OFFICIALS & RESCUERS IN BELFAST SUCCESSFULLY AVERT DISASTER IN McCRUM-PENOBSCOT POTATO PROCESSING PLANT FIRE. Quick decisions and preventative disaster-training allowed residents and firefighters to escape potential calamity from at-risk Ammonia tanks, Propane tanks and containers of Sulphuric acid in today’s colossal-potato-processing-plant fire.
The proximity of the heavily-traveled US Route 1 Belfast bridge (with green girders) is clearly visible in the Bangor Daily News photo below. Caleb, Megan & Jim
https://bangordailynews.com/2022/03/24/news/midcoast/how-officials-kept-belfast-safe-when-the-potato-plant-burned-n6hjn1me0n/?mc_cid=9d1a1140e5&mc_eid=3ffbc641ad

How officials kept Belfast safe when the potato plant burned

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BREAKING NEWS! PENOBSCOT-McCRUM POTATO PROCESSING PLANT ON FIRE IN BELFAST. Sounds like a total loss. Firemen are trying to prevent the Ammonia tanks from exploding and causing major area destruction. The plant is on the waterfront and very close to the US Route 1 bridge in coastal Belfast, Maine.
The McCrum family has one of the larger potato operations in Aroostook County.
Caleb, Megan & Jim
https://bangordailynews.com/2022/03/24/news/midcoast/firefighters-battle-blaze-at-belfast-potato-processor/

Firefighters battle blaze at Belfast potato processor

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SCIENTISTS RE-CREATE A WOMAN’S FACE FROM A 4000-YEAR-OLD SKULL. A skull was found a century ago in a stone-lined grave northeastern Sweden. It belonged to a woman in her 30s who died some 4000 years ago.
Now using modern techniques archeologist Oscar Nilsson has re-constructed her facial features bringing her ‘alive’ for a second time.
‘National Geographic’ reports. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/this-4000-year-old-skull-just-received-a-new-face Caleb, Megan & Jim

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DEEP WINTER SNOW AT ‘TIP-TOP’ LOGGING CAMPS, NORTH OF KATAHDIN. Eric Hendrickson shared this photo, undated, but likely from the early 1900s. Tip-Top camps were located at a high elevation and facilitated cutting right up to the alpine zone. It’s isolation, extremity and deep snows compounded the difficulty in getting cut logs out.
Eric writes: “Tip-Top camps were located on a small plateau just to the northeast of a small pond high up on the northwest spur of Mount Katahdin. It was reached by a tote road coming up the Middle Branch of the Wassataquoik Stream then crossing over the Mountain Dam and up the ridge to the camp. There was a dry sluice coming down the ridge to the west then the pulp logs were driven down the small brook. The camps were operated by the Edward Draper crew and used New City as a supply depot. Many people have looked for these camps over the years but few have found them.” Caleb, Megan & Jim

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SPRING DAYS COME EARLY TO MAINE. Despite Spring not officially arriving until tomorrow, on Thursday and Friday Aroostook County experienced snow-melting Spring-like sunny days in the high 40s. A new weather system will bring us more snow today, changing over to rain tonight.
In this shot Caleb is loading the second of four pallets of Organic Maine Certified Seed Potatoes onto LTL (“Less than a Truck Load”) common-carrier ‘Ross Express.’ The plowed yard has now lost much of its snow cover and the ground was thawed down a couple of inches making for slurpy sailing.
With supply lines full, we had to wait our turn to get pallet space on Ross. We’ve been relying upon New England-based Ross Express for 15-20 years. Until a couple of years ago they were an independent family-owned company. But then they were bought out by regional carrier ‘Pitt Ohio,’ in a transaction common in this era of relentless corporate consolidation.
Over the years we have used Cole’s Express, St. Johnsbury, Tracy’s Express and APA. Those companies once made their mark hauling goods for the country but are now long gone. Caleb, Megan & Jim

