The 2018 Potato Harvest Is In The Books

Save for fall farming, the fields are mostly quiet again. The hay has been stacked in the barns, waiting to be sold and shipped and the granaries are full of wheat and barley. Chipping potatoes have been piled in our cellars while spud trucks run from the storages to the packing shed instead of from the fields to the storages. Another successful potato harvest is in the books!

This year’s harvest began back in August. Considering we finished up shipping in July, our packing shed didn’t have much time to turn around and get ready for our annual Open House Field Day, let alone for shipping season to start again. But, as we’ve mentioned in the past, we have amazing crews and some of the best employees in the Klamath Basin. Needless to say, they were able to get everything buttoned down and to start shipping!

Gold Dust Potato Processors employee and plant mechanic Felimon Acosta outside the Malin, OR processing plant. — Here’s one of the guys responsible for getting our packing shed ready – Felimon Acosta.

Two employees for Gold Dust Potatoes sort chipping potatoes at the company's Malin, OR campus. — Before they’re washed, chipping potatoes are pre-sorted going into the packing shed.

Employees for Gold Dust Potato Processors sorting washed chipping potatoes at the company's packing shed in Malin, Oregon. — Another round of hand-sorting before our chipping potatoes are shipped!

A crew at Gold Dust Potato Processors sewing sacks of chipping potatoes shut and stacking the sacks on a pallet. — Sew ’em up and ship ’em!

Crews pulling irrigation pipe from a potato field near Malin, OR. — Before this potato field can be dug, the pipe needs to be pulled.

If we were to venture a guess of when our busiest season is, planting and spring farming might get quite a few votes, but it’s probably potato harvest. It takes a lot of work to get the fields ready for digging, let alone the fact we’re cutting grain, still cutting hay, firing up the processing plant and our offices are running at full tilt. Then there’s all the community-related events, like the the Tulelake-Butte Valley Fair at the beginning of September and the Klamath Basin Potato Festival in October. We usually also welcome school tours to check out our shed and learn about agribusiness and how a farm operates. There’s a lot of action during potato harvest, and somehow our crews manage to keep everything rolling along.

Speaking of our crews, we cannot thank them enough for their dedication and the hours they put in to make it another successful potato harvest. From the shed to our offices, from the tractors and trucks to the fields, we manage to get a great group of people together to help us make Gold Dust and Walker Farms a continuing success. It isn’t always easy, but with their help and dedication we make it through. Thank you to everyone who works for us, and for another great harvest!

Gold Dust and Walker Farms grower Kyle Patterson unloading chipping potatoes at Gold Dust Potato Processors' Malin, Oregon campus. — One of our growers, Kyle Patterson, unloading a load of chippers.

A Walker Farms tractor working over a field north of the Gold Dust Potato Processors' Malin, Oregon potato storage facilities. — A little fall farming just north of our cellars.

Though the bulkers have been put to bed, it doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy a few photos of them in action. Below are some photos taken just below the Tule Lake leases in the shadow of Mt. Shasta and from the Caledonia, located just Northwest of Klamath Falls by the Running Y Ranch.