Today recognises all kinds of potatoes which provide us with essential vitamins, minerals, and fibre.
With so many reasons to love potatoes, it’s no surprise that these little vegetables have their own day to celebrate them.
Potatoes are commonly referred to as "taters'’, whether they are of the regular variety (tubers) or the orange-coloured sweet variety (root vegetables). The potato is a powerhouse when it comes to feeding big crowds because it is filling, energising, and nutritious.
Though Tater Day started way back in the early 1840s with trading and selling of sweet potatoes, it is now nationally celebrated every March 31st where the day is to recognise and enjoy potatoes of all types and kinds!
Canterbury farm owner Ross Hewson believes potatoes are a pretty important food around the world and in New Zealand. He says they are a very efficient use of ground and per hectare can feed a lot of people.
Hewson Farms is a fully irrigated arable and vegetable farm in the Pendarves/Chertsey region on the flat Canterbury plains, which is just south of Christchurch.
The family operation produces approximately 350ha of potatoes each year, and after harvest they are sold to McCains, where they become french fries in your local McDonalds. How spud-tacular!
To maintain high yields of good quality potatoes, crops have to be handled carefully and well looked after. Potato growers need to pay particular attention to site and crop rotation, seedbed preparation, disease control and harvesting.
