Fall 2006 Natural Farmer

Fall, 2006 Vol. 2, No. 70 Publication of the Northeast Organic Farming Association 1077-2294

Inside This IssueFeatures

A Few Thoughts on National Animal ID 7On Perennializing Annual Plants 10

Supplement onOrganic PotatoesA Brief History of the Potato 11Ivy Donovan: Potatoes at the World’s Top 14Organic & Conventional Spuds Compared 17How to Harvest and Store Potatoes 22Wood Prairie Farm 23Potato Leafhopper and Organic Pesticides 27Producing Potatoes Organically 31Managing Potato Diseases Organically 33Paul Maiewski on Forty Acres of Potatoes 34

DepartmentsLetters to the Editor 2Editorial 2News Notes 4NOFA Exchange 6Book Reviews 42NOFA Contact People 46Calendar 47NOFA Membership Information 47

by Kathy Litchfield and Ben Grosscup

A cool breeze swept through the Hampshire College campus Aug. 10-13, fanning the flames of the hundreds of minds on fire during the 32nd Annual NOFA Summer Conference. Hundreds of people learned, danced, shared, ate, camped, drummed, and luxuriously sampled from the weekend’s vast array of activities, laughing and sharing their lives with each other all the way.

The NOFA Summer Conference truly offered something for everybody. Registrations topped 1,000 and people traveled from all over the country to experience one of the most educa-tional and fun-filled conference weekends avail-able for organically minded people.

Children, teens and adults of all ages enjoyed a stellar array of educational opportunities, choosing from amongst 218 workshops during the days, fueling their bodies and minds with delectable organic meals – either in the din-ing hall or as provided by enthusiastic organic vendors. As usual, the maple ice cream topped with fresh blueberries during Saturday’s Local Meal sold out and food was a major topic of conversation both in and out of the dining hall. While the many conference exhibitors shared their expertise in everything from biodiesel to land trusts, long-time conference goers met new friends and swapped the year’s stories with long-time buddies.

The NOFA Pre-Conference on Food & Farming Education refreshed educators and participants with inspiring stories, exciting discussions and pathways to the future, heading for true change in our food system.

One of NOFA’s Pre-Conference presenters received a special surprise on Friday evening. NOFA-VT Agriculture Education Coordinator and VT Feed Coordinator Abbie Nelson was honored as NOFA Person of the Year. Gracious-ly and with tears in her eyes, the extraordinary

2006 NOFA Summer Conference a Success

photo by Steve Gilman

A young and enthusiastic crowd turned out for the 2006 NOFA Summer Conference.More Conference pictures on pages 39 to 41!

educator called a “gift from the Goddess” and “school lunch queen” by NOFA-VT Executive Director Enid Wonnacott, accepted her green-handled engraved shovel.

“It’s really about relationships and webs, and I love this job because I can web together every-one who cares so much about kids and schools,” she said. “It’s fabulous to be part of this organi-zation, so thanks.”

Keynote speaker Sister Miriam Therese Mac-Gillis shared thought-provoking ideas about the Earth we share, inspired by the work of Earth Scholars Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme. Interspersed with beautiful poetry, MacGillis talked about the end of an era and the birth of a new, more sustainable and spiritual one.

“We’re living at the end of an age where the tremendous attractiveness and seductiveness of the industrial model of growing food has swept across the planet (and no longer serves us) . . . so to be faithful in the midst of that, we must remain passionate about the future of food, health, farming and the overall call of being on the planet. There is no roadmap, book or guide. We are the generation who has discovered a totally different way of understanding the very nature and makeup and function and activity of the universe itself. Faith takes us beyond obser-vation, beyond the realm of human experience,” she said. “In each and every one of us the uni-verse is reflected. Who am I, why am I, where am I. Our identity is shifting in a fundamental way. We’re an expression of the earth itself.”

On Saturday evening, conference goers flocked to the Franklin Patterson Main Lecture Hall, which was packed to the hilt for the Saturday night debate, covering a topic that small farmers and those who rely upon them tend to strongly oppose: the National Animal Identification Sys-tem (NAIS). The debate was a unique gather-ing of people from far disparate points of view.

(continued on page 39)

by Steve Gilman

Some 50 visionaries gathered for two days at a special NOFA Summer Preconference session organized to picture what organic can look like in ten years and to discuss how we might get there.

The NOFA meeting was the kick-off of a project designed to develop a National Organic Action Plan (NOAP) in a process scheduled to be repeated in regions around the country in the next year to garner grassroots input and to build a proactive farmers’ voice to help direct the debate on what organic is, influence legislation and determine the future direction of organic in the U.S.

In the course of the discussion it was reported that Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield Farm Yogurt (bought out by the French Corporation, Danone, in 2004) voiced industry sentiments and pronounced that the organic movement is dead -- it’s all about the organic INDUSTRY now -- in a speech he gave at this year’s Organic Trade Association (OTA) Conference, “All Things Organic”, held in April in Chicago.

Somehow, however, the industry observers holding the funeral didn’t realize they were

Grassroots Organics Alive and Well at the

National Organic Action Plan’s NOFA

Preconference

(continued on page 41)

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r F a l l , 2 0 0 62

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The Natural Farmer is the newspaper of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA). In most chapters, regular members receive a subscription as part of their dues, and others may subscribe for $10 (in the US or $18 outside the US). It is published four times a year at 411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005. The editors are Jack Kittredge and Julie Rawson, but most of the material is either written by members or summarized by us from information people send us.

Upcoming Issue Topics - We plan a year in advance so that folks who want to write on a topic can have a lot of lead time. The next 3 issues will be:

Winter 2006-07 Agriculture & GlobalizationSpring 2007 Water & AgricultureSummer 2007 Organic Minor Fruit

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As a membership paper, we count on you for articles, art and graphics, news and interviews, photos on rural or organic themes, ads, letters, etc. Almost everybody has a special talent or knows someone who does. If you can’t write, find someone who can to interview you. We’d like to keep the paper lively and interesting to members, and we need your help to do it.

We appreciate a submission in any form, but are less likely to make mistakes with something typed than hand-written. To be a real gem, send it via electronic mail ([email protected].) Also, any graphics, photos, charts, etc. you can provide will almost certainly make your sub-mission more readable and informative. If you have any ideas or questions, one of us is usually near the phone - (978) 355-2853, fax: (978) 355-4046. The NOFA Inter-state Council website is www.nofa.org.

ISSN 1077-2294copyright 2006,

Northeast Organic Farming Association

The Natural Farmer Needs You!

Letters to the Editor

To the editor:

I have enjoyed reading The natural Farmer, have patronized one of your advertisers (Magnetec) and will others as well. Thank you for this paper.

Phil Keys, Batavia, NY

Dear Phil:

Thanks for your renewal and note of support. Our advertisers make the difference between life and death for this paper, so I appreciate your support of them, too. Most are small businesses providing quality products and opening “liberated zones” in an economy otherwise dominated by multinationals.

Jack Kittredge, editor

by Jack Kittredge

Depending on whether you pick the Western or Eastern tradition, wheat or rice has been the Lord of Staple Crops. Recently the protean contribution of Central America, maize, has joined them in global volume -- if not prestige -- because it is so easily turned into other things.

But the lowly Andean potato, the fourth staple in world food statistics, has not gathered much status even after 500 years.

Perhaps this is because people are notoriously dif-ficult to dissociate from their cultural food prefer-ences. On this basis we may forgive their lack of judgment. For that lowly spud is a truly remarkable piece of Nature.

Potatoes are more productive than any other staple on a yield per acre basis. The production of one acre can feed ten people for a year! And these are not empty calories. Potatoes provide all the vital nutrients necessary for humans except calcium and vitamins A & D (which can be supplied by any dairy product). Thus a family with a potato field and a cow (or goat) is set for life!

This productivity, and the fact that potatoes can be planted and tended with nothing more than a spade, has made the humble spud the peasant’s best friend. Potatoes in the home garden give one a sense of

independence from the lord and the miller. That they can be stored so easily all winter in a corner of the cellar gives a household a certain freedom from the market as well.

For the organic farmer, potatoes are one of the crops for which the organic premium is highest. Although conventional commodity potatoes can be had for 5¢ or 10¢ a pound retail, organic varieties routinely bring $1 to $2 and fingerlings can easily go to $3 or $4. Slip those numbers into a calculation involving normal yields of 15,000 to 20,000 pounds per acre and you can see the appeal.

But organic potatoes are also a difficult crop to raise in volume. The number of insect pests and diseases which enjoy this productive plant is legion. Only good rotations, careful seed selection, thorough monitoring and judicious use of allowed materials can achieve those productivity targets.

Potato harvesting is also a big deal. Either you have a lot of labor doing it by hand, in which case your expenses are quite high, or you invest in a harvester – a complicated and finicky machine – in which cases your expenses are quite high.

We devote this issue of The Natural Farmer to the lowly spud in the hopes that it will earn a little more respect as the healthful, productive, and democratic vegetable it assuredly is.

Organic Potatoes: Miracle Crop?

