The Rural Voice, 2001-09, Page 1840 years of rutabagas
The Hubbard family has been growing the
hardy root crop (no they're not turnips)
for four decades
Story and Photos by Keith Roulston
The harvest is on (above left) as a Hubbard -designed harvester scoops the rutabagas out of the ground and puts them
in a truck. In the plant, the cleaned and trimmed vegetables are bagged for shipment (above right). Below, a worker
inspects the rutabagas as they go down the line to be bagged.
For most of us, our acquaintance with the humble
rutabaga is limited to having it cooked and mashed
on the side of the plate for Thanksgiving or
Christmas dinner (though we're likely to mistakenly call it
turnip) but for the Hubbard family, growing, harvesting,
storing and processing the crop is a year-
round business.
The family operation, now called G.L.
Hubbard Limited, has come a long r ,}
since George Hubbard started growing
rutabagas in the Bright area of Oxford
County in 1960. Today up to 13 people
work in the fields or in the ever-expanding
processing plant in Blyth, including family
members, long-time local employees and
off -shore seasonal workers.
It takes a lot of people to handle the
rutabagas produced on the 275 acres the
Hubbards plant in the root crop each year.
That works out to 200,000 bushels of the
bulky vegetable. The season starts as early
as the ground can be worked and with
washing, waxing, bagging and shipping,
extends until the next spring.
Because rutabagas are cold -hardy, they
are the first crop planted, even before the
Hubbards plant their barley. Two weeks
later they'll put in another planting.
14 THE RURAL VOICE
They use a special seeder designed and manufactured in
England for planting small -seed root crops like rutabagas,
radishes and carrots. On a good day it will plant 50 acres.
Of course the next day there could be trouble and you
might plant 10, George says ruefully.
Both the first two plantings will be for
early harvest beginning in July, for shipping
to market fresh. just enough are harvested
each day to fill immediate orders.
In early June planting takes place for the
storage roots, the main crop that will be
held in the massive cold storage rooms at
the plant in town for processing throughout
the winter.
This main crop will be harvested in
October and November, using a massive
harvester that George Hubbard designed
and built himself, and has altered three
times. "I still haven't got it so it will drive
itself," he jokes.
The harvester digs the roots, clips off the
tops and shakes off as much of the dirt as
possible. It deposits the roots into one of
five field trucks, holding from 400 to 800
bushels.
Wet fall conditions can make harvesting
difficult when you've got a truck that
weights 20 tons fully loaded. It means long