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What’s This About Rose Fingerling Potato Chips?

February 22, 2020 By Gold Dust Farms 6 Comments

There were a few exciting projects last year, but this one is something a bit different for us.

Farm Hand Rose Fingerling Potato Chips
Yep – We’re the Gold Dust & Walker Farms that’s on that bag!

As a Klamath Basin chipping potato farm, we’re used to sending our spuds to plants all over the West Coast to get turned into potato chips and french fries. There’s been a few campaigns where our farm has been featured, including Kettle Brand’s Tater Tracker. However, this time you don’t have to go to a computer – you can find us in stores!

In a joint project with Staunton Farms, we have been sending rose fingerling potatoes to Madera, California to become the prettiest potato chips you’ll ever see in a store. The brainchild of Jaap Langenberg, Warnock Foods has been producing rose fingerling potato chips under the Farm Hand Project name, and on the bags you’ll see “Gold Dust & Walker Farms”!

Wondering how rose fingerling potato chips are different from a regular potato chip? The obvious differences are the color and shape. Since these are made from a potato that has streaks of pink in its flesh, these fry up a yellow to light brown with that same rosy color striping through the chip. Chipping potatoes have been bred to fry up light yellow to white in color, so the sugars present in the rose fingerlings create the darker color of the Farm Hand potato chips. If you’ve seen a fingerling potato, like their name, they’re longer and oblong compared to the spherical shape of a chipper.

Back label of Farm Hand Project Rose Fingerling Potato Chips
Simple ingredients, delicious potato chips

Ready to try some? There’s a catch. Farm Hand Project are regionally produced potato chips, which means they’re hard to find. Regardless of their availability in your local grocery store, you still want to know how they taste.

Farm Hand’s potato chips are thicker cut, giving them the same satisfying crunch you get from kettle-style chips. They are nicely salted, and the flavor of the chips itself is very slightly sweeter than a normal kettle chip, but delicious. All in all, these are an excellent addition to any grocers shelves! However, we’re a little biased since we love all things potato and potato chips.

But if you would like to try a rose fingerling chip in general, Trader Joe’s has a very similar product. Since we weren’t able to find any opinions of the Farm Hand Project Rose Fingerling Potato Chips, we relied on some unbiased reviews of the Trader Joe’s brand. And from what we saw of the few reviews were able to find, people like them!

In a thread on Hipinion.com, a user asked if they were any good and was told the chips are “really, really good”. Food blogger Kirbie posted on KirbieCravings.com some of her finds at a local Trader Joe’s, including the Rose Fingerling Potato Chips, and wrote, ” I really like these new chips from Trader Joe’s. The rose fingerling potatoes have hints of pale pink color in each potato chip. The chips are very crunchy and lightly salted. They taste like classic homemade potato chips. ” But the award for most enthusiastic review goes to Barry (Barry, Barry, Barry.) from the In The Chips YouTube channel:

If you get a chance to try Farm Hand Rose Fingerling Potato Chips, we’d love to hear what you have to say and even see a photo of them on a store shelf. It’s always exciting to get into a new market, and to have our farm’s name included makes it even more so!

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, Gold Dust Potato Processors, potato chips, Walker Farms

Harvest 2019 Is In The Books!

December 4, 2019 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

Wheat getting harvested at Gold Dust & Walker Farms' Malin, Oregon headquarters.
Cutting grain at our Malin Campus

If you’ve read our posts over the years, when it comes to harvest there’s a very common theme – every harvest has its unique challenges. This year’s harvest was no different.

With grain and potato harvest taking place at the same, along with getting our third and fourth cuttings of dairy-quality alfalfa out of the fields, our farm crews are spread all over the Klamath Basin bringing home the crops. This year, we decided to give ourselves another challenge – our first industrial hemp harvest!

We began cutting grain in at the beginning of August and kept our combines cutting wheat, malting barley and oats clear into mid-November. Though we weren’t able to harvest all of our fields due to the effect of the weather on the crops, we still managed to cut an incredible 7,208 acres. Considering we had fields in the Tulelake area, Malin, the Straits and clear up into the Running Y and Caledonia, our grain harvest crew put in a lot of hours moving equipment, let alone cutting the crop.

A Walker Farms potato bulker harvesting chipping potatoes and loading them into a spud truck.
Digging potatoes down on the Tule Lake lease lands

Speaking of the weather, it definitely posed a challenge to potato harvest. The beautiful, temperate summer gave way to some frigid fall days that kept our potato harvest crews and spud truck drivers out of the fields. Despite that challenge, this was one of our quickest potato harvests to date – we started digging chipping potatoes September 3rd and finished on the 25th of October.  And to give you an idea of how good our potato harvest crew is, we had four 100% bruise free days, and one day we loaded 134 trucks with chipping potatoes. Well done!

At the end of the season, despite the challenges, harvest was successful. Our farm learned some new things, and just as we expected, out farm crews stepped up and showed the dedication necessary to make it successful. Our farm managers and field crews are what help set Walker Farms apart from other growers in the area, and we cannot thank them enough for the hours and commitment they put in every year. Thank you to all – from the offices to the fields – to everyone at Gold Dust & Walker Farms who made this year’s harvest another success.

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, farm, Gold Dust Potato Processors, potato harvest, Walker Farms, wheat

Open House Field Day, 2019

October 10, 2019 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

When August rolls around, at Gold Dust & Walker Farms we always count on a few things happening. Grain harvest starts, swathers continue to  knock down alfalfa out in the fields, we start getting ready for potato harvest, and we open our doors and our fields for our annual Open House Field Day.

