Over 60 volunteers have turned up at a farm family business in Co. Cork to help harvest its beetroot crop after an appeal for help on social media.
People from all over Cork, the Limerick border, Tipperary, Waterford and Kilkenny travelled to Joe’s Farm Crisps to help handpick 1ac of beetroot on Saturday (November 11).
The crisp business in Killeagh appealed for help on social media on Friday (November 10), after several efforts to harvest the crop failed due to wet and soft ground conditions.
The entire beetroot crop was harvested within four hours, thanks to the help of over 60 volunteers, many of which were strangers to the Burns’ family, Sandra Burns told Agriland.
Beetroot harvest
For some of the volunteers it was their first time on a farm, while others recalled childhood memories of saving hay or gathering the turf from the bog, she said.
“We were just completely blown away by the response,” Burns said adding that they still received calls from people offering their help up to 7:30a.m yesterday (November 13).
“We’re just absolutely delighted that we got [the crop] saved because we know locally that there are a lot of crops of potatoes and everything still in the ground.
“That’s quite worrying because we know what it’s like when you have a crop in the ground and you can’t get it out,” Burns said adding that one night’s frost would have destroyed their crop.
“We probably turned away 40 people or more. We were keeping a list because obviously we didn’t want people turning up or arriving and then [the harvest] is over. The response was amazing,” she said.
Describing the “sense of relief”, Burns said: “The feeling from Friday to Saturday was just the complete opposite. It was total relief that we got [the crop] out, because one night’s frost would have taken it.”