Potato farmers in Þykkvabær on Iceland’s south coast are thankful that the last days of summer were wet and warm. That will make for an acceptable potato harvest despite a cold start to the summer, farmer Sigurbjartur Pálsson in Rangárvallasýsla county told stöð 2 during an interview at the height of harvest season.
The potatoes in Þykkvabær weren’t prospering for the majority of the summer. This could have presented issues as an estimated 70 % of the country’s potatoes are grown in the area. “The spring was cold and it seemed like it wasn’t getting any warmer,” Sigurbjartur told the reporter. “It feels like it’s been a good summer but it was always cold. Early August was colder than it has been in living memory.” Sigurbjartur is harvesting his potatoes along with his wife, Jóhanna Lilja Þrúðmarsdóttir and their son. “If you’d asked me in the middle of August, I would have been very pessimistic indeed. But today we’re getting a lovely harvest.” Sigurbjartur won’t go so far as to say this is a great year for potatoes, stating “I wouldn’t call it that. But it’s a completely tolerable harvest and we can’t complain.”