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rF a l l , 2 0 0 6 3

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Organic Farmers Raise Their Voices - The Organic Farming Research Foundation is helping organic growers make their voices heard in the policy arena with the new Organic Farmers Action Network (OFAN). Members of the free Network receive information about policy issues directly affecting organic producers, and timely alerts for taking action. More than 500 growers in 226 Congressional districts across 48 states have joined the OFAN Network since its inception in February. The action alert system demonstrated its effectiveness in May after Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) introduced an amendment to the 2007 USDA budget bill (at the request of the NOFA-New Jersey growers’ group) to increase USDA funding for organic farming research. OFAN alerts generated phone calls to House Members from growers across the country, helping the amendment to pass by a voice vote on the House floor. The Senate has yet to finalize its version of the 2007 budget bill, so the OFAN Network will be alerted this Fall as that moves forward. Organic producers and others are invited to join OFAN through the OFRF web site at www.ofrf.org. For questions & suggestions, contact Brise Tencer and OFAN via email: [email protected], or phone: 831-426-6606.source: July 31 OFRF Media Advisory

Climate Change and Farming in the Northeast Website at www.climateandfarming.org. The site provides a unique and comprehensive set of resource materials to help farmers make practical and profitable responses to climate changes.source: personal E-mail

Super Valu Enters Organic Business Following Wal-Mart - Conventional supermarket chains have been rushing out their own organic store brand lines, costing significantly less than comparable brands in natural food stores. On average, prices on private-label goods are about 27% below brand products. SuperValu Inc., second largest supermarket chain in the US, is introducing a line of 50 organic products called Nature’s Best with cereal, juice, apple sauce and pasta. 100 more organic products will be introduced by the end of June. Its goal is to have an assortment of 300 products by mid 2007. Nature’s Best’s prices are about 10 to 15% lower than comparable products. Safeway Inc. recently introduced 150 organic products and plans to have as many as 300 organic products by the end of next year. Stop & Shop also has a new line called Nature’s Promise, and Sam’s Club (owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc.) started selling organic food in January 2006 and keeps on adding products. It is estimated that organics will reach $15.5 - $16 billion this year. source: www.post-gazette.com

Study Says Mad Cow Epidemic May Be Incubating in Thousands of People - A new study in the Lancet medical journal (UK) suggests that variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), the human variant of Mad Cow Disease, may not peak in the human population for several decades, by which time many thousands of beef eaters and hospital patients that have received tainted blood transfusions could die. The study shows how Kuru, a similar fatal brain-wasting prion disease in New Guinea, has been found to have an incubation period of 35 to 41 years. Researchers suspect it could be longer for vCJD because the infection is transmitted between species, from cows to humans. The 160 fatal human cases of the disease that have already surfaced around the world could represent a distinct genetic subgroup of the population with an unusually short incubation period, according to John Collinge, the study leader and a professor at University College, London. There could be “substantial underestimations” in recent estimates of the size of the vCJD epidemic, Collinge said in a report in The Lancet medical journal. source: Organic Bytes #86, 6/29/2006, www.organicconsumers.org/organicbytes

News NotesScotts Goes Organic. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company recently announced it is expanding its organic product line with the addition of Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Blood Meal and Bone Meal. Both products contain 100 percent organic ingredients and join the Miracle-Gro Organic Choice family of products that includes potting mix, garden soil and garden fertilizer. The Company created the Miracle-Gro Organic Choice line for those gardeners who seek organic options, and also expect the same level of performance associated with the Miracle-Gro name. The Company’s brands are the most recognized in the industry. In the U.S., the Company’s Scotts®, Miracle-Gro® and Ortho® brands are market-leading in their categories, as is the consumer Roundup® brand, which is marketed in North America and most of Europe exclusively by Scotts and owned by Monsanto. The Company also owns Smith & Hawken.source: Scotts Miracle-Gro Company Press Release, May 19, 2006

Boycott of Horizon Dairy Generating National Publicity - The Organic Consumers Association’s (OCA) call for a boycott of the nation’s largest organic dairy brand, Horizon Organic has recently generated stories in the New York Times, USA Today, National Public Radio, and the Associated Press. The media coverage has highlighted the growing backlash by organic consumers against industrial scale dairy feedlots, who are misleadingly labeling their products as “USDA Organic,” even though the animals on these factory farms have little or no access to pasture. In addition, most of the cows on these giant feedlots have been imported from conventional dairies, where they were weaned on blood, injected with hormones and antibiotics, and fed genetically engineered grains and slaughterhouse waste. While Horizon sources half of its milk from family farms where the lactating cows do have access to pasture, Aurora Organic, OCA’s other major boycott target, gets all of its milk from intensive confinement feedlots. Aurora sells its “organic” milk to supermarket chains including Costco, Safeway, Giant, and Wild Oats, who bottle it under their own private labels. source: Organic Bytes #86, 6/29/2006, www.organicconsumers.org/organicbytes

Pesticides Increase Risk of Parkinsons Disease - A new Harvard study has linked pesticide exposure to a 70% increase in Parkinson’s disease. The study, which is the largest ever conducted, was released in the July 2006 issue of the Annals of Neurology. This research backs up earlier animal studies linking pesticide exposure to brain and nerve damage. For those who were exposed, occupation was not a risk factor, as farm workers and everyday home bug-sprayers all had the same increased risk. The study did not correlate the increased risk with any specific pesticides, but rather found the connection in overall general use of pesticides. “This is certainly the biggest and most serious populations study on people, and it appears to be the best proof today that there is a general association between pesticides and Parkinson’s among people,” said Robin Elliot, executive director for the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation in New York City, describing the findings as “important and solid.” source: Organic Bytes #86, 6/29/2006, www.organicconsumers.org/organicbytes

Biodiesel: Worse Than Fossil Fuel - Biodiesel enthusiasts are backing the most carbon-intensive fuel on earth. Large areas of S E Asia are being deforested for palm oil to supply the new demand.source: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6709

Prions Cling to Soil Minerals – Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have confirmed that prions, the proteins thought to cause Mad Cow disease, are more durable than previously known. They latch onto certain soil minerals and remain infectious, rather than changing their shape and thus their infectious qualities.source: Acres, USA, June, 2006

US to Slash Testing for Mad Cow Disease by 90% - The Agriculture Department is cutting its tests for mad cow disease by about 90 percent, drawing protests from consumer groups. The current level of 1,000 tests each day represents about 1 percent of the 35 million cattle slaughtered annually in this country. Beginning in late August, the new level will be about 110 tests per day. “It’s time that our surveillance efforts reflect what we now know is a very, very low level of BSE in the United States,” Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said. “There is no significant BSE problem in the United States, and after all of this surveillance, I am able to say there never was.” His comments were applauded by industry groups such as the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. source: The Houston Chronicle, July 20, 2006, 9:59PM

USDA Approves Digital Angel RFID Tag for NAIS- Digital Angel Corporation, an advanced technology company, announced on August 1 that its electronic RFID (radio frequency identification) livestock tagging system has been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for use in the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Digital Angel is the first animal tag manufacturer to be designated as an Animal Identification (AIN) tag manufacturer by the USDA, which signifies that the Company’s tagging system is capable of identifying livestock with the unique, lifetime animal identification number that is being established as a national standard through the NAIS. Digital Angel, which has been in the livestock tagging business since 1945, has developed a proprietary and comprehensive RFID traceability system that includes electronic tags and scanners as well as a related IT system that can provide for the identification and tracking of all animals tagged as part of the NAIS. The target date for having all livestock identified that are covered in the NAIS guidelines is early 2009. Digital Angel sells its electronic tags under the brand names e.Tag (TM) and Destron Combo e.Tag (TM).source: August 1 Digital Angel Press Release

2006 Statistics on Certified Organic Agriculture in Vermont - Vermont Organic Farmers (VOF) the certification arm of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) announced that out of the total number of farms in VT, 6% are certified organic., out of the total number of acreage in farmland in VT, 4% is certified organic, out of the total gross sales of farm-related income in VT, 6% is from certified organic farms, and out of the total number of dairy farms in Vermont, 9% are certified organic. source: NOFA-VT Press Release

Whole Foods Pledges Aid to Small Farmers – John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, pledged to devote $10 million annually to support locally grown food. The firm had been coming under increasing criticism for buying from large farms. “I know that, over the years, some smaller farmers have stopped selling to us and have been frustrated with our regional distribution centers,” Mackey said. “We should and will do a better job of this in the future, because we are making it a company priority.”source: Organic business News, July, 2006

Producing Ethanol and Biodiesel from Corn Is Not Worth The Effort, New Study Finds - A new study from the University of Cornell and the University of Berkeley, California has found that turning plants, such as corn and sunflowers, into fuel uses much more energy than the resulting ethanol or biodiesel generates. The study, published in Natural Resources Research (Vol. 14, 65-76), found that: • corn needs 29% more fossil energy than it produced • switch grass needed 45% more fossil fuel than it produced • wood biomass needed 57% more fossil fuel than it produced • soybean plants needed 27% more fossil fuel than it produced • sunflower plants needed 118% more fossil fuel than it produced. source: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6709

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rF a l l , 2 0 0 6 �

Organic Sales to Reach $16 Billion - Meat sales grew by the highest percentage last year (55.4%) but condiments grew 24.2%, dairy 23.5% and non-food items 32.5% to bring total organic sales projections by years end to reach $16 billion.source: Organic business News, May 2006

Arctic Ice Failing – For the second straight year sea ice in the Artic has failed to re-form, worrying scientists that a new feedback loop is kicking in. As ice melts, more sunlight is absorbed by the dark ocean rather than reflected off the ice, causing the waters to warm further and melt more ice.source: Acres, USA, June, 2006

Organic Cotton Beat the Bt Variety – Despite the higher yield per acre of Bt cotton, organic cotton has bested it in overall profitability studies in India. While income from an acre of Bt cotton ran $266, overall costs per acre were $186, leaving a net income of $80. The comparable numbers for organic cotton are $237 gross income, with $112 in expenses leaving a net of $125.source: Acres, USA, June, 2006

rBGH in Trouble – Monsanto’s recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone has been hurt by the efforts of Dean Foods, Wal-Mart, Kroger, as well as smaller regional milk processors, to find rBGH-free milk. The company has lowered the drug’s price. source: Acres, USA, August, 2006

Ruling Expected on Country Hen Case – Following a hearing June 28 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Federal Dictrict judge Dennis Saylor is expected to rule on a motion by the USDA to dismiss the case. The USDA argued that Massachusetts Independent Certifiers, Inc. (MICI) was acting as a government agent in the case and had no standing to bring suit. Farmers Legal Action Group attorney Jill Krueger, representing MICI, countered that the government’s view of the appeal rights of certifying agents violates the Organic Foods Production Act and Congress’ intent to set up a careful public/private partnership.source: personal attendance at hearing

Albert’s Produce College Popular – Albert’s Organics, a produce distributor, has set up an online “college” to educate retailers on how to buy, receive, price and handle organic produce. More than 800 students have signed up for the 20-lesson course, overwhelming the company’s expectations. For information on the school, visit www.albertsorganics.com.source: Acres, USA, August, 2006

