# Tattie picking.



## Capt Lightning (Oct 18, 2022)

The schools here are on holiday for two weeks.  Being a very rural area, traditionally children were given a holiday to help farmers lift potatoes.  Of course, this has long gone and harvesting is all mechanised, but the mid-term break is still known as 'tattie picking' holiday.


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## Lawrence (Oct 18, 2022)

I am curious if there are stories about how the potatoes were harvested on the tattie-picking days.


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## charry (Oct 18, 2022)

we had some great times going hop picking with other families and kids


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## debodun (Oct 18, 2022)

They have potatoes in Scotland now?


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## Alligatorob (Oct 18, 2022)

Capt Lightning said:


> children were given a holiday to help farmers lift potatoes


Just north of us in Idaho school kids still get a week off for potato harvest.  Just call it potato break or something.  Even many of the kids who don't live on farms do it, a good way to make some spending money.

Ask Dr. Potato  https://idahopotato.com/dr-potato/what-does-break-for-potatoes-mean-for-some-kids​


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## Capt Lightning (Oct 18, 2022)

charry said:


> we had some great times going hop picking with other families and kids


Was that down in Kent?   Can't beat Kentish cider or wine.


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## Capt Lightning (Oct 18, 2022)

Lawrence said:


> I am curious if there are stories about how the potatoes were harvested on the tattie-picking days.


It was back-breaking work for pickers who took the chance to earn extra income ‘tattie howkin’.



Schools closed during the Second World War to allow schoolchildren to supplement the labour supply to get the vitally important potato crop secured.

From first light children were out in frosty fields but they and their families were happy for the money — and a hard worker could make a decent day’s pay.

Extra income​Cyril, Sandy and Grant Caseby worked for local farmers in Newmills in Fife to provide extra income for the family.







Tattie picking gave Cyril and his family extra income.
Cyril, who is now 90, said: “Our father had been invalided home from Africa and coupled with his war injuries was not in a position to do full-time work for a long time and it was hard for our mother to bring up our large family, especially financially.

“Therefore any extra income during this spell was welcome.

“Farm work and hard work were no stranger to us boys as we had a very large garden to keep.”

Reverend Alexander Caseby was a Scottish missionary serving in Livingstonia, Malawi, from 1922 to 1929.

In 1929 he suffered from malarial fever, which rendered him seriously ill for several years, with recurrent illness throughout the rest of his life.






Brothers Sandy, Cyril and Grant.
Cyril said: “The twins and I were involved in a lot of farm work during the war, not only tattie picking but starting with planting the tatties, then helping with bringing in the hay, then the grain harvest and latterly the threshing at the end of the year.

“The money was always welcome to the family.


“For the first two years of the war healthy schoolchildren were given time off school to help when most able-bodied men were away at war.”

The mums too relished the chance to earn extra cash and often theirs and the kids’ money helped pay for winter clothes.

Mums would take even the youngest of their family into the field with even the smallest bairns wrapped up in blankets and laid down in the drills.

This was before German prisoners of war were allowed to assist in picking potatoes alongside the Women’s Land Army which was resurrected in 1939 and put to farms.


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## hollydolly (Oct 18, 2022)

I did this  when I was 16 in Coupar Angus.. Scotland ... I ran away from home at 16 with nowhere to go, ended up in another city in a Salvation Army Hostel for women.. Needed to earn money but for several reasons I couldn't get a normal paying job so I saw an advert in the paper for  potato pickers.. ( 1971)... never having done it before I didn't realise what back breaking work it was.

A gang of taskmaster came with a van early morning, picking people up in various places in Dundee.. and drove out to the potato fields in Coupar Angus... it was backbreaking work, and woe betide you if you stopped for a rest, they physically beat  us... .. horrible job..


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## RadishRose (Oct 18, 2022)

Tattie picking. 
Wondered what you meant; thought maybe tattoos.  

Then I realized you meant 'taters.


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## hollydolly (Oct 18, 2022)

RadishRose said:


> Tattie picking.
> Wondered what you meant; thought maybe tattoos.
> 
> Then I realized you meant 'taters.


In Scotland and Ireland they're called Tatties... mainly in England they're called spuds.. even tho' everyone knows they're Sunday name is Potatoes.. ..One of the most famous Scottish Meals.. is Haggis Neeps and Tatties  ( neeps are swede or turnips .. or in the US Rutabaga )


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## RadishRose (Oct 18, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> In Scotland and Ireland they're called Tatties... mainly in England they're called spuds.. even tho' everyone knows they're Sunday name is Potatoes.. ..One of the most famous Scottish Meals.. is Haggis Neeps and Tatties  ( neeps are swede or turnips .. or in the US Rutabaga )


Thanks, HD. Some people call them spuds here, too. Whatever they're called, I love them!

I get a kick out of the names Neeps and Swedes.


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## hollydolly (Oct 18, 2022)

RadishRose said:


> Thanks, HD. Some people call them spuds here, too. Whatever they're called, I love them!
> 
> I get a kick out of the names Neeps and Swedes.


lol..I know you do..many folks love to hear the British slang names for things.. so I like to post them for you..


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## charry (Oct 18, 2022)

Capt Lightning said:


> Was that down in Kent?   Can't beat Kentish cider or wine.


Yep capt   But I was very young


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