Gold Dust Potatoes & Walker Bros. Farm Blog

Gold Dust Has A New Sign!

September 24, 2009 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

If you’ve been in our neck of the Basin lately, and happened to drive by our potato sheds in the last week, you might have noticed something new. That’s right. Our new sign is up!

The new sign proudly displays Gold Dust Potato Processors along with J&W Walker Farms and our street address. If you’re leaving the shed, before you get to Micka Road you’ll see “Potatoes, Goodness Unearthed”, the logo of the US Potato Board’s Healthy Potato Web site, on the backside of the sign.

We think the new sign looks great, and, hopefully, it will make it easier for truck drivers and other folks to find our sheds. We would like to thank Lexi for putting in the time and effort to come up with a great design and for getting it installed. We would also like to thank Pelican Electric Signs for making the sign itself and to Dan Collins of Collins Concrete for installing it.

Potato Harvest Begins!

September 13, 2009 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

Chipping potatoes with bulker in the background

From our offices in Malin you can see the cloud of dirt rising from the leases located outside of Tulelake. It’s one of our potato bulkers, scraping the old lake bed and sorting the light-colored chipping potatoes from the rich dark soil. Potato harvest has started.

Between the nature of chipping potatoes and the early September weather, the conditions are just right for starting harvest. Chipping potatoes are usually harvested early than baking potato varieties that are sold to fresh market. This year is no different. Down on the leases, aside from the birds, most of the action is from our potato harvesters and spud trucks taking the potatoes from the earth and to our cellars. With the number of acres we have planted in chippers, our harvest season usually lasts until right around the time of the Klamath Basin Potato Festival, in mid-October.

Though we’re less than a week into chipping potato harvest, so far things are going well. The potatoes look great, the yields are good and there haven’t been any equipment problems (saying those things will probably jinx everything!). Hopefully the weather will hold up and harvest will continue to go as smoothly as it has so far!

Want to see more pictures of our potato bulkers and spud trucks in action on the leases?

Digging chipping potatoes in the shadow of Mt. Shasta

Potato truck full of chipper and headed in — Potato truck full of chippers and headed in

Potato truck getting loaded with chipping potatoes

Rows ready to be dug as a potato truck passes by

Two bulkers work the same field to load trucks

Yes, Gold Dust Uses the Odenberg Titan Sorter

September 2, 2009 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

While it might not be obvious in the background of the photos from last week’s shed tour, one of the innovations that has made Gold Dust Potato Processors more efficient is the Odenberg Titan sorter. Essentially, it’s a collection of components that washes and sorts the chippers when they come into our packing shed that rids the load of most of the culls, dirt clods and potatoes that are the wrong size for what the customer ordered.

I could go into a lot of detail about the system, but instead I’ll direct your attention to our freshly created page about the Odenberg Titan potato sorter. Not only will you find the details about what the Odenberg does to make our shed more efficient, there’s a video shot and produced by Caegan Meagher that shows the Titan sorter at work as well as the process our chipping potatoes go through from being unloaded all the way to being shipped. It’s an impressive system and a good investment. Plus, it gives you an idea of how our potatoes are cleaned, sorted, tested and shipped.

Open House Field Day 2009

August 27, 2009 By Gold Dust Farms 1 Comment

It’s the time of year when grain harvest is almost finished and potato harvest hasn’t began when Gold Dust Potato Processors roll out the proverbial red carpet for our annual Open House Field Day!

Our visitors inspect our chipping potato samples during the packing shed tour

Once a year Gold Dust takes a day to open our doors and show off our fields for our Field Days Open House. On Tuesday, August 25th, guests from Frito Lay, PD Sproule, our banks and other companies that help us provide high quality chipping potatoes were invited to a day of tours and golf.

The day started at Pappy Ganders in Merrill where our guests enjoyed a wonderful breakfast before heading out to the fields to see our potato crops. After visiting several of our fields, the group stopped by our packing shed to check out the facilities as well as to see samples of this year’s potato crop.

Adrian, head of QC, and a samples of our chipping potatoes — Adrian Mateos, head of QC, and a sample of our chipping potatoes

After seeing the chippers and the facilities, our staff and guests were treated to a round of golf at the Running Y Golf Course. By 1:30 pm, our crew loaded into golf carts stocked with Gold Dust golf towels and golf balls. At 1:57, we raced to our designated holes for a shotgun start to the 18-hole scramble.

Gold Dust staff and guests load into the carts and get ready to scramble

Once the last team was off the course, drinks were poured and a buffet of hazelnut chicken, tri-tip, twice baked potatoes, salad and tomatoes from Blue Sky Hydroponics and rolls was served at the lodge. While the awards for the golf tournament were handed out, everybody enjoyed lemon bars and brownies for dessert.

After a hard day of golf, everybody enjoyed drinks, dinner and good conversation at the Running Y Lodge

The winning team for the 18-hole scramble was John Walker, Jared Marshall (Marshall Insurance), Jason Black (Frito Lay), and Ken Hibbard (Rabobank). There was a tie for second place with scores of 65 between Group 9 and Group 5. Ron Marshall (Marshall Insurance), Howard Klassen (Huffman Brothers), Jason Tryan (Choice Financial) and Ray Roebacker made up Group 9. Group 5 had Paul Sproule (PD Sproule), Dick Halousek and Bart Crawford (Blue Sky Hydroponics), who put up a valiant effort with a smaller team.

