Potato harvest from the family allotment, Tsjerablichy 2017.
First cultivated in the Belarusian lands in the mid-18th century, the potato is now one of the most important elements in the Belarusian diet. Families anxiously await the harvest, the quantity and quality of which to a huge degree will determine both how well a homestead makes it through the winter and prospects for the next year’s crop.
Holding on to the devastating legacy of Soviet forced collectivization, the current political system in Belarus forbids the private ownership of land. Villagers thus must rely on the local collective farm’s arbitrary allotment of plots to grow potatoes and other vegetables. Most of the allocations are on less productive land at some distance from the village.
Here a family works to finish harvesting its plot. Families strive to finish the havest in Polesia before their kids start school on September 1. After photographing for a few minutes I pitched in to help fill a couple of baskets.
Збор бульбы на сотках, Цераблічы 2017.
Bringing the potato harvest home. Although a majority of families in this area of central Polesia still uses horse carts to haul the harvest home, one also sees a step-by-step move to small-scale mechanization.
