The Maine Potato Barrel Story
Most of us, when we think of a barrel, think of whiskey barrels or, perhaps, steel drums. Few people realize that there is such a thing as the Maine Potato Barrel.
The potato barrel is native to Aroostook, Maine's largest county; once the nation's largest producer of potatoes. While the other potato producing areas used burlap sacks, Aroostook farmers used the good, tongue and groove cedar barrel. It was used in the field during harvest and in the storage and sold by the barrel; they still are in Aroostook where farmers figure the cost of potatoes by the barrel.
Although automated harvesters have taken over the bulk of the work, there are fields, even today, where barrels can be seen strung out in rows for the pickers to fill. Men, women and children-even grandparents bend to the task. An even today, children are excused from school for several weeks during this most important event. Through the years of hauling, dumping and rolling, the barrels has endured. But, since the introduction of modern methods the cooperage have gradually faded away; 1978 found only three remaining in Aroostook. In July 1978, the Bradbury family of Bridgewater purchased the cooperage that is now the Bradbury Barrel Company. With visions of almost endless uses for a good barrel, the Bradbury's built the cooperage into a plant capable of producing the unique display units that now constitute the company's major business. Printed with permission from Bradbury Barrel Click here to see a slideshow taken at Bradbury's cooperage