The great potato giveaway

The new year began with a sparkling, cold and sunny day - a perfect time to invite friends and neighbors to the farm for a great potato giveaway. And that is exactly what Sarahlee Lawrence and her husband, Ashanti Samuels, owners of Rainshadow Organics of Terrebonne, decided to do.

The gesture was one of necessity though, and a way to turn the farmers' disappointment over a ruined crop to happiness for members of the community. Earlier in the year Rainshadow Organics had planted and harvested 100 tons of organic potatoes, but days of subzero temperatures in early December froze and destroyed most of the crop.

The farm was left with 18 tons of potatoes; many had suffered freeze damage but 80 percent of the leftovers were good and edible and needed to be sorted, cleaned and properly stored for use - too big a job for a single family, no matter how hard they might work.

The solution, to give away potatoes, was realized on New Year's Day as dozens of families arrived with boxes and bags ready to sort through the remaining tons of potatoes. It was a party atmosphere as moms, dads, kids and grandparents reached with muddied hands again and again, into massive boxes and mounds of potatoes, collecting the good and tossing the ruined ones to be composted and turned back into the ground.