Eleanor and Michelle Pine telling Gold Dust & Walker Farms' guests about Make-A-Wish
Eleanor is being pretty brave to speak to all of us about Make-A-Wish

The Monday night kick-off dinner at Bill and Jan’s house has become a great way for us to welcome guests from afar, say hello to old friends and get introduced to new faces. It’s been a beautiful summer, and the warm, smoke-free evening was perfect for taking in a sunset over the Klamath Basin. As the sun went down, our guests enjoyed beer from Skyline Brewing, fresh seafood from Casey Lammers and Ken Hibbard, a feast put together by Jan and, of course, great conversation. This year we had a guest speaker, a local Make-A-Wish wisher, Eleanor Pine and her mom, Michelle. Michelle talked about how much Make-A-Wish meant to them during Eleanor’s treatment for cancer.

Guests for Gold Dust & Walker Farms' 2019 Open House Field Day visiting on the patio of Bill and Jan Walker's home.
Lexi Crawford and Tricia Hill carving a roast for the Monday night Welcome Dinner before the 2019 Open House Field Day.
Guests of Gold Dust & Walker Farms visiting at Bill and Jan Walker's house.
Old friends and guests visiting on patio at Bill and Jan's house for the dinner before Gold Dust & Walker Farms' 19th annual Open House Field Day.

The next day everyone met in Tulelake at Mike and Wanda’s for breakfast. Traci Reed and some young women from Klamath County 4H joined our group for eggs, bacon, pork chops (yes, pork chops!), and biscuits and gravy, and for our guest speakers. Every year we try to have a theme for our Open House Field Day. Last year we focused on the families of our growers, and in the past we’ve discussed sustainability. This year the theme was Women In Ag. 

Women in agriculture is a subject that’s been getting a lot of attention this year – and not just on our farm. You’ve probably read the local news stories about our CFO Tricia Hill becoming the first woman president of the Klamath Water Users Association and Lexi Crawford becoming the first woman on the Oregon Potato Commission. Nationally, women farmers are becoming more visible with the national  Census of Agriculture representing women better than past surveys. With that in mind, we thought that should be this year’s theme.

Lexi Crawford, Alexis Taylor and Tricia Hill in Gold Dust's packing shed during Gold Dust & Walker Farms' 2019 Open House Field Day
Lexi and Tricia with guest speaker, Alexis Taylor

Our first speaker was Alexis Taylor, Director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture.  Originally from Iowa, Alexis grew up on the family farm that has been around longer than the state of Oregon. Though she knew she didn’t want to farm, she did know she wanted to advocate for ag. After a stint in the National Guard and living in Washington DC, Alexis made her way West where Governor Kate Brown appointed her as Agriculture Director. She discussed some of the programs Oregon has for women farmers and ranchers as well as the issues women in ag have to overcome. 

The part of her talk that resonated with the audience was a story she told about a meeting she was having with several men about women in agriculture. One of the men stated he didn’t see the importance of this meeting because women have always been involved with farming and didn’t know why they needed to focus on it. Being the only woman in the room, Alexis responded that we needed to not just have women working on farms, but to be at the table for these types of meetings as well. 

Jeff Gibson of Rabobank talking about the ag economy at Mike & Wanda's restaurant in Tulelake, California.
You may not of made it through your presentation without a graph, Jeff, but at least it was one helluva’ graph!

Following Alexis was Jeff Gibson with RaboBank. Always informative and very entertaining, Jeff shared a slideshow discussing the current markets, economy and interest rates. His goal was to make it through the whole slideshow without showing a single graph – which he failed at on slide five. The biggest takeaway from Jeff’s talk was despite the impact of the tariff war with China, the possibility of  a recession, the rest of the world is in a much worse situation than the US.

Rob & Cheri Unruh
Looking good, Rob and Cheri!

Once everyone boarded the bus at Gold Dust’s campus, we headed out to see the fields of our growing partners. Keeping with the theme, women involved with those farms talked about their roles in their operation, how they became involved in agriculture and some of the challenges they face. Cheri Unruh was the first to speak on our way out to her and Rob’s field of 2137s. Cheri is a fourth generation farmer (who’s dad is still farming with her and Rob!), but the first woman in her family to actually farm and not be a farm wife. Cheri shared that her mom and grandmother didn’t think she should be on a tractor, however the biggest challenge faced – and she continues to face – is that people have a hard time understanding what she does. Apparently in 2019 some people still have a hard time understanding that women do indeed farm.

Marshall Staunton, Eddie Staunton and Marc Staunton in a potato field near Tulelake, California.
Marc Staunton doing a great job representing Staunton Farms

The next field we visited was Staunton Farms’ organic Lamoka field located just outside of Tulelake. Marc Staunton spoke to our group, sharing that women have always been a part of their farm, including his grandmother, who used to run the books, his mother who’s been minding the office for the last 35 years, to his wife Ami who runs payroll and his cousin who takes care of HR, GAP audits and dealing with FSA. However, the person he was hoping that would join our tour was Suzy Hernandez. Marc joked that he wouldn’t allow her to speak out of fear of someone trying to hire her out from under him, but after sharing how she manages a variety of roles from recruiting labor to working the field crews, maybe his fears weren’t unfounded! Suzy’s father started off with the farm over 35 years ago as a field laborer. Out of all of his kids, Suzy is the one who came back, starting off in the fields. Between her ability to get workers and flexibility to wear the multiple hats of a farm manager, Marc said she’s an important part of their farm.

Angela & Luke Robison in potato field near Tulelake, California.
Not only did Angela talk to us about her role on the farm, she brought treats!

