New Product Spotlight: Potatoes!

 

photo courtesy of Gardener's Path

One of the new products that will be available this coming summer and fall will be potatoes! I mentioned them briefly in the previous newsletter, and said that yukon gold potatoes would not be one of the varieties available.....well, I ended up planting a bunch of them this past week, along with a red and a purple potato variety. 

Potatoes are considered a staple crop throughout the world because of how dense they are in certain minerals, as well as starch and protein. Of course, in America, potatoes are turned into all sorts of foods, from chips, fries, to bread. Even more fitting, we live in Idaho, which is the potato state! However, where are these potato fields in Idaho? 

If you drive through the Nampa-Boise area of Idaho, you're bound to see mostly corn, sugar-beets, wheat, onions, barley, and hay-fields instead of potatoes. However, once you drive out to places in Emmet, Fruitland, Parma, Idaho Falls, and other mid-central Idaho towns, potato fields will become more common. So, if you ever want to go crop touring through Idaho, go to those locations to see potato fields! 

What will the availability for potatoes look like for the 2021 season? 

Roughly 140 plants were planted this year, collectively between the 5 varieties. Each plant should yield an average of 4-5 lbs (or more) per plant, so if everything goes well during the growing period, there should be about 600-700 lbs of potatoes, with harvesting being spread out from July through September. The great part about potatoes is that they can be stored in both processed and unprocessed forms, so if making homemade french-fries or chips is on your list for this year, potatoes will be available this year!