Sweet potatoes have likely featured in many dishes prepared for the Thanksgiving Day menu in the western and southern United States. Those who have chosen them to prepare delicacies to bring to the table may not know the history of their cultivation.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himLe sweet potatoes were probably the protagonists of many dishes prepared for the menu of Thanksgiving Day in the western and southern United States. Those who have chosen them to prepare delicacies to bring to the table may not know the history of their cultivation.
From very humble vegetables, part of the poor kitchen, sweet potatoes are becoming fashionable due to their richness in nutrients, particularly vitamin A, and consumer demand for this product is increasing in the United States.
North Carolina is one of the main sweet potato growing areas. This state has always based its economy on agriculture, mainly cultivating peanuts, cotton, maize and tobacco.
Now, to answer the new question, sweet potato crops are increasing in this area. These are very delicate vegetables, whose collection it has to happen completely by hand. In fact, agricultural machinery would ruin their skin.
Collect the sweet potatoes it's a grueling job, that is entrusted ai migrant farmers. These are groups of people who move from one part of the United States to another to find work during the different crop harvest periods.
At first, picking sweet potatoes seems impossible, due to pains in the feet, hands and back. You have to fill buckets that become very heavy and at first you don't know how to lift them and carry them on your shoulders.
I laborers fill and they carry the buckets of sweet potatoes up to 400 or 500 times a day. A definitely exhausting job that puts a strain on their physique. Without taking into account their living conditions. They are migrants, always ready to move from one season to another in different places. They live in caravans on the edge of agricultural areas and their crops are their only source of income.
The sweet potato pickers come paid only 50 cents for each 30-pound bucket (approximately 13,6 kilograms) filled and transported. Whoever brings sweet potatoes to the table - but also any other vegetable that is grown and harvested by hand - should remember the labor of the laborers and their great commitment to the harvest.
Marta Albè
photo source: npr