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SEED POTATO PLANTING IN FULL SWING IN EASTERN SOUTH KOREA. And another example of ‘Intensive’ planting which is common the world over in countries as diverse as those in Europe to Asia. Here in the USA & Canada primary potato production is ‘Extensive’ and sprawling. Organic farmers are mostly family farmers and their potato production trends towards the Intensive end of the spectrum.
In this photo – taken yesterday – from the ‘Yonhap News Agency,’ “Farmers plant seed potatoes in a field in the city of Gangneung, Gangwon Province, eastern South Korea…”
The weather is still chilly-jacket-weather. Two rows of deeply-planted seed potatoes are planted per bed. Beds are covered with clear plastic, creating miniature greenhouse conditions which effectively warm the soil and protect newly-emerged plants should freezing nighttime-low-temperatures strike.
An ingenious stoop-labor-saving umbrella-like hand planter is universally-deployed by each team-of-two: one umbrella-planter and one seed-piece-feeder holding a colorful plastic tub full of seed tubers.
As an illustration of how significant this kind of intensive production can be, thirty years ago, during the waning days of the Soviet Union, HALF of all Russian potato production occurred in small private potato plots.
Russians had learned that the family who tends to their potato patch need never go hungry. Caleb, Megan & Jim

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A COMMON WINTER’S DAY IN AROOSTOOK COUNTY, MAINE. This shot, taken and shared by talented local photographer Lovena West, is of the Railroad trestle just south of Presque Isle.
The pickup truck is headed north on US Route 1. To the left (west) just past the trestle is Aroostook Farm, Maine’s well-established Potato Experiment Farm.
Many years ago, longtime Aroostook Farm Superintendent Joe Lloyd told us the story about when they had experimented with the potato seed tuber pre-conditioning procedure known as “Greensprouting,” also known as “Chitting” in Europe. It seems one year, Aroostook Farm had hired a young fellow from England. His unbridled enthusiasm for Chitting was infectious and won the day. He convinced Joe to give Greensprouting a try.
So, following an English design, they built 100 floor-slotted, light-allowing 18″ x 30″ wooden, stackable Greensprouting trays. They used the labor-intensive trays just one year and then quickly put them away to gather dust in a storage shed after determining the procedure impractical for extensive-based Aroostook County potato culture.
On the other hand, we farmed on a different scale. We had developed serious interest in Chitting after reading about how the system worked in Holland. We were looking for an entry point. Joe proved to be it. In short order he agreed to sell the us the trays he was happy to be rid of for just $1 a piece.
After a positive experience greensprouting that first Spring, we moved forward to expand. By the next Spring we had built a manufacturing jig and sawed out enough materials to allow us make an additional 700 wooden trays. So, from that year on, we would greensprout all of our seed potatoes, every year about 25,000 pounds. Yes, it’s labor intensive but as the Dutch have learned, it’s been worth the effort. Caleb, Megan & Jim

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https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10227487161313513&set=gm.1507143576347293

You all know it!!!😂😂😂❤️ You all have a great day!!!🥰

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SHIPWRECKED ‘ENDURANCE’ SHIP FOUND-THIS-WEEK AT THE BOTTOM OF 10,000-FEET OF ICE-COLD ANTARCTIC WATERS. Crew photographer Frank Hurley took this shot in 1915 of the ice-locked ‘Endurance,’ the ship employed by explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his iconic adventure, the arduous ‘Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.’
It wasn’t long before the immense ice pack surged and finally crushed the ship which by design had been heavily reinforced against ice.
The ‘Endurance’ was then delivered to its final, deep graveyard. Remarkably, all 27 crewmen survived. However, one cat and 5 sled dogs did not.
This week, a submersible drone found the ship in deep in Waddell Sea waters where the temperatures are so low that destructive organisms are held at bay. As was expected, the wrecked ship is in pristine condition 107 years later.
The ‘NY Times’ has good coverage of the rediscovery and EXCELLENT photos (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/climate/endurance-wreck-found-shackleton.html).
Wikipedia offers depthful background on the expedition itself (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_(1912_ship). Caleb, Megan & Jim

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