Is There an SUV in your Kitchen? – David Pimental of Cornell has demonstrated that, given our food system, it takes ten calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver one calorie of food energy to our table. But only 2 of those calories are used to grow the food. Another 4 are spent in processing and shipping it, and 4 to refrigerate and cook it.source: Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association News, Summer, 2006

Organic Corn Beats Conventional in Ohio – Corn hybrids grow in the 2005 Ohio State Organic Corn Performance Test produced 13 percent more corn per acre than the statewide average, and topped the record-high state average by four bushels. One variety did so well it beat the state average by almost 50%. Yields at the two organic sites averaged 162 bushels per acre. The state’s Department of Agriculture, however, cited a statewide average last year of 143 bushels per acre. source: Organic Broadcaster, July/August 2006

Johnny’s Selected Seeds to be Bought by Employees – Rob Johnston, Jr., founder and owner of the Albion, ME seed company since 1973, announced this Spring that he is setting up an Employee Stock Ownership Plan which should turn a majority interest in the business over to employees by July of 2009. “This settles the ownership question moving ahead, and that benefits the whole Johnny’s community – customers, employees, suppliers and research cooperators,” he said. “This place has a life beyond me, and that life begins now.” source: Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, June-August, 2006

Harvey Sues NOP, Again! – On June 30, Maine blueberry farmer Arthur Harvey filed suit against the National Organic Program (NOP) for failing to comply with a court order prohibiting the use of food contact substances and synthetic processing aids in organically labeled products. That court order was the result of an earlier Harvey lawsuit, filed in 2002. His victory in the earlier suit threatened to force major changes in the way large organic processing companies dealt with numerous substances. Much of it was overturned, however, when the Organic Trade Association (OTA) sponsored an amendment to the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) in a backroom deal in Congress last winter. According to Paula Dinerstein, Harvey’s attorney, the NOP must either revoke its food contact substances policy or require that all synthetic ingredients must be on the National List. They must also do away with their public policy of allowing synthetic processing aids and other substances which conflict with the requirements of the OFPA for organic handling. The OTA has not responded to this suit. Contacted at his Maine farm, Harvey was clear that the problem with the NOP is not incompetence: “There can be little doubt that it was their intention all along to not offer detailed procedures in the rules because the Organic Trade Association does not want the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to review every substance used in processing.” Jim Riddle, former chair of the NOSB, agrees: “We always felt any substance in or on processed food must appear on the National List. We were never a party to that [policy] and it was developed without our knowledge…The lawsuit has merit. There are food contact substances that are not on the list and that is contrary to the court ruling. They (the NOP) ignored us and now they are facing a lawsuit.”sources: Organic Business News, July, 2006 and Acres USA, August, 2006

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Opportunity at Organic Dairy Farm, Simsbury, CT - Seeking Assistant Farm Manager for small, organic dairy farm with on site processing and retail store. Position includes field work, milking and processing milk, yogurt, cheese, etc. Opportunity to become Manager. On site housing available. Call Bill Walsh at 860-658-5362 or email resume to [email protected]. Also visit www.townfarmdairy.org. Farm is assisted by non-profit, community group, Friends of Town Farm Dairy.

Environmentalist civic group seeks to rent 1 to 2 acres to organically grow annual vegetables in 2007. We seek to rent the parcel anywhere between Worcester, MA and Boston. We will pay 1000 dollars per acre, up front. No power machinery will be used, and only designated adults who have signed liability waivers will work on the acreage. Call Rob at 860-564-7310

NOFA Exchange

Blow Your Own Horn!

Seeking families with young children interested in exchanging work and socializing while the kids play or help. I am the mother of three (ages 3,3,5), living in Hartford CT area. We grow much of our own food. Raising my children to appreciate the outdoors, creative play and manual labor. Would like to connect with other families to exchange visits and all kinds of help (cooking/farming/building/gardening/cleaning/ sewing etc.!)…kind of Amish-style, if you know what I mean. Please contact Hannah Roditi at (860)242-7265 or email me at [email protected].

Vendors wanted: Long Island Garlic Festival, Sept 31-Oct 1, Riverhead Long Island. All farm products welcome, pickles, sauces, spices, crafts, etc. www.gardenofevefarm.com for more info, farmer@gardenofevefarm or (631) 523-6608.

4 Dairy Goats, Saanens, organic, milking, need home from late December 2006 through mid-May 2007 (possibly mid-April if we are unable to locate a caretaker through May), will consider all options including families who would like to share goats on a regular basis, as four goats produce a lot of milk! Contact Laurie at [email protected] or (860) 974-7056.

Looking for unused hoop house frame we can put to use. Any size 10 feet wide or wider, 20 feet long or longer. I can build ends, doors, etc. as necessary. We can’t afford to pay you what it is worth, but we can thank you with my famous homemade wine, produce or animal products we raise. Jack Kittredge, 978-355-2853 or [email protected]

Organic suburban homestead available, sale or other arrangement – total 1.89 partly wooded acres near Skaneateles Creek, extensive raised beds, small fruits, 2 apple trees, small-ish old 3-4 bdr house, solid but needs updating, spacious attic; hardwoods throughout; wood stove and wood pellet heat, gas furnace, new self-storing storm windows, tasty Skaneateles Lake water, septic, dirt floor in basement good for root cellaring; 2-car garage, woodshed. Back yard fenced for pets/poultry/young ‘uns. Handyperson could do much. Walk to library, groceries, school. Seeking right person/people to take over careful, loving stewardship of property. Email [email protected] or call (315) 689-1305 for more info.

Food coordinator wanted for NOFA/Mass Winter Conference on Saturday, January 20th, 2007 in Worcester, Ma. Involves 10 hours of work for two people on day of conference and about 5 hours pre-conference. Responsibilities include:coordinate and pick up donations of coffee, tea, baked goods, etc., supervise snack table, receive donated pot luck items, during morning workshops set up for lunch, supervise lunch line, clean up after lunch, recruit and supervise volunteers to help during the day. Pays stipend of $220. To apply please contact Jassy Bratko, Winter Conference Coordinator at, [email protected] or 978-928-5646.

Hardworking, Experienced Family seeking organic farm to lease or work on with housing or possible land with home to purchase with down payment and owner financing. Spent this past season growing a market garden and selling at a farmers’ market and farmstand. Owner is selling property due to ill health and we cannot afford. Please email at [email protected] or call at 802/754-2697

Farm Manager, The Mountain School, Vershire, VT is seeking an experienced farmer to live on campus and work with students, faculty, and other farmers to manage all operations beginning January, 2007. Includes salary, housing, benefits. If interested, please contact Trudy Amber-Dowlin for more information: [email protected] or (802) 685-4520 x110.

Position available for farm caretaker, live-in caretaker needed immediately at the Natick Community Organic Farm in Natick, MA. One bedroom apartment on 22-acre working, educational organic farm. Individual or couples welcome to apply. Reduced rent in exchange for weekend chores and night security. Must be able to interact with the public, help with farm maintenance and work with staff and board of directors. Interested candidates should send a resume and cover letter to: The Natick Community Organic Farm, 117 Eliot Street, Natick, MA 01760, or Email us at ncorganic@ verizon.net

Experienced organic farmer, to operate organic CSA farm, (100 members, ambition to grow to 300), attendant greenhouse & orchard near Charlottesville, VA. Housing plus great benefits, 401-K, Salary provided on receipt of resume. Successful applicant will have proven experience with organic farming and employee management. Reference required, Equal Opportunity Employer, Send resume to: [email protected]

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by David Ellis116 Cliff Ave, Portsmouth, RI 02871

There are always people who wish to exert power over their fellow beings; when there is a perceived threat to public welfare, it gives people the excuse they need to exert power.

If in the beginning there may be some justification, such power once consolidated is readily and often redirected to suit those who have it.

One hundred and fifty years ago slavery was common in the United States. Those people at the butt-end of slavery – the slaves – were often sorely oppressed. In the management of slaves, whipping was a very common punishment. And yes, even occasionally slaves were whipped to death. Of course we would now call this murder.

When a hard slave owner, however, consigned those under him to minimal food, minimal clothing, minimal shelter and relentless labor, that owner was extracting the life out of his slaves by degrees. Is this any less murder than the first case? In some ways it was worse. The most serious errors often happen by degrees.

Our own United States Declaration of Independence states: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.’ This sentiment, it is clear, went unheeded by many in pre-Civil War days.

Now perhaps you, the reader, at this point may be inclined to ask, “But what does all this have to do with the NAIS?” I’m afraid quite a lot.

A Few Thoughts on the Proposed National Animal Identification System

One interest that virtually every person who ever first set foot on American soil had on arrival was simply a desire for the opportunity to live. And America surely has been, for many, the land of opportunity.

But it is a basic truth that whenever one group of human beings is in power over others, there is great temptation to glean the first fruits and the cream and leave the underclass with any leftovers. The longer a government persists – any government – the more this state of affairs is apt to be. Yes, it happens even in a democracy.

And there are few people so much in the power of others as those who are dependent on others for food, clothing, shelter and other basic needs; this state of dependence is largely ours today. And it gets worse every year. We like to pride ourselves on our freedom and independence, but in some significant ways we are as dependent, or more so, as those pre-Civil War slaves.

One of our most basic sources of food and clothing (and companionship) is animals. Which of us lives without them? Most all of us are greatly reliant on them. We have lived among and depended upon animals since the dawn of history.

As Indian chief Seattle wrote to President Franklin Pierce long ago, ‘there is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insects’ wings…What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from great loneliness of spirit.’

Many a new American came to this country with a cherished desire to have a little piece of land, a cow

or two, a few chickens, maybe a horse. Now we have the prospect that we cannot raise these animals or purchase them from our neighbor without being part of a great national system, a system which entails vast high-technology equipment, which equipment has a fast turnover, which cannot be composted in a thousand years, which is in large degree toxic waste. Through this system, some person in a far-away place, not someone on our local Board of Selectmen, will make decisions about our animals – how to care for them, what animals we might have, or whether we may have animals at all.