After an extremely short bus trip (literally a quarter of a mile away) we went to Luke Robison’s field of 1867s and met his wife, Angela, there. With rice-crispie treats topped with potato chips in hand, Angela shared what it’s like being married to a farmer. From cleaning up after muddy to boots and making late dinners to raising their son, Winston, and lending an ear to his successes and worries, Luke said he sees Angela as being a vital part of their farm. When she married Luke, he was a ditchrider that she knew had grown potatoes in the past. Once he decided to plant a field of spuds, she was pushed into a lifestyle that would give her a community she loves and turn her into a self-described potato snob.

Tricia Hill, Cheri Unruh and Angela Robison
Three of the most important people on their farms – Tricia, Cheri and Angela
Destiney Huffman talking to group at chipping potato field near Newell, California
Destiney did shared with us how she went from not knowing much about farming to being an important part of Huffman Farms.

Leaving Tulelake, we headed towards Newell to Huffman Farms’ potato field that was fallowed in 2018 due to lack of water. On the way over, Matt talked about his mother, who “wasn’t a farmer, but was thee farm” and then followed with how Drew’s wife, Destiney, helps their farm. Destiney met us at the field, where she shared her story and what she’s learned. Originally from Yuba City, California, she didn’t grow up in ag. After marrying a farm boy, it was hard to leave the farm and for the last eight years they’ve been working with the family. Destiney started out doing QC in the cellars, and when it proved hard to find good office help, she stepped into that role, taking on accounting, HR, safety and even the organic audits. The biggest thing she’s learned? “Agriculture is a lifestyle. You don’t leave it at the door and it comes home with you.”

Rob Unruh showing potatoes from a field near Malin, Oregon, during Gold Dust & Walker Farms' Open House Field Day
Gold Dust & Walker Farms' guests near a potato field outside of Tulelake, California.
Destiney Huffman talking to group at chipping potato field near Newell, California
Angela & Luke Robison in potato field near Tulelake, California.
Members of Klamath County 4H with Gold Dust & Walker Farms' guests during the 2019 Open House Field Day.
Rob & Cheri Unruh
Marshall Staunton, Eddie Staunton and Marc Staunton in a potato field near Tulelake, California.
Bill Walker and John Walker in a Malin potato field.

Back on the bus and headed towards Malin, Tricia and Lexi shared their experiences with being women in agriculture. Tricia never planned on coming back to the farm, and Lexi never dreamed of farming. But a fateful call from Tricia’s brother, Weston, and Lexi’s husband, Bart’s desire to farm brought them to Gold Dust. Though they had a rocky start working together, they both feel the success they’ve had is because they have each other. Both bring a different view to the challenges of running the offices and the shed, and both appreciate what each brings to the table. When asked for any advice for young women looking at career in ag, Tricia recommended they broaden their thoughts about what working in ag is as there are a lot of different roles on the farm. Lexi agreed with Tricia’s sentiments, and added not having an ag background shouldn’t be a deterrent, because Lexi is able to use her business education to help move the farm forward.

Tricia Hill and her grandmother- Betty Halousek, mother - Jan Walker, and her daughters - Mari and Rory.
Tricia with two women in ag that came before her – her grandmother Betty Halousek and mom, Jan Walker, and two future female farmers!

While speaking about the importance of the women in Gold Dust & Walker Farms, Tricia brought up one of the most important people who helped get these businesses to where they are – her mom, Jan. Jan was supposed to be on the tour to share her experiences, but after the Monday night shindig she opted to rest for the golf and dinner later that day. Tricia shared that while everyone called Jan a farm wife, she was a farmer. She drove tractor and helped get the harvest from the fields. Jan also got to deal with the government and its intrusions, as well as take on accounting and office staff as the farm began to grow. Along with Tricia and Weston’s grandfather, Dick Halousek, Jan and he developed a lot of the computer programs and systems that helped the farm manage its inventory.  And Jan’s legacy will continue forward since she’s the one that trained Tricia and Lexi.

Paul Sproule educating Gold Dust & Walker Farms' guests about chipping potato varieties.
Katie Bailey, Traci Reed and Klamath County 4H girls checking out chipping potato samples.
Gold Dust & Walker Farms' guests checking out potatoes at their Malin potato packing plant.

After checking out a chipping potato field grown by Walker Farms with Bill and John, and enjoying lunch at the packing shed, everyone headed out for golf! This year the “Crown Royal Invitational” was held at Harbor Links. We did a few things differently for the golf outing and dinner fundraiser for Make-A-Wish. Instead of having men’s teams and women’s teams, this year the teams were co-ed. We still had the men’s and women’s KP and Long Distance, but this allowed members of Gold Dust & Walker Farms to spend some time with the customers and vendors they talk to on the other end of the phone. 

Gold Dust & Walker Farms' golf guest taking shot of Crown Royal before start of golf tournament.
It’s a tradition – salud!

Following golf, our guests met at the club-house where dinner and drinks were served. If you’ve ever read any of our other Open House Field Day blog posts, you know that we use this dinner as an opportunity to raise money for our local chapter of Make-A-Wish.  But before we get to that, here’s the outcome from our golf tournament!

  • Men's KP winner, Chris Moudry, with Lexi Crawford
    Men’s KP – Chris Moudry
  • Women's KP Winner Destiney Huffman with Lexi Crawford.
    Women’s KP – Destiney Huffman
  • Ken Hibbard, Men's Long Drive Winner, with Lexi Crawford.
    Men’s Long Drive – Ken Hibbard
  • Lexi Crawford presenting Tricia Hill with a prize for Women's Longest Drive.
    Women’s Long Drive Winner, Tricia Hill!
  • Jared Marshall, Paul Sproule, John Walker and Tammie Staunton were our first place team.
    1st Place – Jared Marshall, Paul Sproule, John Walker and Tammie Staunton
  • Drew Huffman, Matt Thompson and Joel Strunk were 2nd Place team
    2nd Place – Drew Huffman, Matt Thompson and Joel Strunk
  • Jeff Gibson, Luke Robison, Tricia Hill & Ken Hibbard showing off Last Place prizes
    Last Place Team – Jeff Gibson, Luke Robison, Tricia Hill and Ken Hibbard.

