Aside from being a shallow dismissal this comment demonstrates an unmistakable unfamiliarity with the subject. How one can have such a strong opinion on something they know so little about is beyond me. Frozen dirt is brittle and easy to dislodge, it is only difficult if you need to dig a post hole or something of limited width.

You clearly have not experienced an actual winter, just some weak-sauce facsimile, the sort you might get in northern Virginia.

If I wanted to get potatoes right now from the back yard dirt I'd have to remove about two feet of hard-packed ice and snow, then chisel into dirt that may as well be concrete. At least solid ice and concrete respect a pick. Wet, frozen dirt just shrugs it off.

Let me remind you that this year in places like Minnesota it was -60°F outside. Good luck getting anything out of the ground in those conditions. Even a backhoe is going to have trouble. I'd suggest using dynamite, but at those temperatures even dynamite won't work without being heated up first.

Please don't cross into snark or personal swipes. Your comment would be just fine without the bits at the beginning and end.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Fair enough. I'd edit it if I could.

I've opened it for editing so you can change it now.

You got it.