If you’ve been to the grocery store lately, you’ve probably noticed the organic produce section has steadily been increasing its territory. Consumers are becoming more concerned about what they eat, and more and more they’re dropping organic items in their grocery carts. As farmers, we’ve noticed this trend for years, hence adding organic hay and grain fields to our crop portfolios. However, we’ve never tried our hand at organic potatoes.
Until now.
This year we planted our first organic potato fields. If you’ve checked out our site or read our blog, you know that we’ve been growing organic grain and alfalfa for some time now. It takes years of planning to get fields ready for organic crops, making it an investment in time as much as it is money. While we’ve had success with our organic crops, we’ve never tried our hand at organic potatoes. But this year, down on the Running Y, we’ve planted two different organic potato crops – one red (Modoc) and one yellow (Yukon Gold). You may have noticed something; neither of those varieties are chipping potatoes.
Why not organic chipping potatoes? One reason is the current marketplace isn’t asking for them. Most organic potato chips use non-chipping varieties, such as Russets. With little want for organic chipping potatoes, and chipping potatoes being rather delicate, at this time we’re not growing any. But you can bet if we have successful organic potato crops this year, you may find more of our potatoes in the organic section of grocery stores and in your favorite restaurants in coming years!
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