Last year, between the contributions of our guests and our matching funds, we were able to raise $45,000 from calling out pledges. As mentioned, this year things were a little different.

A blue Subaru wrapped with Make-A-Wish logos.
Yep – it’s the Make-A-Wishmobile!

How different? For starters, instead of a video about a Make-A-Wish wisher, Eleanor and her family joined us for dinner to share how Make-A-Wish helped make a hard time a bit easier. Getting to hear from Eleanor and her father, Evan, about how their trip to Disneyland helped take the stress off of their family and create some positive memories while Eleanor was going through treatment for cancer. That led to not a call for pledges, but instead an auction! Auction items were as varied as a basketball signed by the Portland Trailblazers to a vacation stay in Hawaii to fishing gear. After all the bidding was done, our guests alone helped raise an impressive $38,000 for Make-A-Wish! Also in attendance was Mallory Tyler and Darcie LaMotte, who thanked our guest and and announced Katie was added to their Regional Board of Directors.

Cassie Thompson and Jim Schrack at the Open House Field Day dinner.
Gold Dust & Walker Farms' guests eating dinner near the Harbor Links club house.
Billy Conrad bidding on items at Gold Dust & Walker Farms' Open House Field Day dinner
Evan Pine talking about Make-A-Wish with his daughter, Eleanor.
Darcie LaMotte giving Katie Walker praise for her involvement with Make-A-Wish.
An auctioneer auctioning off a basketball at the Gold Dust & Walker Farms' 2019 Open House Field Day dinner.

We had a fun day, and we hope our guests did to. Before wrapping this up, we’d like to thank everyone who was able to join us for our annual Open House Field Day. Your support helps us grow every year, and your generosity helps local kids, like Eleanor. Thank you very much for your support and generosity!

Gold Dust & Walker Farms' guests on the putting green at Harbor Links.
Here’s a handsome and intelligent group of people. Thank you for joining us for our 19th Annual Open House Field Day!


Filed Under: chipping potatoes, Gold Dust Potato Processors, Make-A-Wish Oregon, open house field day, potato shed, Walker Farms

This Is Why We Take Food Safety Seriously

February 12, 2019 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

In case you missed it, in the beginning of February an odd news story was floating around the internet and getting airtime in broadcast news. A relic of World War I was found in a shipment of potatoes in Hong Kong. What was the relic? A hand grenade.

Hong Kong police photo of WWI hand grenade that was shipped with potatoes to a Calbee snack plant from France.
Believe it or not, this WWI grenade is about the size and shape of chipping potato!

The un-detonated WWI hand grenade was found in a shipment of chipping potatoes that was shipped to snack food producer, Calbee, in Hong Kong. Incredibly, the grenade survived almost a century in a field in France, harvested with the potatoes and shipped to Hong Kong, where it was detonated on the factory grounds.

While incredible, this story highlights the importance of food safety, something we take seriously in our potato packing shed. We strive to ensure our processing plant is not only efficient and we try to eliminate damage to our potatoes, we also try to ensure our customers receive product that is safe for their factory.

Our Fortress Metal Detector installed on the export line

We can confidently say we wouldn’t ship chipping potatoes overseas with hand grenades in them. It’s a pretty safe claim since we’re not near any modern war zones, but also because, as you recall, we have a metal detector on our export line. Initially, the Fortress Metal Detector was installed to ensure wire, nails or any other metal items wouldn’t slip past our optical sorter or hand sorting crews and into customer orders. Now, it appears there’s another good purpose.

We have invested in a lot of systems in place to make sure our customers receive a product that not only meets their high standards of quality, but is also safe. Though this seems like an odd story to make light of, to us it puts a spotlight on why it’s important to invest in the equipment we have in our potato processing plant. Food safety is something we take seriously at Gold Dust & Walker Farms, and we’ve invested in the equipment to reduce the chances of something our customers don’t want making it out of our shed.

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, customers and clients, food safety, Gold Dust Potato Processors, potato news, Walker Farms

2018 Klamath Basin Potato Festival

November 8, 2018 By Gold Dust Farms 1 Comment

Gold Dust Potatoes and Walker Farms' 2013 Klamath Basin Potato Festival float.
Our epic, award-winning Klamath Basin Potato Festival float from 2013!

For us, it’s hard to think about potato harvest without the Klamath Basin Potato Festival being mentioned. In our last post about potato harvest, we mentioned the Potato Festival in a list of other activities going on during harvest. However, if you look through our Farm Blog, you’ll see we’ve been participating in the Spud Festival for years.

Obviously, our history with the Potato Festival goes back before that.

Years and years ago, before we moved into our processing plant in Malin and weren’t farming as many acres, Jan would gather and clean the potatoes entered for the Spud Festival. Parade time would find the Walker family gathered at the home of Glenna Walker, aka Grammie, aka Bill and John’s mom. The kids would gather candy thrown from the floats while Glenna hosted family, friends and neighbors.

Over the years, things changed and new traditions developed. Our companies started getting more involved with the Spud Festival and creating new rituals. For a few years, we put together floats and tossed candy and bags of potato chips to the crowds, hoping to take home the bragging rights for the best float while the chipping potatoes hand selected by our agronomy team earned ribbons in the potato judging. The office staff started a potato lunch potluck where everybody brings something different to top off baked potatoes with.  Between the camaraderie and community involvement, it created an opportunity for fun during a crazy time of year.

