Potato Roots

Fifteen-year-old Maddie Buzza has an unusual job: for three weeks every fall, she works on a farm picking potatoes. It's a generations-old tradition in Maine’s Aroostook County known as harvest break. But in the potato-centric town of Presque Isle, there's uncertainty about this tradition's future.

Artist Bio

Bailey O’Brien is a Portland-based storyteller from Gorham, Maine. She has been writing stories for as long as she can remember, but it wasn’t until she began writing feature pieces for her hometown newspaper that she fell in love with nonfiction storytelling. She graduated from the University of Maine in 2014 with a B.A. in English and has worked as a freelance writer and has held internships at Portland Magazine and The Telling Room. She is currently a contributing writer for Maine Women Magazine. After her graduation from the Salt Institute, she hopes to continue sharing important stories of Maine through writing and radio.