Gold Dust & Walker Farms

Our First Hemp Harvest!

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A Walker Farms combine harvesting industrial hemp near Merrill, Oregon.
Hemp Harvest Time!

With the passing of the Hemp Farming Act of 2018, farms of all sizes around Southern Oregon jumped on an opportunity to get into the nation’s newest commodity. The Klamath Basin was no different. Industrial hemp fields sprouted all over the Basin, providing another crop to rotate through the fields while creating a chance for another possibly lucrative revenue stream. 

A recently planted industrial hemp in Southern Oregon
Nice, straight rows! Let’s see how they grow

Gold Dust & Walker Farms jumped into hemp farming like many other farms. We planted fields all the way from the Running Y and Caledonia down to the homeplace in Merrill, and in fields in between. It’s been a learning experience to say the least. With industrial hemp creating a myriad of applications from fiber to CBD extracts, it will be interesting to see ultimately which direction our local hemp industry leans. 

Industrial hemp growing outside of Merrill, Oregon.
That was quick!

Part of the reason we had fields spread all over our part of the Klamath Basin was to see which methods and environments produced the best results. Since harvest wrapped up a few weeks ago, we’re still evaluating the yields from each hemp field we planted.

Workers for Gold Dust & Walker Farms piling industrial hemp into windrows to be harvested.
Piling the hemp to be harvested

Harvesting industrial hemp definitely presented us with a learning curve. For starters, harvesting the hemp flower is incredibly manual and requires many people to hang the flowers to dry and then trim them. For that reason, we minimized the amount of hemp flower we harvested. Then there’s harvesting the plant for biomass to use for extracting CBD oil and fiber. Those in the industry know how sturdy the hemp plant is, and considering how quickly it grows, it’s stock is incredibly thick which means it takes different equipment than we have to harvest it. However, we made the necessary investments in labor and equipment to get this year’s harvest out of the fields – and for future hemp harvests as well.

Now that hemp has been harvested, it’s time to get it to market! Gold Dust & Walker Farms already grows a variety of organic crops, so our buyers can rest assured that we have our organic certifications in order.  

A photo of a combine operated by Walker Farms filling a truck with industrial hemp outside of Merrill, in Southern Oregon.
Once the hemp has been piled into windrows, a combine outfitted with a special head can harvest it

While it’s exciting to be involved in a burgeoning market, we also like the fact there is another crop to rotate through our fields to assist our sustainable farming program. As we learn more about how industrial hemp fits into our businesses, we’re assured it’s another avenue to help ensure Gold Dust & Walker Farms continues growing into the future.

Before we wrap up this post, we’d like to thank the farm crews who helped grow our industrial hemp crop, and the harvest crews who reaped the flowers and harvested the biomass. Thank you for being a part of this educational adventure, and here’s to next year’s crop!

Harvest 2019 Is In The Books!

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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!

A combine fitted to harvest hemp cutting hemp biomass and filling a truck.
Harvesting hemp outside of Merrill, Oregon

And then there’s the industrial hemp. Since this is our first year growing hemp, we’re planning on a little longer post about harvesting hemp, but we can say that it was a learning experience. Our industrial hemp team took this first season to figure out not only where the best place to grow hemp was, but also if there were techniques that were better than others. There were also what you can consider two harvests – the first one focused on cutting the flower from the hemp plants and the second harvesting the rest of the hemp for biomass. Just like with the chipping potatoes and grain crops, weather affected hemp harvest as well. 

A truck and belt trailer getting loaded with industrial hemp bio-mass outside of Merrill, Oregon.
Fill’er up!

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.

Open House Field Day, 2019

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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!


This Is Why We Take Food Safety Seriously

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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.

2018 Klamath Basin Potato Festival

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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.

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!

Chipping Potato Harvest 2018

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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!

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!

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.

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

Open House Field Day 2018

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Gold Dust & Walker Farms' guests at the Reames' Country Club for the 2018 Open House Field Day.
Thanks to everyone who could make it our 18th Annual Open House Field Day!