Our Klamath Basin Potato Festival float from 2011

Our traditions have changed again, and in a way have come full circle. The huge floats of years past have gone to the wayside for now as the trucks are needed on the road and our staff is busy. The office potato potluck still lives on, and instead of our agronomy team entering the potatoes for judging, our employees’ kids entered them this year. Still wanting to be involved with the parade and the community, last year we started a new tradition that will likely carry forward. From Grammie’s garage, just across the street from the Merrill Civic Center, our office team handed out hot drinks and potato chips to friends, family and anyone else who came to Merrill to watch the parade.

Gold Dust Potato Processors employee Suzanne Wallace fixing a baked potato at the company's potato potluck.
Suzanne getting in on the potato feast goodness!
Gold Dust Potatoes' office staff at the Gold Dust potato potluck.
Our amazing office staff
Tricia (Walker) Hill adding broccoli to a potato at Gold Dust Potato Processors' office potato potluck.
As you can see by Tricia’s spud, with broccoli added potatoes make a healthy, delicious lunch!
The winner of the largest potato entered by Alli Villasenor at the 2018 Klamath Basin Potato Festival.
The biggest spud at the 2018 Potato Festival entered by Alli Villasenor!
Leo Pena's chipping potato took home third place in the Largest Potato contest at the 2018 Klamath Basin Potato Festival.
Here’s Leo Pena’s third place entry for largest potato!
A group of chipping potatoes that won a blue ribbon at the 2018 Klamath Basin Potato Festival.
Here’s a nice collection of blue-ribbon chipping potatoes!
Marie Wallace, Mari Hill and Penny Crawford handing out hot drinks at the 2017 Klamath Basin Potato Festival parade.
2017 was a bit wetter and colder when we handed out hot chocolate, cider and potato chips at the Potato Festival parade.
Nayeli Pena and the Gold Dust Potato Processors staff preparing to hand out drinks and snacks at the 2018 Klamath Basin Potato Festival parade.
Our office crew was ready to hand out drinks and snacks at the parade.
Gold Dust Potato Processors' office staff getting ready to watch the 2018 Klamath Basin Potato Festival parade.
Our office staff getting ready to watch the Spud Festival parade.

We’re proud to be a part of a community that celebrates ag the way the Klamath Basin Potato Festival does. We’re also proud to have a group of dedicated employees who help us carry participate in the community. Thank you to our staff who helped during the Spud Festival, and thank you to everyone who stopped by for a bag of chips and something to sip!

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, community, gold dust office, Gold Dust Potato Processors, Klamath Basin Potato Festival, potato harvest

Chipping Potato Harvest 2018

November 5, 2018 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

Two potato bulkers parked in a chipping potato field near Malin, Oregon.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.

A potato truck sits in a potato field in Modoc County, California.
Waiting in a potato field.
Two potato bulkers at work filling a potato truck and a belt trailer being pulled by a tractor.
Two potato diggers fill a spud truck and a belt trailer.
Two potato trucks follow a spud truck and a belt trailer being filled with organic chipping potatoes.
All aboard the potato harvest train!
A full potato truck driving in a chipping potato field in Modoc County, California.
Heading home
A potato bulker fills a spud truck with organic chipping potatoes in a field south of Tulelake, California.
Mt Shasta makes a dramatic backdrop for this organic potato field.
A potato bulker filling a belt trailer being pulled by a tractor in a potato field near Tulelake, California.
Filling a belt trailer with organic chipping potatoes.
A potato truck headed to a field on the Caledonia Farm near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Heading to the last field on the Caledonia.
A spud truck getting loaded by a potato harvester in a chipping potato seed field near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Loading a spud truck with chipping potato seed.
Two potato bulkers dig potatoes, filling a spud truck and belt trailer while a tractor pulls a roller in a potato field near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
It takes a lot of equipment to dig potatoes!
A potato harvester fills a spud truck with chipping potato seed on the Caledonia Farm near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Filling a spud truck.
A potato harvester filling a belt-trailer pulled by a tractor with chipping potato seed near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
That’s a lot of potato seed!
A semi hooks to a belt trailer filled with chipping potato seed after being dropped off by a tractor.
Now that the belt trailer is full, it’s time to haul it home!

Here’s to another successful harvest. Now bring on shipping season!

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, farm, Gold Dust Potato Processors, Klamath Basin Potato Festival, Organic Potatoes, potato harvest, potato shed, potato shipping, Walker Farms

Small Changes for Big Improvements In Our Packing Shed

April 20, 2018 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

Frontier Metal Detector installed on a production line at Gold Dust Potato Processors' Malin campus.
Frontier Metal Detector installed on our Export Potatoes Line

With chipping potato seed coming in, chipping potatoes being shipped out and the spring farming that happens in the fields near our sheds, our campus in Malin is hopping with activity. With much of the action happening around our sheds and cellars, we thought this might be a good time to share with our readers some of the changes we made to our processing plant that were mentioned in our post about the 2017 Open House Field Day.

During the shed tour, Plant Manager Matt Thompson shared some of the improvements that had been implemented during the summer of 2017. Focused on employee safety, food safety and efficiency, Matt was excited to share these changes. So what exactly was added?

The first thing Matt shared was three in-line scales had

Gold Dust Potato Processors Plant Manager Matt Thompson with digital readout at the Malin, Oregon potato packing shed.
Matt with one of the digital scale read-outs

been added to the production line. Three scales may not seem like a big deal, but these scales allow us to track production flow in live time. Working like a ticker, they weigh the chipping potatoes as they cross each scale. Now our packing shed can track the pounds of potatoes being processed per minute, and we can be more accurate about the weights of potatoes we’re shipping on behalf of each grower and to judge the yields of each field.

