Summer’s first new potatoes available for graduation parties

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The first Finnish new potatoes of the summer were lifted in Naantali’s Rymättylä on Tuesday morning.
      Farmer Heikki Vainio, 63, of Röölä was already in full swing with potato harvesting at 9 o’clock in the morning.
      Vainio’s choice vehicle for the job, his 1957 Massey Ferguson “Goldbelly” has already some antique value. The tractor’s nickname comes from its gold-coloured engine block.
     
In the course of the day Vainio lifted the first 200 kilos of new potatoes from his six-hectare patch.
      “The harvest is average. I’ve seen better, but considering the conditions this is pretty good”, is Vainio’s expert opinion.
      Last year Vainio harvested his first potatoes two days earlier.
      “Then again, these ones were planted two days later, on April 11th. Apparently everything has to do with everything.”
      Tuesday was still a day for test lifting, but on Wednesday the work will begin in earnest. By the weekend the potatoes, a long-awaited delicacy, will be on sale in Helsinki.
      According to Vainio, the main thing is that the new potatoes are available in time for the school-leaving parties of the new upper secondary school graduates - the ones who will be receiving their white caps this year.
      The first potatoes look to be of a decent size and beautiful, and they will almost certainly fetch a good price at this very early stage in the proceedings.
     
Growing early potatoes takes skill. One sharp overnight frost can easily destroy the entire crop.
      “This year’s worst moment occurred on May 6th, when the night-time temperature dipped down to -9°C. We had no choice but to water the potato seedlings from ten o’clock in the evening until seven o’clock the next morning.”
      “In the morning there was a thick layer of ice on top of the seedlings, but it protected them and not a single leaf was damaged.”
      In Rymättylä no rains or floods have caused any problems. The wheels of the old tractor do not sink into the field.
      Behind the tractor, three pickers use their hands to collect the potatoes in baskets, which are then emptied into sacks.
     
The biggest threat for early potato farmers, aside from the capricious weather, is the imported potato from Sweden, which is now providing real competition.
      In Sweden the early potato farming is slightly easier because of the country’s slightly more southerly location, and so the spuds start hitting the shelves of Finnish stores just that little bit earlier, depressing prices.
      Finns have tended to be somewhat reluctant to buy early potatoes from Cyprus or Spain on the grounds that "they just don't taste the same", but increasingly we live in a world where one can get any produce all year around.
      Vainio does not dare to start predicting the price for which his new potatoes will be sold in shops.
      “In any case, the price is on a downward trend because of the increased competition from the Swedes in Skåne.”


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Farmers in Southern Sweden cash in on Finnish appetite for new potatoes (5.6.2007)

See also:
  First new potatoes harvested in Rymättylä (30.5.2003)

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