Grenade Found in Shipment of Potatoes

Here in the great potato-growing north, we’re used to separating the rocks from the potatoes at harvest time.  But one processing plant in the Netherlands this week saw a little more excitement than that.  Workers at a plant in Dronten found a World War II era hand grenade—its pin still intact—in a load of potatoes.

According to the Netherlands Broadcasting Foundation (NOS), the device was  a standard fragmentation grenade, known as a “pineapple,” used by Americans during the Second World War.

The grenade was turned over to bomb disposal experts.

The potato processing plant is located on the Flevopolder - a large area of reclaimed land outside Amsterdam - where dozens of bombs, bullets and grenades are uncovered  each year.  Watch this clip for several examples:

In December 2009, at the Farm Frites factory in Oudenhoorn, three grenades turned up in the course of the potato harvest.

Have you ever dug up something strange in your own harvesting days?