Gold Dust Potato Processors Plant Manager Matt Thompson demonstrating the big digital readout at the Malin potato processing plant.
Matt can easily see this readout from across the shed

For safety – and efficiency – Matt pointed out the huge digital readout on the on the scale at the southend of the shed as the second improvement. This scale is easily readable from across the production floor, which not only saves him time from having to check the weight of the chipping potatoes being loaded into the trucks, it also keeps him and other employees from having to make their way through the storm of activity.

The last item Matt shared was the Fortress Metal Detector that was installed on our export line. Why a metal detector in a potato packing shed? Though it extremely rarely it happens, metal objects can sometimes get in with potatoes we ship. This metal detector can pick up on any metal object – from a tiny piece of copper wire or soda can tab to a bolt that was picked up in the field. If the metal detector senses an item, it stops the line and dumps the product before it goes into the large bags of potatoes we export. As of this post, has the metal detector picked up anything? Not yet. But to make sure it’s working, every morning before production starts Matt uses tools that came with the metal detector to ensure it’s working and able to detect any sort of metal that passes through it. The plan is to buy two more metal detectors for the bulk line and the In-N-Out line to ensure all areas or production are checked before potatoes make it into packaging or trailers.

A Frontier Metal Detector installed on the export chipping potatoes line at Gold Dust Potato Processors' Malin, Oregon campus potato processing plant.
This metal detector on our export potatoes line ensure food safety goals are met

Whether it’s creating systems, updating our farming practices or looking to technology to improve our operations, Gold Dust and Walker Farms are continually looking at how to do things more safely, more efficiently and more effectively. While there may be upfront costs to our businesses, these innovations help us in the long run to remain a sustainable farm and business.

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, Gold Dust Potato Processors, potato shed, potato shipping, sustainable farming

Who Invented The Potato Chip?

February 9, 2018 By Gold Dust Farms 1 Comment

A photo of the brother and sister team credited with creating the potato chip, George "Crum" Speck and Catherine "Aunt Katie" Wicks, with their creation, potato chips.
George “Crum” Speck and Katie Wicks, Creators of the Potato Chip (photo source Wikimedia Commons)

Though National Potato Chip Day is celebrated in March, it’s hard to separate the creation of the potato chip from Black History Month. If it weren’t for a notorious chef of African American and Native American ancestry, we may not be enjoying this crunchy snack nor the legend that comes with it.

If you’re unaware of the legend of the potato chip’s creation, it starts in the mid-1800’s in Saratoga Springs, New York. A wealthy customer was dining at Moon’s Lake House and ordered French-fried potatoes. When the batch came out, the customer, often credited as being well-known rich guy Cornelius Vanderbilt, sent them back. The diner wanted the potatoes cut as thin as the French do for their fries (hence the word “french fries”). After the French fries were sent back a couple of times for being too soggy and under-salted, the frustrated chef sliced the potatoes as thin as possible, fried them until they were crisp and sent them out. This delighted the customer – as well as the owner of the dinner house – and the rest is history.

To this date, the legend remains that George Crum was the chef who created the potato chip, a snack that would go on to create the cultivation of chipping potatoes and spawn a world-wide snacking sensation.

Like most things in life, the truth is harder to pin down than the myth.

What is true is that George “Crum” Speck did fry up wafer thin potatoes and serve them to customers at Moon’s Lake House in 1853. What’s in question is the events of this story and who really should be credited with inventing the potato chip.

Did George Crum invent the potato chip? That’s tough to say, as there was a recipe to something similar to potato chips in William Kitchiner’s 1822 edition of his  best-selling cookbook “The Cook’s Oracle”. Plus, the story of how the potato chip came about trying to please Cornelius Vanderbilt was actually part of a 1973 ad campaign from the St Regis Paper Company, who manufactured the packaging for Saratoga Chips – the potato crisps that went on to be the snack we love.

What we do know is true is that George Crum was a well-respected hunter, guide and chef in the Adirondacks who’s heritage was a mix of local Native American (Oneida, Stockbridge or Mohawk tribes) and mulatto. Though his skill as a hunter was likely sought after by the wealthy New York sportsmen of the day, his skills in the kitchen are what made him famous. The wealthy and well-to-do alike would wait hours to eat meals prepared by the chef – including Cornelius Vanderbilt. From what the historians say, he didn’t give the wealthy any better service than anyone else, and that his service was impeccable.

At Cary Moon’s Lake House, he cooked with his sister, Catherine “Aunt Kate” Wicks. Eventually the man’s reputation as a masterful chef gave him the ability to open his own restaurant simply called “Crums” by 1860. Though his was still in the Saratoga Springs area, the prices were the same as restaurants in Manhattan – and people were willing to wait in line to eat his cuisine and snack on the baskets of potato chips on the tables in his establishment.

But does that prove he didn’t invent the potato chip as we know it? This is where it gets interesting.

Crum likely had something to do with the popularity of Saratoga Chips, though in his 1893 biography he isn’t credited with inventing them and in his obituary he isn’t mentioned as the creator of the potato chip. That honor, actually, is claimed for his sister, Kate Wicks. In her obituary, she is credited with accidentally creating potato chips. In this version of the story, she was peeling potatoes while frying up a batch of crullers and a piece of peeled potato dropped into the hot oil. She pulled it out and her brother tried it. The result? George liked it, said they’d make more of those and Kate Wicks created the potato chip as we know it!

