Potato Days

Potato Days

October

In Norway during the fall potato harvest, it was customary to give children a week off school to help in the fields. Norwegian farmers would put in a request for a certain number of children and feed them during their week of employment. Although this arrangement is no longer as common as it was up until the 1950s, children still help harvest the potatoes on their families' farms, and the traditional fall vacation is still known as the potato vacation, or potetserie .
A similar arrangement can be found in the United States, especially in states where there are many small farms producing a single crop. In northern Maine, children also harvest potatoes, and in Vermont some schools give their students time off to help pick apples.

SOURCES:
BkHolWrld-1986, Oct 28
FolkWrldHol-1999, p. 542