The door to living a quiet, small-scale, sensible life has been slowly closing in America, by degrees. Gradual consolidation of power is a very common thing in human society. It is the kind of slow, broad oppression that Thomas Jefferson was writing against in the ’Declaration of Independence.’ At its core, a proposal like NAIS seeks to consolidate us into a large and harmful system; it is a significant step along a path that truly deprives us of ‘certain unalienable rights…Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.’

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r F a l l , 2 0 0 6�

by Jassy Bratko

As I stared in disbelief at the deep ruts my tractor had made in the hayfield my thoughts turned to Vern Grubinger’s comments on climate change and agriculture. It was mid-July and the hay was well past its prime, surrounding me in a sea of brown instead of the vibrant green that I am used to, and yet here I was lifting up the mower to stop the tractor from bogging down in my driest field. I would expect it in April, in May I would have to be careful, but never in July with the hay gone by. Yet Vern tells us, that at a result of global warming, there’s a steady increase in extreme precipitation events and that many farmers will have to spend more on water management for drainage. Just one example of how climate change may affect agriculture in the future.

This will be the topic of the keynote address to be given by Vern Grubinger at the 20th NOFA/Mass Winter Conference to be held January 20th, 2007 at Bancroft School in Worcester, Ma. He is the director of the University of Vermont Sustainable Agriculture Center, a vegetable and berry specialist at the University of Vermont Extension, teaches a class at UVM about renewable energy on the farm and was just recently named as the next Coordinator of Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program of USDA. He has a BS in Plant and Soil Science from the University of Massachussetts, an MS in Agronomy from Cornell and a PHD in

Vern Grubinger to Deliver Keynote on Climate Change and Agriculture

at 2007 NOFA/Mass Winter Conference

Vegetable Crops. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Vermont Land

Trust, and the Windham County Farm Bureau. Recently he has been active in efforts to educate

picture courtesy of Vern Grubinger

Vern Grubinger, director of the UVM Sustainable Agriculture Center

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rF a l l , 2 0 0 6 9the agricultural community on the effects of climate change on agriculture.

A long time advocate of sustainable agriculture, Vern has written many publications on ecological farming and gardening. His book, “Sustainable Vegetable Production from Start-Up to Market” has been a valuable resource for beginning and experienced vegetable growers and gardeners. It covers a full range of topics from farm business management, marketing, soil fertility, composting, cover crops and field preparation, transplanting and harvesting, irrigation and season extension to wildlife management and grower profiles, while emphasizing the need to manage natural resources effectively.

For many years Vern taped a series of short radio addresses on sustainable agriculture in Vermont for Vermont Public Radio. A collection of these essays have been gathered together in a book titled “With an Ear to the Ground: Essays on Sustainable Agriculture” and published by USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. Vern begins this humorous yet insightful book by saying “I have a vision of Vermont in which small rural communities continue to thrive, based on an economy that cultivates the interdependent strengths of agriculture, forestry, recreation, tourism, and cottage industry.” It is in his final chapter that he addresses climate change and tells us that climatologists at the University of New Hampshire have determined that the average annual temperature in the Northeast has risen by 1.8 degrees. “That little change is powerful: The frost-free growing season is a week longer; lake ice breaks up five days sooner; and Vermont’s maple syrup production, which tends to be greater in years with colder temperatures, is declining. That’s not solely due to climate change, but if temperatures continue to rise, sugar maples may not survive in New England. New insects pests will arrive, and cool-season crops will no longer thrive.”

Vern had a vague uneasiness for quite a while about global warming but it was at a meeting of

the American Society of Horticultural Science in 2004 that he realized the full extent of the problem and now considers climate change to be “the most critical environmental issue of our time.” He found that, while there was a great deal of interest and information on the subject, there were no extension programs addressing something that could have a huge impact on the future of farming. He received a grant from SARE to educate agricultural service providers. The information generated by this project is on the website http://www.climateandfarming.org/.

In an interview with the Valley Advocate in March 23, 2006, Vern tells us that “the last 10 years have had some of the warmest temperatures on record.” While the longer growing seasons may help grass based dairy operations and grape growers, they could result in lower apple yields, increased insect populations and a change in weed species. In a fact sheet written for the University of Vermont Extension on Climate Change and Agriculture, Vern tells us that “As rainfall gets more erratic, reliable irrigation as well as good field drainage will become even more important.” Farmers will have to adapt to the changing climate if they are to be successful. “As the climate has changed, the ideal geographic area for some crops has been moving northward. It’s going to be a long transition and farmers need to be thinking about how to adapt rather than simply react.”

The main cause of climate change is the burning of fossil fuel which generates carbon dioxide. Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have risen dramatically in the last one hundred years and the U.S. produces more CO2 per person per year than any other country. This may soon change now that countries such as China are dramatically increasing their industrial base. Even though farmers have not contributed significantly to climate change and may be forced to adapt by growing different crops, there are steps they can take to reduce the problem. Among other things these include taking CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it in soils by the use of cover crops

and green manures, increasing the use of bio-fuels and increasing the efficiency of fuel, fertilizers and pesticides. “Through innovation, and implementation of more sustainable technologies, farmers can enhance their stewardship of natural resources, reduce their contribution to climate change, and improve their bottom line.” These are concepts NOFA members understand well!

On this blisteringly hot July day, as I watch the swelling fruit in my trees that were miraculously pollinated despite two solid weeks of torrential, record breaking rain during bloom time, I am glad that Vern can offer hope for a very real problem.

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A quarterly journal for CSAand small farm advocates


by Larry Siegel

I’ve long maintained a curiosity about the affairs of my garden and an enduring interest in quantifying its results. For many years now, I have served as a trialer for FEDCO Seeds and Moose Tubers, at one time or another growing out carrots, lettuce, corn miscellaneous root crops, peppers and beans. This year’s trials include 15 cucumbers and 14 potato varieties. The meticulous observation and record keeping required satisfies my need to “intellectualize” my gardening activities.

A dozen or so years ago I turned my curiosity to the possibility of ‘perennializing’ what we treat as annuals, to determine whether it would be possible to maintain garden plots without annual seeding. It started with lettuce, when I left a few in the ground to complete their life cycle. The results were dramatic: the rosette of leaves grew several feet and were flowering by late July (as an aside, we eat, and enjoy, the leaves of bolting lettuce) and maturing its seed in September. Even more dramatic was the emergence of lettuce seedlings the following spring. The process had begun. That bed has provided lettuce ever since, the principal task being to thin out the multitude of seedlings. During really mild autumns, like 2005, many seeds germinate in October. Unassisted, they will not survive the winter, so I make use of discarded fish tanks to provide that assistance and assure an early spring crop of lettuce.

From there, I took note of the dill and cilantro, both of which prodigiously self-seed, often in the same year they have emerged and always in the following year. Even if they did not, the yellow umbels of dill flowers and white umbels of cilantro flowers are striking additions to the vegetable garden. While I continue to plant both throughout the gardening season, the self-seeded ones provide me with my earliest pickings.

My list of self-seeding annual flowers continues to grow: elephant head amaranth, calendula, Chi-nese forget-me-not, nigella, nicotiana, poppies,

On ‘Perennializing’ Annual Plants

rudbeckias, sunflowers, tri-color sage, milk thistle, bupleurum, verbena. . . . The literature assures me that many others will self-seed as well (cosmos, bachelor buttons, larkspur, cleome, etc.) though I’ve experienced far less success with these. (All of my initial seed stock came from FEDCO Seeds.) This may be a self-seeded garden but it is hardly a self-maintained one. The list of weeds in the plots is as long as that of the desirable plants. More important-ly, there is such a vast number of desired seedlings that ruthless thinning is required. The rewards are worth the efforts: as the season progresses, different combinations of flowers dominate. Earliest are the bupleurums, sages, calendula, and Chinese forget-me-nots, followed by the poppies, nigella, and milk thistle, followed by the verbena and sunflowers, fol-lowed finally, by the amaranth and nicotiana. Bear in mind that many of these, particularly the poppies and amaranth, can become pretty pesky weeds in the midst of the vegetable garden, so prepare yourself for the task at hand.

Turning my attention back to vegetables, I left a couple of parsnips in the ground and was rewarded with a striking show of five-foot tall masses of yellow flowers competing with, and complementing, the hollyhocks with which they grow. They seem to be more attractive to a larger variety of insects than anything else flowering during that time. And I am assured of parsnip seedlings the following spring, providing a fall crop to supplement that which I’ve planted. At any given time the plot has new plants growing and over-wintered plants flowering and seeding, thus assuring its continuity.

Shallots and garlic, by virtue of their bulbs, are already perennials, though growing practices turn them into annuals (by harvesting these bulbs and re-planting). In the fall of 2003, I established small plots of each, closely spacing small shallot bulbs and the bulbils from a garlic plant. The shallots provided greens the next spring; garlic the following year. This source of early greens is especially important in our household, since I lack a greenhouse and do not as a rule purchase vegetables.

Establishing (and maintaining) a perennial garlic bed is a particular challenge: those wispy shoots emerging from the bulbils are darn near indistinguishable from those wispy grass seedlings emerging alongside them. But what is gardening without the challenge?

It worked well in 2005 with the garlic yielding well before the shallots. They were eaten to our heart’s content, the surplus being bunched up and sold like scallions at farmer’s market. It worked less well this year, their very success creating over-crowded conditions. I have ruthlessly thinned for next year.

Finally, I addressed the matter of potatoes. Notwithstanding my efforts to dig all the potatoes, volunteer plants would emerge the following year throughout the prior season’s plot, enough of them so that they became the principal weed of that plot. I decided to encourage that propensity by establishing a twenty-five square foot perennial potato patch. In the fall of 2004 I planted it out with eighty nubbins (weighing 3/8 ounce each), covering well with hay. Forty emerged the following spring. I dug approximately fifteen pounds, a yield of six to one from that planted, but twelve to one from that which emerged. As I dug, I left the nubbins behind to continue the process, though I know not how many or what they weighed. This year only ten plants emerged, their yield yet to be determined.

