14/10/2026
The good old days!
In a great many rural Irish homes, the children were kept off school for a week or so every October, and nobody needed a note from home. 🥔
The potatoes had to be picked. The digger or the spade turned up the drills, and the whole family went out after it with buckets and sacks: Mammy in an old coat, the children in wellingtons, the smallest ones gathering the tiny ones nobody else bothered with. In parts of Ireland and Scotland the autumn break was long known as the potato holidays for exactly that reason. ☘️
It was cold, muddy, back-breaking work, and fingers went numb by the end of the day. But the pit got filled for the winter, the family's dinners were safe until spring, and there was a fire and a mug of tea waiting at the end of it.
Ask anyone who grew up on a small farm and they'll still remember the feel of a cold spud through a wet glove. 🧤
