Reaping in abundance
Martienz Kriel, an 82-year-old Selcourt Resident, was in awe after he decided to uproot his October-sown harvest of sweet potatoes on Monday.
“I have never seen anything like it in my life,” he exclaimed, when he showed off his 2.6kg sweet potato.
Kriel, who had planted a sweet potato given to him by his daughter, was surprised when he discovered that 11 of his crop weighed nothing less than 2kg individually, which is substantially larger than the average sweet potato.
He explained that most of his crop was bigger in size than the average.
“I planted the sweet potato last October in a 3sqm bed outside,” he explained, “so yesterday when I asked the gardener to help me pull out the crop, this was what we discovered.”
He expressed great excitement and surprise at his discovery, considering his background in farming.
“I grew up on a farm and understand how farming works, but I have never seen anything like this before,” he said. “I even called my brothers and sent them some pictures – they were just as surprised.”
Martienz says he has given some of the potatoes away to his friends and family and will also share a few with his grandchildren.
Kriel says that the potato he received turned out to be luckier than he anticipated and certainly not what he expected.
“This is indeed a lucky potato,” he said, smiling.
