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This'll sound funny...I put off trying this for years, but now am a believer: get an old horse-drawn potato plow. They're around, lot of folks around here use them as lawn decorations. Here's my story: I also have a large garden, plant and harvest around 600' of potato row by hand. My friend and farm mentor Emory is an 80+ year old retired farmer who lives up the road from me. He has been telling me for years to buy an old potato plow and use it. Well, I happened to be at an auction with him this fall and there was one for sale. Just to get him to quit telling me about it I bought it for $20. Took it home and hitched it up to the back of my little tractor (wife drove) for a test. Well, we harvested 300' in about 5 minutes (usually several hours for us to do by hand). The plow just slides under the spuds and lifts them out, leaves them on either side of the furrow. Absolutely great. Now Emory tells me that it is great for planting, too--says it makes a nice wide furrow so you can plant them easy and just rake the soil back over. I'm done doubting him, and planning to use it for planting this spring. Even if he's wrong on the planting, I will never dig another spud by hand! good luck,
Tom
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