EDMONTON - FREE POTATOES september 26.

[mystictiger]

Saturday September 26th, 2009
9:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M

Harvest 50 lbs of FREE POTATOES per person. THERE ARE MORE
THAN 100,000 POUNDS AVAILABLE AT NORBEST FARMS!

more infos here:

http://greateredmontonalliance.com/e107/e107_files/downloads/potato.pdf

[Cospa]

Sweet, thanks. Just a 5 min drive for me!

[BestOffer]

wow, awesome freebie, but who the hack can finish 50lb? they would be starting to grow into a plant before all of them are consumed :lol:

[shani_d_best]

Thats pretty awesome freebie.. thanks OP

[shani_d_best]

wow, awesome freebie, but who the hack can finish 50lb? they would be starting to grow into a plant before all of them are consumed :lol:

keep some for urself and give out extra to others u know.. :)

[AndrewRFD]

Very cool for those of you in and around Edmonton.

Posted to the front page (http://www.redflagdeals.com/deals/main.php/alldeals/comments/the_great_potato_give_away_harvest_50lbs_of_free_p otatoes_on_september_26_e/), thanks for sharing!

[Mei Yee]

Cool - thanks - I hope people remember the food bank or some shelters if they have extra potatoes.....

[shani_d_best]

cool - thanks - i hope people remember the food bank or some shelters if they have extra potatoes.....

+1

[mystictiger]

Thousands dig in for free potatoes

Environmental giveaway brings out crowds hours early, prompts traffic jam in northeast

Edmonton's Great Potato Giveaway, it turned out, was greater than anyone could have imagined.

Thousands of people showed up Saturday to get their share of 45,000 kilograms of free potatoes freshly dug from fields at Gordon Visser's farm in the city's northeast.

The first potato lovers arrived hours before the event started at 9 a. m.

By mid-morning, a huge traffic jam stretched down 195th Avenue and backed up onto Manning Drive.

By 1 p. m.--three hours before the giveaway was slated to end--all the potatoes were gone, stuffed inside bags by men, women and children.

Organizers quickly made available another 4,000 kilograms of spuds that had been in storage.

"I got 4,000 bags printed up for people to carry these potatoes away, and they're all gone," said Bob Jensen, manager of Edmonton Potato Growers Ltd.

"And people brought a lot of their own bags, and filled their bags multiple times, too.

"We just want to thank all the people that came out here."

When Becky McFee, her husband and their children got stuck in the traffic jam around 11 a. m., Becky couldn't sit still. She got out of their vehicle and started running toward the farm. "I ran about three miles to get here, because I heard the potatoes were running out," she said.

She joined a crowd of people picking up potatoes that a mechanical harvester had freed from the soil.

"We dug into the dirt with our hands--it was very soft soil--and picked them up and put them into our bags," Becky said. "The farmer was wonderful, he was so sweet and so generous. I just need to thank him a hundred times over."

The giveaway was organized by the Greater Edmonton Alliance, the Edmonton Potato Growers and Visser's Norbest Farms. The main idea was to remind people about the importance of protecting agricultural land from residential and other development.

Michael Walters of the Greater Edmonton Alliance, an advocacy group that works to protect local farmland, expressed shock that the free spuds had proved so popular.

"We didn't know they would all go," Walters said. "We were scheduled to be here until 4 p. m. We couldn't even have imagined this. Obviously, the demand for this food and this land is spectacular."

The giveaway promised 23 kilograms-- 50 pounds--of free potatoes to anyone who showed up.

Mack Male wanted to get a jump on the potato madness, so he tried to get to the farm for 9 a. m. Instead, he ended up in a line of cars kilometres long, waiting for almost two hours to get onto the farm property.

"We've been here for an hour and a half. We're still two kilometres away," Male said around 10:20 a. m.

"People are just giving up and turning around."

Walters said people were in remarkably good spirits and were motivated not only by free Russets, but by the movement to protect local food and farmers in Edmonton.

"People weren't just interested in the free potatoes," he said. "They are interested in how important this land is."

Jensen said he thought the event helped Edmontonians of all ages appreciate that some of their food is grown close to home.

"A lot of kids, if you ask them now, they think that all their potatoes come from Safeway," he said. "But they come from a farm, and we're fortunate to have some good farmland right here that can produce crops that we'll sell in our local stores."