Another August was almost over. Grain and hay were being cut, and chipping potatoes were already being dug and shipped. Earlier in the month we had a Leadership Meeting and Employee Appreciation Picnic, making this August a touch busier than normal. And as always this time of year, we opened our doors and headed to the fields for Gold Dust & Walker Farms’ 18th Annual Open House Field Day!

This year, the festivities began the night before at Bill and Jan’s house, where Gold Dust and Walker Farms staff mingled with our visitors. Though the past few months in the Klamath Basin were incredibly smokey, the air cleared and everyone was able to enjoy a gorgeous evening outside with cold drinks, great food and good company. A feast of roast, fresh tuna, shrimp and scallops was put together by Jan, Ken Hibbard and Casey Lammers, followed by German chocolate cake and ice cream. Visiting carried on past sunset, and with a touch of smoke still in the air, gave our guests an amazing Klamath Basin sunset. Frankly, we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful evening.

The next morning, everyone met at Mike & Wanda’s restaurant in Tulelake. After a welcoming speech from Bill, Lexi introduced Klamath County Museums Manager, Todd Kepple. At our Open House Field Day breakfast, we usually have a speaker, and this year Mr. Kepple put together a presentation about the history of Klamath Basin agriculture. From the Reclamation Project to drawing homesteads from pickle jars to the Bucket Brigade of 2001, Todd’s presentation gave us and our guests incredible insights to how farming and ranching not only changed over the years, but how it changed the Klamath Basin itself.

Gold Dust & Walker Farms' guests boarding a bus used for the 2018 Open House Field Day.
All aboard!

Following breakfast, it was time to head to the potato fields! Like last year, our growers showed off their fields and dug up a few spuds to show our group. If you’ve read past posts about our Open House Field Day, you’ve seen pictures of long trains of cars and pickups parked along the fields. This year, we decided it would be more efficient and effective to rent a bus instead of everyone driving to the fields on their own. With everyone on the bus, on the way to the fields our growers were able to provide their family’s history of farming in the Klamath Basin as well as answer questions about potato varieties, the ins-and-outs of potato farming and anything else that came to mind. Not only was this a more efficient way for us to get everyone on the field tour, it provided a great way for our guests to chat while learning more about us and our growers.

Which growers’ fields did we visit?

We started with Luke Robison’s field of 2137 potatoes located just outside of Tulelake. After that, we headed to the leases where Matt Huffman had some 1867 chipping potatoes dug and ready for inspection. Next, we headed back to Tulelake where we visited Sid Staunton’s field of Waneta potatoes. Though we weren’t able to swing by his field located near Lower Klamath Lake, Kyle Patterson shared a bit about his experiences with growing Dakota Pearls, which was fitting because it was on the way to a sandy field of Dakota Pearl chippers grown by Rob Unruh, just a bit north of Gold Dust’s campus. On the way back the shed, Tricia shared a bit about her and Weston’s Basin farming lineage and what brought her back home to farm.

By the time we made it back to the packing shed, the plant had ended shipping for the day and Matt had samples of the chipping potato varieties Gold Dust and Walker Farms can provide laid out on the production floor. To make this visit even more interesting, Frito Lay reps Sanjay Prasad, Gurvinder Johal and Danny Lopez brought along some fresh potato chips from the Lays plant in Modesto. And yes – these were made with our potatoes we dug this week!

Following the shed tour, our guests made their way to Reames Country Club for a fun golf scramble. Once the ceremonial shots of Crown had been taken, the teams made their way to the golf course for a shotgun start. Around 6:30 pm, the teams began to make their way from the golf course to the club house to enjoy cocktails and a dinner put together by the Reames staff.

Katie Walker and Billy Conrad of Pape' Machinery with a plaque honoring Pape' Machinery for their support of Make-A-Wish Oregon at Gold Dust's 2018 Open House Field Day dinner.
On behalf of Make-A-wish Oregon, Katie gave Billy Conrad of Pape’ Machinery an award for their continued gifting.

