This is Sam and he's getting ready to plant potatoes. Right then. The first job to do is to plough the fields.

Transcription

1 'Show Me A Farm Where Potatoes, Pumpkins & Maize Grow'. To support teachers who wish to use our DVDs in the classroom, we provide the full commentary scripts for each section of each DVD. Pt 1 'SMAF Where Potatoes Grow' Show me a farm where potatoes grow! Come on then! This is Sam and he's getting ready to plant potatoes. It's early March and there's lots to do. Right then. The first job to do is to plough the fields. Sam has to drive up and down with the plough all day long. He spins his plough over at one side of the field so that he can plough the field back the way he has just come. Seagulls always seem to know when its time to plough! They drop by to pick up worms and grubs from the soil. Spin the plough over again... and back down the field we go. The plough lifts and turns the earth over. By the time Sam has finished, the whole top layer of the field will have been turned completely upside down! There we go, all nicely ploughed. Can we plant potatoes now? No, Sam hasn't finished yet. Page 1 of 7 Script copyright Show Me A Farm 03/09/12

2 He's got to use a 'Ridger' now, to pile up the earth. The Ridger has two ploughs side by side that look a bit like snow ploughs. When the Ridger digs in, it squeezes the earth up and piles it high into long ridges. It's hard work for Sam's tractor. You you can hear its engine straining as it pulls the ridger across the field. Oh, come on seagulls, fly off please, we can't see the ridges! Thank you. Can we plant the potatoes now? Not yet. There is still more work for Sam to do. When potatoes are planted, they like a nice soft bed to sleep in. So Sam uses a this machine called a 'Shape Former'. It has spinning blades which break up the earth into small lumps and rollers that form the earth into neat flat beds. There's enough room in each bed for two rows of potatoes. Can we plant the potatoes now? I'm afraid not. Potatoes are very fussy vegetables. They won't go to sleep and grow unless all the lumps are removed from their beds. So next, Sam uses a 'De-Stoner' to get rid of all the lumps. Page 2 of 7 Script copyright Show Me A Farm 03/09/12

3 It's like a great big mobile sieve. As it moves across the field it scoops up the potato bed, shakes it, tosses it and throws any lumps out to the side. Potatoes wouldn't like to sleep on all those! If Sam didn't removed all the lumps, at harvest time they would be mixed in with the potatoes. And that wouldn't do! Ah, the potato beds are looking really soft and comfortable. Can we plant the potatoes now? Yes we can, now that all the beds are made! Simon fills the potato planting machine with seed potatoes! "Yippee... here we go!" They eagerly pile in because they know they're off to a soft, warm bed! Can you see the little white bits on the potatoes? That's the roots of the seed potatoes starting to sprout. They've been kept in a cold dark store all winter, but as they make their way to the fields, they can feel the warm spring air on their skin. Simon lowers the planting machine onto the field... and 'whey hey!' they're off! One by one the seed potatoes are picked up... spun around and dropped into bed. The machine open the bed... pops a seed potato in... and quickly covers it up. Page 3 of 7 Script copyright Show Me A Farm 03/09/12

4 They plant 40 tons of seed potatoes each year on Stoke Fruit Farm, so the work often goes on well into the night. Did you know that potatoes have been planted in space? In 1995 astronauts took seed potatoes aboard the space shuttle Columbia to see if they could grow them in space. And they did! Hello, it's Captain Spud and his sidekick Chip, two space potatoes! Potatoes are full of energy, vitamins and minerals, so astronauts exploring different worlds would be well fed if they had space potatoes on board! And when plants like potatoes grow they produce oxygen and water, very useful in a visit to a planet like this! On planet earth, potatoes are a very important crop, as important as rice and wheat. All over the world, farmers like Simon and Sam grow potatoes to feed millions of hungry people. Back at Stoke Fruit farm, there is still a lot to do to look after the potatoes as they grow. Like removing any weeds from between the newly planted potato beds. Now, the potatoes can settle down to sleep quietly under the ground. Zzzzzzzzzzzz After a couple of weeks, green leaves start to show. And by May, the field is ablaze with potato flowers. Bees love flowers. Page 4 of 7 Script copyright Show Me A Farm 03/09/12

5 Bees are farmers friend because they pollinate their crops. When bees pollinate potato flowers, the potato plants produce small green fruit, but these are poisonous and you mustn't eat them! By the beginning of June, the early potato crop can be harvested. Naomi and Pat are digging some out by hand. These are 'new potatoes' which are delicious in salads. In Naomi's hand, you can see lots of new potatoes growing from one seed potato. The seed potato is the big dark looking object, with a few tiny new potatoes left hanging on by their roots. They don't dig all the potatoes by hand. They use potato harvesting machines to help them. This potato harvester is very old. It was built in 1980 and it looks a bit like a fair ground ride! It lumbers across the field scooping up the potatoes so that Naomi and Pat can sort them out. Any plant tops that are picked up are dropped back onto the field. On this machine it's Sam's job to fill the potato bags. He weighs each bag ties it up and puts them onto a pallet. Job done! Back at Stoke Fruit Farm's farm shop, the new potatoes go on sale. Page 5 of 7 Script copyright Show Me A Farm 03/09/12

6 Straight from the field and into the customer's bag. Can you get fresher than this? The main potato crop won't be ready to harvest for another couple of months. They need to grow bigger and their skins need to harden. It's important to make sure the potatoes keep healthy while they grow. Farmers spray potato plants to prevent diseases from damaging their crop. Before the main crop is harvested, the heads of the potato plants must be chopped off! Simon goes up and down the field pulling a 'Flail Topper', which slice through the stems of the potato plants. He doesn't really go this fast, we've just speeded up the film! It's now mid September, six months since the potatoes were planted and these rows are ready to be harvested. This is a job for the big boys! Sam's got a big bright green potato machine to help him. The old fair ground ride has sadly been retired. "Whee hee, this is a great new ride!" Each of these wooden boxes holds one ton of potatoes. One ton is about the weight of 40 seven year old children. Each year, Sam will harvest around 800 tons of potatoes. Page 6 of 7 Script copyright Show Me A Farm 03/09/12

7 As one trailer is filled, another is ready to take over. The potatoes are taken back to the farm where Simon unloads them. You remember we said potatoes love the dark? Well, to keep them fresh and to stop them going green they must be kept in a cool dark potato store until they are ready for sale. But they're not there for long. Back at Stoke Fruit Farm, they are already putting them into bags for hungry customers. Simon tips up a box of potatoes and they fall out into the riddler. The riddler rolls the potatoes over and over so that any damaged ones can be removed. All the good ones go on to be bagged. This machine weighs each bag. And once each bag is full, Jake can zip it up with the stitching machine. After all that hard work they are ready for sale. Phew! Watching all that work has made me hungry! Potatoes are great to eat! You can roast them, mash them, bake them and do all sorts of things with them, but making them into chips is my favourite way to eat potatoes. This is Elliotts Coastguard Cafe on Hayling Island and they are going to show us how they make Sam's potatoes into the best chips in the world! Page 7 of 7 Script copyright Show Me A Farm 03/09/12