So, Aunt Kate invented potato chips, right?

Maybe. In his deeply researched blog about Saratoga Springs’ connection to the potato chip, Dave Mitchell digs deep into the origins of the potato chip creation myth, the history of Saratoga Springs and the people who lived there around the time of the crisp was invented. What he finds and reports only leads to more questions about who actually invented them. For example, other dining houses around Saratoga Lake produced their version of the potato chip, including George Crum’s wildly popular restaurant. Mitchell also found a reference to “Eliza, the cook”, who’s mentioned in a 1849 newspaper article for having a reputation for “crisping potatoes”. Unfortunately due to the times and how people of color were treated by the public and census, all we know about “Eliza the Cook” is that she was a black woman that worked in a restaurant in the area that considered the birthplace of the modern potato chip. Her last name or any other details about her are lost to history, save the few anecdotal mentions found by historians such Mr. Mitchell and the source he quotes, TJ Stiles.

Regardless of who is credited with creating them, one thing is certain – the potato chip is a part of African American history. Whether it was “Eliza the Cook”, George Crum or Kate Wicks, all three of them are tied to the development and popularity of the salty snack. Though the potato chip as we enjoy it today was likely invented by an African American woman and not Crum, he shouldn’t be disregarded for his part in history.

George Crum was obviously a remarkable man. Even if he didn’t invent the potato chip as we’re told he did, he was a black man with Native American heritage in pre-Civil War United States was able to develop his own reputation as a chef and build an incredibly successful business. Keep in mind, in 1830 the census still counted 75 slaves in New York though the Gradual Emancipation Act was passed in 1799. By the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, Crum had already opened his own restaurant. Whether or not he invented potato chips, his story is worth learning.

The most unfortunate detail of the history of the potato chip is that because of the times and how people of color and women were treated, their creator never received her due credit and still doesn’t. As incredible as George “Crum” Speck was and as fascinating as his story is, Kate Wicks and Eliza the Cook’s stories and participation in the creation of the crisp is largely forgotten even today. There are few details about either woman, and popular history still tells the story of George Crum’s attempt to appease a cranky customer.

Obviously, we think as you read more biographies about remarkable African Americans during Black History Month the appropriate snack is the potato chip. Even if history later finds that the crisp is much older than the mid-1800s, Katie Wicks and George Crum are still an important part of potato chip history and a part of chips’ popularity.

Before we wrap this up, if you’re at all interested in learning more about George “Crum” Speck, Katie Wicks and Saratoga Springs’ relationship to the potato chip, we strongly encourage you to check out Dave Mitchell’s blog, “Chips, Crums and Specks of Saratoga County History”. Mitchell does an excellent job of not only researching Saratoga Springs’ tie to potato chips, but also gets into society and race relations in pre-Civil War New York. It’s an incredibly fascinating read and tells the story of remarkable people.

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, Gold Dust Potato Processors, holidays, potato chips, potato history

Tis The Season at Gold Dust and Walker Farms

December 21, 2017 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

The 161 presents Gold Dust and Walker Farms donated to Klamath Falls Toys For Tots.
Thanks to our employees, carriers and growers, Gold Dust and Walker Farms donated 161 gifts to Toys For Tots

Yesterday, December 20th, Gold Dust held its annual office Christmas party at Bill and Jan’s house just north of our campus. The atmosphere was merry and there was lots of laughs and cheer over the white elephant gift exchange. Good food, good times and great people always make the holidays a special time of year!

While on the topic of great people, Gold Dust and Walker Farms are blessed to work with the most generous folks. If you look through our farm’s blog, you’ll find post after post about giving and donating. This year alone our companies and the people who help us succeed raised $31,000 and 135,000 airline miles for Make-A-Wish Oregon. So, it goes without saying that when the holidays roll around, we also experience the generosity of the people coming and going from our packing shed.

Marion Harp, Melissa Olsen, Suzanne Wallace, Matt Thompson, Salvador Vera, Erick Vera and Jesse Turner enjoying lunch at Jan Walker's house for Gold Dust's 2017 Office Christmas Party.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Gold Dust and Walker Farms!
Salvador Vera showing off his new office pet goldfish at the Gold Dust Potatoes 2017 Office Christmas Party.
Salvador and his “prize” – a goldfish for his office!
Weston Walker, Tricia (Walker) Hill, Jan Walker, Nayeli Pena, Katie Walker and daughter Madison at Gold Dust Potato Processors' 2017 Christmas Party at Jan's house outside of Malin, Oregon.
Happy Holidays from Nayeli and the Walker Family

Photo credits Lexi Crawford

Years past, we’ve held food drives for the Klamath and Lake County Food Bank and adopted a family for Christmas. More recently, we’ve been holding toy drives for our local Toys For Tots. For example, last year between what our employees donated and what the company matched, we were able to fill the back of Tricia AND Lexi’s SUVs! This year, with Nayeli Pena leading the charge, we held another successful toy drive for Toys For Tots.

And this year was amazing! As usual, our farm, shed and office crews contributed with toys and cash. Truck drivers that work for the various carriers that deliver our chipping potatoes and hay to our customers also contributed. Then our growers stepped up, with Luke Robison’s family donating $500. Our office was filled with toys and bicycles, and the cash donation bucket was filled with a variety of bills. Overall, 25 toys, four bicycles and around $1,000 was donated by the incredibly generous people we work and do business with. And yes, Gold Dust and Walker Farms matched it!

On Tuesday, December 19th, Tricia and her husband made the trek to Fred Meyers in Klamath Falls to fulfill Gold Dust’s end of the bargain. Fred Meyer’s manager also stepped up, offering discounts to help our contributions go even further. In the end, we were able to drop off 161 gifts to the Klamath Falls Toys For Tots.