In June, the Greater Edmonton Alliance proposed amendments to the city's development plan, including a call to consider the impact on local food production on all decisions about converting farmland. Alliance members told councillors the city has collected little information about the value of the remaining agricultural land, its food production value or how it could contribute to the local economy. The group says such information should be crucial in making land-use decisions.

found at: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Thousands+free+potatoes/2039345/story.html

[blink]

Thousands dig in for free potatoes

Environmental giveaway brings out crowds hours early, prompts traffic jam in northeast

Edmonton's Great Potato Giveaway, it turned out, was greater than anyone could have imagined.

Thousands of people showed up Saturday to get their share of 45,000 kilograms of free potatoes freshly dug from fields at Gordon Visser's farm in the city's northeast.

The first potato lovers arrived hours before the event started at 9 a. m.

By mid-morning, a huge traffic jam stretched down 195th Avenue and backed up onto Manning Drive.

By 1 p. m.--three hours before the giveaway was slated to end--all the potatoes were gone, stuffed inside bags by men, women and children.

Organizers quickly made available another 4,000 kilograms of spuds that had been in storage.

"I got 4,000 bags printed up for people to carry these potatoes away, and they're all gone," said Bob Jensen, manager of Edmonton Potato Growers Ltd.

"And people brought a lot of their own bags, and filled their bags multiple times, too.

"We just want to thank all the people that came out here."

When Becky McFee, her husband and their children got stuck in the traffic jam around 11 a. m., Becky couldn't sit still. She got out of their vehicle and started running toward the farm. "I ran about three miles to get here, because I heard the potatoes were running out," she said.

She joined a crowd of people picking up potatoes that a mechanical harvester had freed from the soil.

"We dug into the dirt with our hands--it was very soft soil--and picked them up and put them into our bags," Becky said. "The farmer was wonderful, he was so sweet and so generous. I just need to thank him a hundred times over."

The giveaway was organized by the Greater Edmonton Alliance, the Edmonton Potato Growers and Visser's Norbest Farms. The main idea was to remind people about the importance of protecting agricultural land from residential and other development.

Michael Walters of the Greater Edmonton Alliance, an advocacy group that works to protect local farmland, expressed shock that the free spuds had proved so popular.

"We didn't know they would all go," Walters said. "We were scheduled to be here until 4 p. m. We couldn't even have imagined this. Obviously, the demand for this food and this land is spectacular."

The giveaway promised 23 kilograms-- 50 pounds--of free potatoes to anyone who showed up.

Mack Male wanted to get a jump on the potato madness, so he tried to get to the farm for 9 a. m. Instead, he ended up in a line of cars kilometres long, waiting for almost two hours to get onto the farm property.

"We've been here for an hour and a half. We're still two kilometres away," Male said around 10:20 a. m.

"People are just giving up and turning around."

Walters said people were in remarkably good spirits and were motivated not only by free Russets, but by the movement to protect local food and farmers in Edmonton.

"People weren't just interested in the free potatoes," he said. "They are interested in how important this land is."

Jensen said he thought the event helped Edmontonians of all ages appreciate that some of their food is grown close to home.

"A lot of kids, if you ask them now, they think that all their potatoes come from Safeway," he said. "But they come from a farm, and we're fortunate to have some good farmland right here that can produce crops that we'll sell in our local stores."

In June, the Greater Edmonton Alliance proposed amendments to the city's development plan, including a call to consider the impact on local food production on all decisions about converting farmland. Alliance members told councillors the city has collected little information about the value of the remaining agricultural land, its food production value or how it could contribute to the local economy. The group says such information should be crucial in making land-use decisions.

found at: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Thousands+free+potatoes/2039345/story.html

Awesome post!! :D

[iamnotamerican.com]

Awesome post!! :D
It must have been, because you felt the need to quote the entire thing, just to add two words to it. :-)

[BestOffer]

the best deal i got for potatoes is $1.75 for 10 lb :o

[Hellfire]

This just shows how bad the recession is, its like a massive soup kitchen line.

[iamnotamerican.com]

This just shows how bad the recession is, its like a massive soup kitchen line.

I think it's more along the line of people wanting something free. You can bet that a lot of those potatoes will be thrown out as they start rotting in kitchen cupboards all around Edmonton...