But now every Irish man, woman and child eats more than 250 pounds of them each year. I must have some unknown Irish ancestor since I love potatoes too. The planting of potatoes have changed over the years. The International Harvester General Catalog published in 1927 had this McCormick-Deering One-Row Potato Planter listed on page 193. The horse-drawn planter could hold 3 bushels in the hopper and the planter weighed 580 pounds and could have an additional fertilizer attachment.

Old Potato Planter