Tricia Hill with Toys For Tots volunteers at their Toys For Tots Drop Station in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
When dropping off the gifts, Toys For Tots volunteers told Tricia about the 2,000 kids these presents would go to in the Klamath Basin

That donation was very much needed. When dropping off the gifts, one of the Toys For Tots volunteers told Tricia that this year they were trying to provide gifts for 2,000 local kids – 500 more than they expected. When you consider how many households are in the Klamath Basin, that’s a lot of families that are affected. All the donations to the Klamath Falls Toys For Tots program stay local – which means when you give a gift in our community, it stays in our community.

Gold Dust Potato Processors employee Suzanne Wallace helping load a truck with donated chipping potatoes.
Suzanne Wallace helping load one of our donations of potatoes. Photo credit Lexi Crawford.

Along with Toys For Tots, we also donated truck loads of potatoes to area charity groups and organizations. Those groups included Integral Youth Services, Women Infant Health, Malin City Hall, Tulelake-Newell Family Center, Klamath KID Center, Klamath Lake Community Actions, Henley High School FFA, Bonanza High School FFA, Bonanza Community Church, Livingsprings Church, Klamath Senior Center, Faith Tabernacle Church and Marta’s House in Klamath Falls. All of these organizations give back to community and we’re happy that we’re able to help them with their causes during the holidays.

We are proud of our employees and the people we do business with and the amount of generosity they showed with this year’s giving. Though we focused our holiday giving on our local Toys For Tots, there are lots of other ways to help. Consider those 2,000 children – their families likely also need help providing food, paying the power bill and more. Whether you slip something into one of the Salvation Army’s red kettles or take canned food to the Klamath-Lake Counties Food Bank (you can donate online too!), every little bit helps someone in our community.

Before we wrap this up and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year, we’d like to give Nayeli a big thank you for her work on this. We’d also like to thank Luke Robison’s family for their generous donation and to thank everyone who donated cash or toys. We’d also like say thank you to the Fred Meyer’s managers and cashier who helped make our donations go further. And of course, thank you to Toys For Tots for providing the spirit of Christmas to kids in our community. When you think about our company slogan, “where together we grow”, it’s evident that it extends beyond our sheds and farm and into the community as well. It’s part of what makes the Klamath Basin a great place to live.

And now, may everyone have a happy and safe holiday season and here’s to an amazing 2018!

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, community, gold dust office, Gold Dust Potato Processors, holidays, walker brothers

Where Do Kettle Brand Chips Come From? Ask Tater Tracker!

December 4, 2017 By Gold Dust Farms 1 Comment

Bags of Kettle Brand potato chips on a kitchen counter.
Ever wonder where the potatoes for your Kettle Brand Chips come from?

As a chipping potato grower, we get to work with a lot of recognizable brand names from around world – and it’s pretty cool. People love to know where their food comes from, and as we attempted to answer the question “where do potato chips come from?” in another post, we’ve been given an opportunity to answer it again!

Ever been snacking on Kettle Chips and ever wonder where they came from? Well, they’ve provided an online tool to give you the answer! Kettle Brand has released their Tater Tracker, which highlights their potato growers and the farms where the potatoes come from. As you might recall from our Open House Field Day post – we’re one of those growers. And, yes, Gold Dust and Walker Farms is featured on Kettle Brands’ Tater Tracker page as well as a profile on Weston!

The Kettle Brand potato chips company car at Gold Dust and Walker Farms' Malin, Or campus during the 2017 Open House Field Day.
The Kettle Brand Potato Chips company rig stood out at the Open House Field Day

So, how does the Tater Tracker work? First, you obviously have to get a bag of delicious Kettle Brand potato chips (we recommend buying at least a dozen!). Next, locate the “Best Before” date located on the top right corner on one of the many bags you’ve purchased. Just below it you’ll find two numerical codes – type the second one into the space on the Tater Tracker page and you’ll see which Northwest potato farm your chips came from!

Consumer purchasing Kettle Brand potato chips at a store.
Step 1: Locate and procure bag of Kettle Brand Potato Chips
An image of Kettle Brand potato chips' Tater Tracker grower code.
Step 2: Locate the Tater Tracker code just below the “Best Before” date. Yes, the last four digits too.
A photo of a Samsung Chromebook and Kettle Brand's Tater Tracker page opened with a chipping potato grower code entered in it.
Step 3: Enter the entire code into the Kettle’s Tater Tracker. As you see, the last four digits are entered at the end.

If you look at our grower profile, just under Weston’s bio you’ll see something else that Kettle has done with these pages – a virtual farm tour! While best viewed on an Android device, as the video plays you can turn your phone to get a 360 degree view of our potato farm, the sheds and even chipping potatoes being harvested. It’s a great way to see where your potato chips are coming from and give visitors an idea of what makes each of these potato farms unique.

Video by MaxwellPR.com

We love that Kettle Brand is as proud to work with us as we are with them. Not only does their dedication to sustainable agriculture match ours, it’s great to work with a snack company located in the Pacific Northwest that features local farms on its site. Thank you, Kettle Brand!

 

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, customers and clients, farm, Gold Dust Potato Processors, Organic Potatoes, potato chips, potato customers, potato harvest, potato shed, sustainable farming, walker brothers

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From Our Farm Blog

  • 2021 Employee Picnic & BBQ
  • Here You Go – Weston’s Organic Potato Chips!
  • We Need Some Elves!
  • Looking for a job?
  • Klamath Ag Leaders Meet with Secretary Bernhardt and Commissioner Burman

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