Paul Sproule took home the longest drive for the men while our very own Lexi Crawford won it for the women. Closest to the pin was won by Rhoda Cummins and Jason Black. To celebrate Gold Dust’s offices getting networked this summer, the prizes revolved around a technology theme.

Jason Black, Jared Marshall, Ken Hibbard and John Walker: The Winning Team from the Gold Dust golf scramble tournament

Great people and beautiful weather made this year’s Open House Field Day a great success. We’d like to give a big thanks to everybody who turned out this year as well as to Lexi and everyone else who put the event together. We look forward to doing it all again next year!

Gold Dust Potatoes and Walker Bros. Farms Are Hiring!

August 18, 2009 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

With grain harvest under way and potato harvest on the horizon, it’s our busy time of year. Plus, with changes in the shed and with our trucking business, we’re looking for help. If you’re looking for a job with a growing farm business, Gold Dust and Walker Brothers Farms is hiring.

If you go to our Job Opportunities page, you will see all the positions we’re hiring for. While there is one seasonal job, we also have listings for other full-time jobs. What do you get besides the prestige of working for one of the Klamath Basin’s growing agri-businesses? Competitive wages.

Even if you’re out of area, feel free to apply. If you’re unsure exactly where Malin is, our offices are located on Oregon/California border just outside of Klamath Falls. And if you are local, you can find us just outside of Malin on Micka Road.

If you don’t see a job you’re interested in but know somebody that would be perfect for one of these positions, please let them know! Have skills you think would be an asset to our farm or potato processing business? Feel free to send us an email with your resume. And though it goes without saying, if you were wondering, we’re an equal opportunity employer.

Welcome to GoldDustFarms.com 2.0!

April 29, 2009 By Gold Dust Farms 1 Comment

Hello Gold Dust employees and visitors!

If you’ve been visiting the site, you will undoubtedly notice the change from the old version of the site to the updated version. What you are seeing is a “soft” launch; this is how the new site will look, but more changes are on the way. So if you’re a visitor, please be sure to keep checking in. If you’re a Gold Dust employee, please feel free to check things out.

If you’re looking to access your email, you will see a link in the top navigation bar labeled “Login”. Simply click on it and you will be taken to the page on the site that links to the Google Apps login page. Or, if you like, simply click this login link and you’ll be taken to the page immediately.

Updates will be taking place in the upcoming weeks, so do not be alarmed if you come to the home page for GoldDustFarms.com and find this blog replaced with a static homepage.

Thank you to all and have an excellent day.

GoldDustFarms.com – BETA!

September 16, 2008 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

Alright, things are going along swimmingly and as a result, we now have an “under construction” homepage! Woohoo!

So, if there’s a homepage, why does it qualify as “under construction”? If you go to Gold Dust Farms, you will notice a few things that aren’t quite up and running 100%. The top nav bar is fully functional and will take you to our contact page, potato sales page and another page about Gold Dust and J&W Walker Farms. However, the side nav is another story. Currently, the only functional link is the one to the farm blog. All other links are pages in progress. Therefore, for the time being, we shall call the site “under construction”.

But enough about the site, how about a harvest update? John and his crews are out in the fields digging this year’s crop. Word is that the potatoes look excellent and the yields are good. I would love to go on and on about how well potato harvest is going and how great the spuds look, but honestly, I’m a touch superstitious and am afraid any more word would surely jinx everything. We’ll keep you updated as harvest moves along.

That’s all for now.

GoldDustFarms.com – Coming Soon!

September 12, 2008 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

So, the guy who’s putting together GoldDustFarms.com (read: me) is almost ready to announce the grand opening. In the meantime, here’s what’s been going on with J&W Walker Farms and Gold Dust Inc.:

It’s haying season! Our haying crews have been working all summer to grow and cut our acres that are in alfalfa. The hay market remains hot, with Klamath Basin alfalfa (as well as grassy alfalfa and grass hays) going for around and over $200 a ton.
Wheat harvest! That’s right, our wheat has finally ripened and has been cut. Though a storm earlier in the season did some damage to our grain fields, our yields were still good.
Our Annual Open House! This is where some of the hard work was met with a little fun. We invited folks who work with us to see our facilities (which are being added on to as we speak) as well as our fields. Then, after lunch, everyone headed to the Running Y Ranch for a 18 holes of gold and a BBQ-style dinner with cocktails and rewards. This is a lot of fun and our way of saying thank you to our associates who work with us year in and year out.

Potato harvest is starting to get underway as we speak and from what John says, the spuds are looking good. Let’s hope for favorable weather, no break-downs and no injuries this potato harvest season.

That’s all for now!

Welcome to the Gold Dust Farms Blog! And Web Site!

May 7, 2008 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

If you’ve found this blog, it’s a miracle.

Currently, we are in the process of putting together an online presence for Gold Dust, Inc., a family ran and owned farm located in the Klamath Basin. Right now, we’re hoping the site will be up and running and the blog regularly updated by October.

At least, that’s the goal.

The purpose of the site will to be to inform our customers, prospects and anyone else curious about Gold Dust Inc. about the crops we produce and can procure for you business.

The purpose of the farming blog will be to share the ups and downs of life in the sheds, out in the fields and in the Klamath Basin in general. Heck, we’ll probably even post when we’re quoted in the media as well as links to articles concerning issues related to farming and Gold Dust!

Be sure to tune in to monitor our process. And if you tune in at this time next week and still see a picture of seagulls – be sure to give the admin hell!

Thanks for stopping by!