I have notions to continue these experiments. Parsley occasionally works, though I have trouble wintering over the plants. This year only one survived and flowered. There are so many seeds on one parsley plant that, theoretically at least, I ought to have a multitude of seedlings next spring. We shall see. Tomatoes, too, show promise. Nobody who grows tomatoes fails to find volunteers the following year. Generally, these are too late to provide a large crop but I imagine conditions could be provided to encourage earlier emergence. This year, a cherry tomato plant in a compost pile is every bit as advanced as those in the garden.

This is, I suppose, SARE grant fodder, though I have serious reservations about the program, considering it little more than government hand-outs to farmers who deliver questionably useful bits of data. Perhaps somebody else will take on the task, somebody comfortable with receiving the $25 or so per hour the program generously provides.


Special Supplement on

Organic PotatoesIn the ancient ruins of Peru and Chile, arch-aeologists have found potato remains that date back to 500 B.C. The Incas grew and ate them, and also worshipped them. They stashed potatoes in concealed bins for use in case of war or famine, they dried them and carried them on long journeys to eat on the way (dried or soaked in stew) they even buried potatoes with their dead. Ancient Inca potatoes had dark purplish skins and yellow flesh. The Incas called the potato “papas,” as they do today. Following is the Inca prayer that historians say they used to worship them.

Creator! Thou who givest life to all things and hast made men that they may live, and multiply. Multiply also the fruits of the earth, the potatoes and other food that thou hast made, that men may not suffer from hunger and misery.”

The first European to see the potato was Pedro de Cieza de Leon (1518–1560), Spanish Conquistador and historian, who wrote about the potato in his chronicles, Chronicles of Peru, in 1540:

“In the vicinities of Quito the inhabitants have with to the maize an other plant that serves to support in great part their existence: the potatoes, that they are of the roots similar to the tubercoli, supplies of one rind more or little hard; when they come bubbled they become to hold like the cooked chestnuts; seccate to the sun call to them chuno and they are conserved for the use.”

Spanish explorer and conqueror, Gonzalo Jiminez de Quesada (1499-1579), took the potato to Spain in lieu of the gold he did not find. The Spanish thought that they were a kind of truffle and called them “tartuffo.” Potatoes were soon a standard supply item on the Spanish ships; they noticed that the sailors who ate papas (potatoes) did not suffer from scurvy.

John Gerard (1545-1612), a British author, avid gardner, and collector of rare plants, received roots of the plant from Virginia where he was able to successfully grow it in his own garden. He wrote in his book The Herball, the following about the potato:

“Potatoes of the Virginia. The potato of the Virginia has many coppers flexible cables and that crawl for earth... The root is thick, large and tuberosa; not much various one for shape, color and sapore from common potatoes (the sweet potatoes) but a smaller Pò; some are round as spheres, other ovals; the some longer other shortest ones... It grows spontaneously in America where, as Clusius has reported, it has been discovered; from then I have received these roots from the Virginia otherwise Norembega calls; they grow and they prosper in my garden like in their country of origin... Its correct name is cited in the title it. Poichè it possesses not only the shape and the proportions of potatoes, but also their gradevole sapore and virtue we can call them potatoes of the America or Virginia.”

The potato was carried on to Italy and England about 1585, to Belgium and Germany by 1587, to Austria about 1588, and to France around 1600. Wherever the potato was introduced, it was considered weird, poisonous, and downright evil. In France and elsewhere, the potato was accused of causing not only leprosy, but also syphilis, narcosis, scrofula, early death, sterility, and rampant sexuality, and of destroying the soil where it grew. There was so much opposition to the potato that an edict was made in the town of Besancon, France stating:

“In view of the fact that the potato is a pernicious substance whose use can cause leprosy, it is hereby forbidden, under pain of fine, to cultivate it.”

An Irish legend says that ships of the Spanish Armada, wrecked off the Irish coast in 1588, were carrying potatoes and that some of them washed ashore.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), British explorer and historian known for his expeditions to the Americas, first brought the potato to Ireland and planted them at his Irish estate at Myrtle Grove, Youghal, near Cork, Ireland. Legend has it that he made a gift of the potato plant to Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603). The local gentry were invited to a royal banquet featuring the potato in every course. Unfortunately, the cooks were uneducated in the matter of potatoes, tossed out the lumpy-looking tubers and brought to the royal table a dish of boiled stems and leaves (which are poisonous), which promptly made everyone deathly ill. The potatoes were then banned from court.

Potatoes had been introduced to the United States several times throughout the 1600s. They were not widely grown for almost a century until 1719, when they were planted in Londonderry, New Hampshire, by Scotch-Irish immigrants, and from there spread across the nation.

Antoine-Augustin Parmentier (1737-1813), a French military chemist and botanist, won a contest sponsored by the Academy of Besancon to find a food “capable of reducing the calamities of famine” with his study of the potato called Chemical Examination of the Potato. According to historical account, he was taken prisoner five times by the Prussians during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) and obliged to survive on a diet of potatoes. He also served dinners at which all courses were made of potatoes. Many French potato dishes now bear his name today.

In 1785, Parmentier persuades Louis XVI (1754–1793), King of France, to encourage cultivation of potatoes. The King let him plant 100 useless acres outside Paris, France in potatoes with troops keeping the field heavily guarded. This aroused public curiosity and the people decided that anything so carefully guarded must be valuable. One

night Parmentier allowed the guards to go off duty, and the local farmers, as he had hoped, went into the field, confiscated the potatoes and planted them on their own farms. From this small start, the habit of growing and eating potatoes spread. It is said that Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), Queen of France and married to Louis XVI, often pinned potato flowers in her curls. Because of her, ladies of the era wore potato blossoms in their hair.

Russian peasants refused to have anything to do with the potato until the mid 1700s. Frederick the Great (1712-1786) sent free potatoes to the starving peasants after the famine of 1774, but they refused to touch them until soldiers were sent to persuade them.

Although potatoes are grown throughout the United States, no state is more associated with the potato than Idaho. The first potatoes in Idaho were planted by a Presbyterian missionary, Henry Harmon Spalding (1804-1874). Spalding established a mission at Lapwai in 1836 to bring Christianity to the Nez Perce Indians. He wanted to demonstrate that they could provide food for themselves through agriculture rather than hunting and gathering. His first crop was a failure, but the second year the crop was good. After that, the potato growing ended for a number of years because the Indians massacred the people of a nearby mission, so Spalding left the area.

The “Great Famine” or also called the “Great Starvation” in Ireland was caused because the potato crop became diseased. At the height of the famine (around 1845), at least one million people died of starvation. This famine left many poverty stricken families with no choice but to struggle for survival or emigrate out of Ireland. Towns became deserted, and all the best shops closed because store owners were forced to emigrate due to the amount of unemployment. Over one and a half million people left Ireland for North America and Australia. Over just a few years, the population of Ireland dropped by one half, from about 9 million to little more than 4 million.

According to a book written in 1962 called The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849 by Cecil Woodham-Smith:

“That cooking any food other than a potato had become a lost art. Women hardly boiled anything but potatoes. The oven had become unknown after

A Brief History of the Potato

The Center of Origin for Potatoes is in the Andes


the introduction of the potato prior to the Great Starvation.”

Most Americans consider the potato as food for animals rather than for humans. As late as the middle of the 19th Century, the Farmer’s Manual recommended that potatoes “be grown near the hog pens as a convenience towards feeding the hogs.”

Harvesting Potatoes with Modern Equipment

In Isabella Beeton’s 1862 book called Book of Household Management, she wrote about the potato:

“It is generally supposed that the water in which potatoes are boiled is injurious; and as instances are

recorded where cattle having drunk it were seriously affected, it may be well to err on the safe side, and avoid its use for any alimentary purpose.”

It was not until the Russet Burbank potato was developed by American horticulturist Luther Burbank (1849-1926) in 1872 that the Idaho potato industry really took off. Burbank, while trying to improve the Irish potato, developed a hybrid that was more disease resistant. He introduced the Burbank potato to Ireland to help combat the blight epidemic. He sold the rights to the Burbank potato for $150, which he used to travel to Santa Rosa, California. In Santa Rosa, he established a nursery garden, greenhouse, and experimental farms that have become famous throughout the world. By the early 1900s, the Russet Burbank potato began appearing throughout Idaho.

Today, the potato is so common and plentiful in the Western diet that it is taken for granted. We seem to forget that the potato has only been with us for a few hundred years.

by James W DavisExcerpted from “Aristocrat in Burlap”

In certain ways the mighty Snake River is the mother of Idaho’s potato industry. It has, through the centuries, transported and deposited much of the silt that farmers cultivate today in lower lying fields along the river course. It provides much of the water that makes possible the growing of a plant that needs a soil moisture of eighty percent for ideal growth. As it plunges a mile downwards in elevation along its course, the Snake generates electrical en-ergy that makes pumping from deep wells possible, and most of the potato growing areas in the state lie contiguous to the Snake River Valley as it twists its way in a 550-mile arc across southern Idaho.

Early History

The first potatoes grown in Idaho were planted in northern Idaho by Rev. Henry Spaulding. It was a successful crop, but his missionary work was brought to an end by the Whitman massacre and the Spauldings were forced to leave in 1850.

Pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 22, 1847. On July 24 a five-acre potato patch was plowed and seed potatoes planted. The first irriga-tion in Salt Lake Valley was for the benefit of the newly planted potatoes. A week later the potatoes were growing.

Certain pioneers were sent northward to settle other areas. One of these was Cache Valley. Some, think-ing they were still in Utah, had actually crossed the border into Idaho and began to establish their farms there. One of these early settlers in Franklin was William Goforth Nelson. He recorded in the sum-mer of 1860: “We all camped in our wagons the first summer, but we all got homes built by winter; these houses were built in the present meetinghouse lot in a fort. I spent the summer working on ditches, can-ton roads, and hauling poles and wood from the can-yon. I raised thirty-three bushels of potatoes, which is all that was raised in Franklin that summer except for a few onions.”

This is the first recorded planting of potatoes in Idaho in an area where the settlers remained and the crop is still grown to some extent today. The plant-ing was accomplished three years before the Idaho Territory was organized.

