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An hour-long documentary on a rapidly vanishing way of life – handpicking potatoes - is now for sale in western Maine.

BrendaJepsonmadeadocumentary about hand-picking potatoes, a way of harvesting spuds that, for the most part, has vanished. The result is an hour-long documentary, Tater Raisin’ Folk, which is for sale in Aroostook County.

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, there were thousands of farms in both Maine and new Brunwick where hand-picking of potatoes was practiced.

She estimates Aroostook County now only has 10, about one to two percent of the county's farms use hand-picking.

"Once I heard that, I knew I had to make this film," Jepson told the Bangor Daily News.

Jepson, a 1974 University of Maine graduate, owns Crown of Maine Productions and teaches television part-time at the Caribou Technology Centre.

Jepson filmed throughout the harvest in Bridgewater, Frenchville, Houlton, Presque Isle and Woodland.

Other features of the film include the Fort Fairfield Potato Blossom Festival, which illustrates how farming families celebrate their crops with a parade, mashed potato wrestling and a potato recipe contest.

The film also highlights the "Potato Pickers Special," an early morning television show that takes place during harvest and is now in its 48th year. The show not only helps recruit pickers, it also keeps work crews informed about start times and gives growers industry news.

Jepson said she was "humbled" in making the film.

"These families work so incredibly hard and they give so much of themselves to their communities," she said.

Jepson's films also include The Story of the Acadians; Swedish Folk Dancers; and Homecoming, about an American grandfather and grandson who visit Sweden to visit relatives they had never met.

Tater Raisin' Folk is available as a DVD combined with an Aroostook County 2009 calendar, or as a single DVD at stores countywide or on Jepson's Web site at www.crownofmaineproductions.com.