The Open House Field Day has presented itself as an opportunity to raise money for our local Make-A-Wish chapter, and this year was no different. Katie Walker, Weston’s wife, took this as an opportunity to recognize some of our guests who have given year after year with a plaque to recognize their company’s generosity. After handing out recognition, it was time to start raising pledges.

Last year, between the generosity of our guests and Gold Dust and Walker Farms’ matching their pledges, we were able to raise $30,490 along with 135,000 airline miles. This year’s goal was to raise $35,000.  After a heartfelt thank you from Make-A-Wish Oregon’s Corporate Alliances Manager, Mallory Tyler, and short video about a Wish recipient, our guests gave generously. When it was all said and done, after Gold Dust matched everyone’s pledges, our crowd raised $45,000 for Make-A-Wish! When we say we work with good people, we don’t just mean they’re good at they do. Their pledges for Make-A-Wish is proof of that.

We also went over which teams won the golf scramble and who took home top honors for their skills with the clubs. This year, we had a tie for first and second place – both teams shot a 64. After going over the cards and comparing the performance of the front nine, the back nine and doing some other fancy golf math, the team of Matt Thompson, Sanjay Prasad, Erin Plumb and Ty Hulse came out on top, which left second place honors for Rob Unruh, Steve Parkinson and Drew Huffman. Destiny Huffman had an amazing day as she took home not only the Ladies Longest Drive, but also the Closest to the Pin! Jared Marshall crushed the ball to take home Men’s Long Drive while Jeff Dahl drove his ball Closest to the Pin to take home the other golf club.

Before the night was over, the senior partners passed the mic to thank everyone for coming. Tricia took this opportunity to highlight five folks who have been attending our Open House Field Day since the beginning – Ron Marshall, Jim Boone, Paul Sproule, and Chris Moudry. Weston thanked the crowd for their generosity and Bill thanked everyone who attended for their continued support and attendance to our Open House Field Day. John wrapped it up with a rousing thank you and pep talk that pointed out that what has made our businesses successful isn’t just us – it was everyone in the audience who got up every morning and did what they do best. His mic drop drew loud applause and was a fitting end to the evening.

We always enjoy this opportunity to get together with the growers, suppliers, financiers and customers who have helped us become successful, and this year was no different. Gold Dust and Walker Farms are successful in no small part due to the people we work with. When we say we work with the best – and most giving – we mean it. We hope everyone had a safe trip home and that we’ll see everyone once again next year. Last, but not least – thank you. Thank you for helping us become the amazing businesses we have grown into and thank you for your continued support.

Small Changes for Big Improvements In Our Packing Shed

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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.

Check Us Out On Facebook!

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A snapshot of Gold Dust and Walker Farms' Facebook page.
Here we are on Facebook!

It finally happened – we set up a Facebook page!

What should you expect to see on the Gold Dust and Walker Farms Facebook page? A little bit of everything. We initially set it up to showcase the various job opportunities we have available on the farm, in the shed and in our offices. However, that’s not all you’ll find. From what’s going on in the fields and on our campus to some of our favorite aspects of farming and agriculture, we plan on sharing those and hope you will do the same.

When you have a few minutes, we hope you’ll take some time to see what we’ve put up so far. And if you see something you like, please feel free to give it a like and share it with your friends in your feed (especially if you know someone that would be perfect for one of our job openings!). And if you want to stay up to date with out latest posts, be sure to like and follow our page.

We hope this will give our community some insights to how we operate and what we feel is important. For example, one of the most amazing things about farming in the Klamath Basin is the sheer amount of wildlife we get to see on a regular basis. One morning in late February, Tricia and her family were driving around the farm and came across a flooded field that full of swans trumpeting and feeding on the leftover grain in the bottom of the open water. We feel blessed that we’re able to live in an area where we can experience that, and so, it ended up as one of our posts.

Again, we hope you enjoy our page and that you will follow us. And we also hope it gives our followers a better understanding in why we enjoy farming in the Basin so much.

Who Invented The Potato Chip?

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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.

From Our Farm Blog

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