The spread of potato agriculture in eastern Idaho was only a matter of time. Henry E. Jenkins was a freighter hauling a load of potatoes from Farming-ton, Utah, to Blackfoot, Idaho. The recipient of the shipment was Judge Stephens, who was encouraged by the freighter to plant the potatoes believed to be the first planting in the Blackfoot area. More and more potatoes were planted and the Blackfoot area has grown now into one of the principal potato pro-ducing areas in Idaho.

The Potato in IdahoThose first Idaho settlers were pioneers mentally as well as geographically because they had the initia-tive and willingness to better their conditions re-gardless of physical hardships and uncertain futures.

In the river valleys, where water was easily diverted, and with the rich volcanic-ash soil, these hearty people raised a few more potatoes than they needed and found that the extra potatoes resulted in a good cash crop. From this small beginning, Idaho’s farm-ers set out on the conquest of the potato markets of the United States.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates for the state of Idaho were first made in 1882 and they recorded 2,000 acres harvested. Total value of the potato market in Idaho that first year was $250,000. In 1904 there were 17,000 acres harvested for $1,328,000. In 1915 more than three million dol-lars was realized from 33,000 acres. Production had grown to 16,146,000 hundredweight by 1930 and Idaho potatoes were gaining their national reputa-tion for baking quality and the higher grading stan-dards of Idaho shippers.

Russet Burbank Developed

The famous Idaho potato, Russet Burbank, is known as being large in size, white, mealy & delicious. It was developed by Luther Burbank, beginning in 1872 when he planted twenty-three seeds from an Early Rose parent plant. All produced tubers, but one was superior in yield and size. Originally smooth-skinned, the familiar netting is actually a mutant of the Burbank. It is more resistant to blight than the original.

Important People in the Industry

Joe Marshall became known as “Idaho Potato King” because of his untiring efforts in improving the industry. He first came to Idaho in 1902. Over the years he was a careful overseer of all aspects of potato growing, harvesting, storage, marketing and shipping. He was always ready to pass on his exper-tise to other growers, and his reputation as a potato expert became widespread.

His concepts of seed potato quality were implement-ed by the University of Idaho in a foundation seed program. Seed growers in the high altitude seed producing areas of the state owe much to Marshall’s vision and understanding of the value of certified seed.

Men such as Marshall are given credit for establish-ing the principle that quality was an important factor in marketing Idaho potatoes. Marshall took great pride in his crop and insisted it be handled carefully and he put only merchandise of which he was proud in bags bearing his brand.

Other shippers soon followed suit when they real-ized that the introduction of the Russet Burbank had

given the state of Idaho a unique product to sell, and quality began to be the watch word of Idaho potato shippers.

Another individual whose name is synonymous with potatoes is John (Jack) R. Simplot. Simplot has been in turn the largest fresh shipper of potatoes in the state, the largest grower of Idaho potatoes and the largest processor. His greatest contribution to the industry has been his immense capacity for innova-tion, pioneering, speculation and the absolute fear-less assault of unknown frontiers in production and marketing.

He began building his potato empire in the 1930’s as a fresh shipper. He aggressively sought new customers and bought out competitors. In 1940 he was the largest single shipper of Idaho potatoes, with 32 packing warehouses from American Falls to Jamison, Oregon, and in 1940 shipped 10,000 cars of Idaho potatoes to receivers all over the nation.

Simplot started a system with growers from whom he bought potatoes. He would buy certified seed and induce each one of his growers to purchase ten or more bags from him on credit. They were instructed to plant these ten bags of potatoes late in the season which caused the tubers to be small in size and rela-tively immature at harvest time. This lot of potatoes then, which had been grown from the certified seed and multiplied by one year’s growing, served as the seed for the next year’s crop. The practice, which Simplot developed, proved to be so superior to us-ing “year out” seed that it became almost a universal practice in the potato growing areas of Idaho.

Simplot also discovered the value of chemical fertil-izers one year when he purchased a carload of fertil-izer to try as an experiment. A portion of the field was planted with the plant food as far as it went. When it ran out the rest of the field was planted without the benefit of the new product.

At harvest time the portion of the field where the fertilizer had been applied had a beautiful crop of potatoes. They were large, of good quality, good type, and the yield was heavy. Where the fertilizer supplied had run out “was where we ran out of pota-toes” according to Simplot.

The fertilizer industry was in its infancy and sup-plies of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer were diffi-cult to obtain. This led Simplot to build his own fer-tilizer production plants which has become a large and lucrative division of his enterprises.

Simplot has also developed a wide system of dehy-drated and frozen potato products. He has plants in many locations and markets all over the world.

In the early days of potato production the grower was also the marketer and shipper. Hauling was done by horse-drawn wagons to the railroad. Potato shipping warehouses began to spring up along the

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rF a l l , 2 0 0 6 13railroads to facilitate the process. Eventually the po-tato shipping business separated from that of potato growing.

Advertising and Marketing

Advertising and marketing of the Idaho potatoes as a unique and trademarked product became impor-tant. The Russet Burbank began to be produced in other parts of the country and was sometimes mar-keted as Idaho potatoes. A great deal of effort and even some “days in court” resulted in the protection of the Idaho potato trademark.

Potato Processing

As people’s habits and lifestyles have changed the demand for processed potatoes has grown. Idaho’s potato industry has recognized and met this demand.

The earliest form of potato processing was probably drying potatoes to preserve them for future use. In Idaho, the first processing activity was the extrac-tion of starch from potatoes closely followed by the production of potato flour and potato meal.

The Rogers Brothers Seed Company claims the first dehydration of potatoes for food use in Idaho. They indicate that they were producing potato flour in 1926 and drying diced potatoes in 1940. Military needs during World War II forced the development of techniques that gave birth to the modern potato processing industry in the Gem State as well as the rest of the world.

In 1942 Simplot produced dehydrated potatoes, us-ing the same process as drying onions. R.T. French began producing potato granules for instant mashed potatoes in 1952.

The potato processing industry has evolved over the years until it has become possible to buy potatoes as frozen French fries, potato rounds, stuffed baked po-tatoes, shredded potato patties, hash browns, curly fries, seasoned fries, or mashed. Dehydrated pota-toes come as flakes or granules for instant mashed, hash browns, diced for soups and stews, or sliced for au gratin, etc.

There are processing plants for frozen products and those that are purely dehydration plants. Some op-erations have facilities for both types of processing.

One of the benefits of processing potatoes, aside from convenience to the consumer, is that it gives an opportunity to use the less than perfect potatoes, resulting in less waste.

Irrigation and Land Development

Irrigation plays a critical role in the growing and production of potatoes. The Carey Act of 1894 made it possible for more land to be opened up for agricultural use. Under this Act, the so-called public land states with desert lands were offered one mil-lion federal acres each, provided they would cause the granted lands to be irrigated.

Idaho benefited from the Carey Act far more than did any other state. About 60% of all lands irrigated in the United States under the Carey Act are in Idaho. Over the period of forty years, the state of Idaho received 618,000 acres of previously desert, arid land. The overall benefit from the construc-tion of dams and canals, the settlement of farms, the birth of towns and cities and the production of crops on the economy of Idaho is impossible to measure. Carey Act reclamation projects have put substantial tracts of land under cultivation that be-came family farms and were utilized to grow Idaho potatoes. Without this one piece of legislation many of today’s potato fields would be range for cattle and sheep.

High-lift pumping opened up even more of the des-ert lands to farming. Several projects were devel-oped to bring water from the Snake River. The water was pumped 500 to 725 feet up from the river.

The combination of private citizens and private lending institutions expanding the agricultural

economy of Idaho by adding significantly to potato production must certainly be included in the history of the industry. It is one of the noteworthy eras in the story of the potato in Idaho, an era, however, that belonged to the past when there was plentiful desert entry land, cheap energy and lower develop-ment costs.

Technical Development

When white men first came to Idaho to farm, the heavy work of soil preparation, planting, cultiva-tion and harvesting was done by the muscle power of men and horses. Women also helped out in the fields, but there was usually plenty of hard work to do around the farm house as well.

The internal combustion engine produced the first technological revolution in the Idaho potato in-dustry. Gasoline-powered farm tractors and motor trucks made their appearance about the same time in the early 1920’s. Horses continued to play an im-portant role for some time and teams were used for hauling after they had been replaced by the tractor for the heavy work of plowing, cultivation and dig-ging potatoes. Potato diggers were slow to improve. They were designed primarily to unearth the pota-toes and leave them exposed on top of the ground, to be picked by hand and put in field bags. Harvest time required many hands and people who did not do field work any other time of year were recruited to pick potatoes in the annual September-October race against the freeze-up. The pickers filled their field bags about half-full and they were loaded on wagons to be hauled from the fields and dumped in potato cellars.

As harvest labor became harder to get, machinery designers began to improve diggers. The use of chain link conveyors to separate field dirt from po-tatoes soon led to a more complex machine that el-evated the potatoes in bulk to the height of a potato truck and eliminated hand picking and field bags. Space was provided on some harvesters for people to stand so they could remove vines, trash, clods of soil and field stones.

A major breakthrough was the development of sprinkler irrigation. The facts are not available as to who did the first irrigation with sprinklers in Idaho, but by the late 1940s the trend had begun. A ma-jor factor was the development of light-aluminum sprinkler pipe that could be moved from one part of the field to another. These are called handlines. One of the big advantages of sprinkling is that it was no longer necessary to have flat ground. The system adapted to the gently rolling hills of much of Idaho’s unreclaimed desert areas and made possible the ad-ditions of thousands of new acres of potato ground. Pumps were used to create the pressure for sprin-kling and were usually powered by an electric motor or an internal combustion engine. At first the water was pumped from irrigation ditches.

Sprinkler potatoes proved to be of more uniform quality because soil moisture and soil temperature could be controlled with greater accuracy. Sprinklers worked better on light soils and their use greatly reduced irrigation runoff which carried silt and other undesirable substances back into rivers.

