Fall is the time for chilly mornings, hopefully warmer days, leaves changing colors and falling from trees, and the time to enjoy the dividends of a new season and another growing season. For area farmers and residents there’s always been the yearly challenge of harvesting the crops from fields, gardens and orchards.

Through the earlier years the harvesting of the wheat, oats and corn involved the use of steam engines and real horsepower. And, in time, the horsepower used for harvesting made a gradual change from real teams of horses to tractors and other equipment.

This conversion to gas and diesel-powered equipment was also apparent in the crops being harvested. Wheat and oats were gradually replaced with corn and later soybeans. Also, in the Hollandale, Maple Island and Petran portions of Freeborn County, there was a strong emphasis on the harvesting, processing and marketing of potatoes, onions, carrots, celery and sweet corn.

For some county residents with nostalgic memories of the past, the photographic scenes of harvesting crops years ago can serve as reminders of another era.

For those county residents of later generations, those earlier scenes of harvesting crops will serve as reminders of a phase of fall life back in the olden days.