Another technological advancement that has con-tributed greatly to the Idaho potato industry is the mechanically refrigerated railroad car and semi-trailers. The freight car that is charged with liquid carbon dioxide can keep a load frozen solid for periods as long as 14 to 16 days if necessary. This makes it possible for huge quantities of frozen pota-toes to be shipped all over the country.

Use of automated controls on nearly every phase of processing has likewise accomplished savings in la-bor cost and tightened tolerances for higher quality.

Computers have steadily increased their usefulness to fresh shippers in optical sizing and grading func-tions. Machines that fill consumer-size bags now depend on electronic brains to get the weight of the contents exact without underweights and a mini-mum of overweights.

Potato Quotes“What I say is that, if a fellow really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.”A. A. Milne (1882-1956), popular children’s author

“If beef’s the king of meat, potato’s the queen of the garden world.”Irish Saying

“Only two things in this world are too serious to be jested on, potatoes and matrimony.”Irish saying

“Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful root that we cannot get on without it any more than we can without potatoes.”Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), American novelist

Potato JokesAn old man living alone in South Armagh, whose only son was in Long Kesh Prison, didn’t have any-one to dig his garden for his potatoes. So he wrote to his son about his predicament.

The son sent the reply, “For HEAVENS SAKE, don’t dig the garden up, that’s where I buried the guns!!!!!” At 3 AM the next morning, a dozen Brit-ish soldiers turned up and dug the garden for 3 hours, but didn’t find any guns.

Confused, the man wrote to his son telling him what had happened, asking him what he should do now?

The son sent the reply: “NOW plant the potatoes!”

Potato FactsEurope and the former Soviet Union account for 75% of the world’s potato crop. Russia accounts for as much as 33% of the world’s crop. Poland is second with 15%, and then the USA is third with a distant 5%. The average annual crop of potatoes worldwide - 291 million tons - could cover a four-lane superhighway circling the world six times.

A medium potato, weighing between 5 and 10 ounces, has 76 calories -- no more than an apple. Potatoes are fat-free, rich in potassium and an ex-cellent source of fiber. Additionally, this vegetable contains one-half the daily requirement of vitamin C, 15 percent of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin B6 and 10 percent of the niacin require-ments. Potatoes should be stored in a cool, dry, dark place between 35 and 50 F. They should always be warmed to room temperature before being cooked.

Potatoes are more “soil-particular” than they are “climate-particular”. Potatoes require deep, well-drained soils that are open and loose, not hard and clayey. High organic matter (humus) contents and high fertilities are a must for potatoes.

There are more than 160 wild potato species, and most of them contain high levels of alkaloids. The first edible potatoes are considered to have been cul-tivated 4000 years ago in Peru. The south American Indians were in fact able to select alkaloid-free po-tato varieties, the results of which is still seen today.

The potato is part of the nightshade family and as such does have some disagreeable traits. One should never eat anything green from a potato. The leaves and stem are poisonous. Potatoes should be stored in dark, but dry places. Light will cause the formation of solanine on the skin of the potato. Though not likely to cause serious harm, green skinned potatoes can taste bitter and may result in temporary diges-tive discomfort.

When confronted by green skin on a potato, simply peel it away. Potatoes are one of the most nutritious staple crops discovered by man. With milk in the diet, it can be a sustaining and healthful source of energy, vitamins and minerals both in times of want and in times of plenty.


by Jack Kittredge

Hawley, Massachusetts is one of those wonderful New England towns that the years seem to have ignored. Nestled high in the Berkshires, its 336 residents are spread out over 31 square miles. Two state forests occupy almost half the town’s land, with the rest a mix of forests and fields. On the top of one local mountain at an elevation of 2400 feet, on appropriately named “Forget Road”, Ivy Donovan raises potatoes.

“My father came down out of Maine in the forties and bought this land,” Ivy relates. “This is good potato land. Cool nights make good potatoes.

“It was 800 acres then,” he continues. My father didn’t want neighbors. But I had five brothers and three sisters. We pretty much got rid of the big rocks. As a kid all we had was that Farmall. After we’d plant, we’d go through the fields with that old Farmall and a stone boat. Any of the real big rocks, we’d take a round pointed shovel and a chain and a crowbar. You know, a guy learned more from that than he realized! You look over a situation, you’ve got to find a corner to get the chain around, place the tractor just right… You could bust your head against that rock all day if you wanted, but if you do it right you can get it out!”

Although he was learning problem solving skills from his father every day, Ivy says at the time none of the kids appreciated it: “All’s I wanted to do, and all us boys, was to get off this hill! I did. When I was 17 I got 13,000 miles away from here, to Southeast Asia. I quit school and joined the army to get off this hill.”

When he got out of the service in the early 1970s Ivy worked for his father for a couple of years, and then he and his wife moved to New Hampshire. In 1984 his father, tired and not wanting to carry the load on the farm by himself anymore, talked to each of the kids about taking over for him. Ivy was the only one willing to come back

“I had a logging operation, and all my equipment was paid for,” he recalls. “But I’d always thought about farming, so we decided to do it. We bought the farm. Nobody else wanted anything to do with it. I worked with my father here in 1984 growing potatoes, and then in the spring of 1985 he was diagnosed with colon cancer. He had an operation but in 1986 he died. It was awful. He wanted to get rid of the load, then go to farm auctions and pick up old farm equipment, fix it up and resell it. He would have loved that, but he never got the chance.”

Ivy grew conventional potatoes through 1986, then in 1987 he cut his acreage in half and started growing some organic ones. The following year he grew them all organically.

“When I first started with organic potatoes I only did 200 pounds of seed,” he says. “But then we went up to an acre. There was a three year waiting period and when we hit the third year we went all the way up to 20 acres. I’ve had upwards of 25 acres in 25 varieties! At that time most of it went to Bread and Circus. I would package it on pallets and take it down to Hadley to meet their trucks. They would take it from there down to their stores. I once had some people in town tell me my potatoes were being sold in New Jersey!”

There were several reasons Ivy decided to go organic. But a large one was that organic products had become available to deal with the potato bug. A Bt insecticide named M-One had come out which he felt was pretty effective. It is no longer available, but has been replaced with M-Trak, which he thinks is even better.

“I sprayed last week,” he relates, and my goodness, I went out the next day and there were piles of bugs,

Ivy Donovan: Raising Potatoes at the Top of the World

wherever they had been on plants. I always thought that my biggest problem was the potato bug, but now it’s the leafhopper. Today they have a product that works on them, Pyrellin. But they’re still tough.

“They come in out of the south on the jet stream,” he continues. “Once they’re here they have ten generations or so in a season. They don’t over-winter. Once you see one, that’s too many! They do a lot of damage in that they transmit viruses into plants. It’ll hurt the plants so much that later, when you want them to size up and make bigger tubers, the plants are too weak and they can’t do it. They have what’s called hopper-burn. The leaves just curl up and turn brown.”

Ivy thinks Pyrellin is pretty effective against leaf hoppers, but of course you have to hit them with it. It has to get on their bodies. And that is tough, he says, once the potato plants fill the rows in. You have to spray with high pressure, with a lot of volume. He gets his best results spraying at night, in a full moon so he can see what he’s doing. During the day much of it evaporates, and there’s almost always a breeze so he gets a lot of drift.

Donovan currently has about two and a half acres in potatoes. They are planted in long rows near the house, each row being about a quarter of a mile long. He does all the work himself, and has specialized equipment for each stage. For planting, he uses a two-row planter that opens up the row, puts the organic fertilizer in, drops in the seed, and covers it up. He cuts potatoes for seed by hand, sitting on a seed cutting horse with the radio on.

For cultivation he uses a spring-tooth weeder. He says: “If you took a black and white picture of me cultivating, you couldn’t tell if it was me or my father in the 1950s. It’s the same tractor, same equipment. I learned to operate as soon as my leg was long enough to reach the pedals! But I did put power steering on it. I have rheumatoid arthritis and it’s hard to steer with all that weight!”

After awhile the potato plants get so big he can’t use the cultivator any more because he’d do too much damage. So every morning he spends the first half hour walking through the potatoes picking weeds. His old dog goes with him and he enjoys the peace and quiet.

Generally Ivy has to irrigate. “Only one year in five I don’t have to irrigate,” he says. “It’s a big job to set that line up here from the pond. But the two things I say about organic growing is isolation and irrigation. Control what you can. I don’t have to worry about a neighbor not taking care of his bugs. In lots of ways you’re better off if you have to irrigate. You can water as necessary then.”

When you harvest potatoes you should take the tops off and wait two weeks for the skins to get tougher and the potatoes to cure before digging them. You can wait for the tops to die back, but if you have a lot of potatoes you’d never get them harvested. Ivy starts in early September and goes to late October. Some years he gets pretty early frosts on the mountaintop, however, and remembers one on October 3rd that went down 3 inches and spoiled a lot of potatoes.

For this task, too, he uses his father’s equipment: “Back in the fifties we’d use a roto-beater to take the tops off – it had rubber fingers and you would go through and beat the tops off. Then the vines would die back and in two weeks you could dig them. Well, I got that out and we’re using it. I had to take my chain saw to get it out of where it was!”

He also built a weed flamer. Once the tops are off the potatoes, the weeds will start growing. Then, when it comes time to harvest you have to pick through weeds. So he goes through with the flamer once the weeds start poking up and kills them while the potatoes are still under cover.

Ivy and his father used a regular harvester when they were harvesting 60 acres of potatoes. But when Ivy started growing organic he got the old two-row digger out. He explains: “The big harvester would bruise a lot of the potatoes on this kind of ground. And all your smaller ones would shake right through and you’d lose them. But today those small potatoes are an excellent item. A lot of people want them. We’ll mix all different colors of creamer size and sell them. People will pay extra!”

The two-row digger brings the spuds up, the dirt falls through properly spaced rods, and the potatoes are carried to the end and laid on the ground behind the digger, for hand picking. The bar cuts just to the bottom of the hill, lifts the whole hill up and shakes the potatoes free. The sprockets have removable

photo by Jack Kittredge

Ivy Donovan stands before his meticulous quarter-mile long hills of potatoes

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rF a l l , 2 0 0 6 1�

long and short arms which can raise and lower the rods rapidly to shake the dirt free. That shaking is great if the ground is wet, but if it is too dry and you don’t want to drop the dirt too soon you can take those arms out and the shaking stops.

Ivy’s digger has a gearbox mounted on the shaft coming from the PTO. “They don’t come through from the factory with a transmission on it,” he laughs. “That was the first thing my father did, was put that transmission on. It gives you more control to run it faster or slower, depending on the conditions of the field. Nowadays you have more gears on your tractor so you don’t need the transmission as much.”

Ivy also has a potato washer and a grading machine to screen out the smaller ones so you can pack them separately. Potato grades are As which are full size, Bs which are smaller potatoes, creamers which are golf ball size, and babies the size of a man’s thumbnail. There is also a storage building, built in 1956. Ivy’s father insulated it and used wood stoves for heat. Some winters, he recalls, it got 10 below zero and they had all the stoves going!

Donovan says his biggest problem now with growing potatoes is to get a good organic and also certified disease-free seed. The state of Maine has a seed disease certification program. To be in that you have to “rogue” your plants while they’re growing -- you have to walk your fields and pull up any plants that are diseased and haul them out of the field. You also have to send a sampling to Florida, which is grown down there in the winter. If you have more disease than they allow you can’t sell that crop as seed.

For years one could buy commercial certified disease-free potatoes for seed and grow them it out as organic. But now the organic regulations require you to search for organic sources. Ivy buys most of his seed out of Colorado from Rockey Farms. He gets some from Wood Prairie Farm in Maine.

His personal favorite is Kennebec, the round white potato his father grew. It’s great both for chips and for the table. Ivy also likes the Norwood as an eating potato. But he grows about 12 different varieties, picking the ones which sell the best and also store the best. He says right now people like yellow potatoes like Yukon Gold.

He says on some of his better varieties he gets a yield of 200 hundred-weights per acre. Some varieties, of course, don’t do that well. Again, depending on the variety, he can get a base price of a dollar a pound to a high of three dollars a

pound, for the fingerlings. The market at which he has sold well for years is the Northampton farmers market. He laughs: “I can’t sell too many roadside here. Pretty much the only one that goes by is the mailman!”

For a while Ivy and his wife Cinni tried adding value to their potatoes by chipping them. “We started the potato chip business in 1990,” he recalls. “They were called ‘Rocky Row’. We had the plant in this red barn, insulated, purchased a kettle cooker. The hardest part of that was the packaging. We weren’t automated. In one hour I could cook more chips than we could package in half a day or more. We had a machine that, once you filled the bin with cooked chips, it would vibrate them into a chute and weigh it off. But you had to stand there and hold the 5-ounce bag while someone filled it, and then someone would have to heat seal it.”

One problem Ivy had making an organic chip was that, with the chipping varieties then, you couldn’t store them at lower than 55 degrees or the chips

would turn brown. All the starch would turn into sugar. If you don’t use sprout inhibitors, however, and keep the storage at 55 or more the potatoes will start sprouting. That’s what nature tells them to do at that temperature. Conventional growers either spray their fields with sprout inhibitors, or gas their storage buildings.

“That’s the worst thing about commercial potatoes,” Ivy says. “I wouldn’t worry about the sprays they use to grow them, I’d worry about what they put into that potato later telling it not to grow! It’s in there – you got to be eating it when you eat that potato!”

Finally Frito-Lay developed varieties that would chip in cold storage. Snowden was one of the big varieties, but many don’t even have names -- just numbers. Now they have varieties that you can chip at 45 degrees.

But back then Ivy found a way to keep some in cooler storage, and then bring them slowly into more heat. Gradually they warmed back up and the color came back to white. That way he was able to operate the business from September until April.

“I was doing 25 acres for Bread and Circus and chipping also,” he says. “That time a guy was younger and he thought he could do it all! It doesn’t work like that!

“We sold to a middleman,” he continues. “That’s no good. It never is. If I sell my potatoes at a farmers market, we get that 100% markup, not the stores. I’m glad I tried it, but it come down to I didn’t want to hire someone else to do it. That product was going out with my name on it, and I wanted to do it. But I had to choose between that and being out here in these fields. Also, they were fried, and you couldn’t call them a health food. So maybe it’s just as well that it ended up as it did. They sold fine – I have people asking for them today!”

The other crop Ivy raises is hay. Unlike the potatoes, Ivy’s hay is not organic.

“There’s not enough of a market for organic hay,” Ivy insists. “The organic fertilizer I use on the potatoes is way too expensive for what I can charge for hay. I don’t have animals or neighbors with animals for manure, and you can’t haul manure very far up these hills to get it here to be cost effective.”

Right now Donovan is haying 65 acres by himself. He does this by selling it standing in the field to neighbors. He doesn’t have a kicker with a trailer, so just goes through and drops them on the ground.


Ivy’s two-row harvester cuts under the potatoes and brings the entire hill up and overthe moving rods. The dirt falls between the rods and the potatoes are carriedto the back and dropped onto the ground. Note the added gearshift just past

where the universal joint transfers power from the PTO.


A close-up shows the cutting edge of the potato harvester. Ignore the cultivating bar and tines on the ground just in front of the harvester


“I have customers who take it right out of the field,” he says. “They’re all waiting and will come right up here. A guy coming Saturday is picking up 600 bales. They go out in the field and pick them up bale by bale, where I drop them. You hear of people down in Boston paying $7, $8, $9 a bale. But you can’t get that here. Here you get $2.50 in the field! By the time you buy a truck and try to keep in on the road to get to Boston, you’re better off selling it in the field.

“There’s no way one man can load and move bales from 65 acres,” he continues. “Especially in a year like this. You’d be doing first cutting in September and it would be nothing but mulch. Hay is a lot like

firewood. Too much work involved. The equipment is too expensive, and maintaining it is worse. These days there are lots of people fixing up old tractors as antiques. It used to be you could find an old tractor or parts reasonable. But now everyone is restoring them, they cost too much. And new stuff today is out of the question.”

Ivy spoke about what he would recommend to a young farmer, just getting into the business. He said without hesitation: “If I was a younger man I’d get into organic dairying. Milking 50 head is the right size operation. You can do well at that. Or selling raw milk. What you got to watch is not to take on too much, unless you are the kind of person who can

manage people. But hiring people is tough. It’s hard to pay what people can go out and make. It isn’t the money, they have to want the lifestyle.”

Donovan has been thinking a lot about the future. He had health problems 4 years ago and doesn’t want what happened to his father to happen to him.

“When I’m gone, that’s it. We have one daughter, but she doesn’t want to run the farm. If I had to sell, it would be tough. It’s protected APR land. Am I going to sell it for $300,000 for someone to farm, or am I going to sell it for $1,000,000 to someone with the money who would want this just to live on -- have a couple of horses?

“There’s 350 acres here,” he continues, “split on both sides of the road about even. There’s 110 open, 20 acres of pasture down there. We have a pond for irrigation. This would make 3 farms. But now it’s getting too much. It would be nice to have someone else come in and farm along with me. Everything I know about growing potatoes, there’s no one to pass it along to. I could show them what I did know.”


On July 5 some of the early potatoes are flowering in Ivy’s beds. Note the weed-free spuds.

A NOFA DREAMERYoung widower seeks organic land west of Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts

Areas of Interest

As an Arborist, I am used to going out on a limb to get done what needs done and I understand that entertaining the public is a natural part of it. So, once you have had your little chuckle about my ad, would you please consider that I have invested some hard earned money to get your attention. I am serious about relocating to the West Quabbin Area.

Bottom line: I deeply appreciate all who are willing to assist me in making this dream a reality. P. S. A warm thank you to everyone who responded to my previous ad.

A trustworthy soul, Kevin Stitt

10 Cross Street, Woburn, MA 01801 Email: [email protected] Home: 781-932-3828 Cell: 781-983-4086 Web Site: www.organicsoilcare.com

Proposed Land Use• Orchard: diverse as possible, either established or I will establish

• Nursery: organic practices only, low volume, high quality, non-invasive, specimen plants• Green House: propagation of trees and shrubs, year round salad greens

• Composting Site: small scale, compost tea brewing center• Tree and Landscape Business: small scale, organic practices only

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by Abby Seaman

We initiated a three-year study of organic and con-ventional systems in 2000, focusing on potatoes and winter squash production. Our team consisted of myself, Jeromy Biazzo, who was hired to coordi-nate the project, Anu Rangarajan in the Department of Horticulture at Cornell, Brian Caldwell, then Education Coordinator with NOFA-NY, Mike Hoff-mann in the Department of Entomology, George Abawi in the Department of Plant Pathology, and Bruce Dehm, with Dehm Associates Farm Business Services who analyzed our economic data. Our goal was to look at the whole production system on these farms and look for relationships between management practices, soil health, and pest pres-sure. Another goal was to document pest pressure in organic systems and see how it compared with that on similar conventional farms that have a much wider variety of pest management options at their disposal. Since this issue of The Natural Farmer is about organic potatoes, I’ll concentrate on the potato portion of our study.

Nine farmers cooperated with us in this study. Four used conventional practices and five were organic. The organic farmers had been operating for at least five years, and most had been organic for 10 or more years. One organic/conventional pair was in western NY, another was in eastern NY, and a group of five farms was located in the Ithaca area. All the farms were mixed vegetable operations, with a variety of marketing strategies including farmer’s markets, CSA, farm stands, and wholesale. Most of the farms grew both potatoes and winter squash, however in the Ithaca area one organic farm did not grow squash, so we recruited an additional organic farmer who grew winter squash. So we could have a consistent measure of yields, we chose target va-rieties of both potatoes and winter squash that were grown by a majority of farmers. For potatoes, the target variety was “Superior.” We supplied seed of Superior to farms that were not already growing that variety so it was grown on all the farms.

We were interested in finding out as much as pos-sible about the productions systems on these farms so we took a wide variety of samples. A subset of plants was scouted weekly for insect and disease pests, and beneficials. Colorado potato beetle larvae were collected and held in the lab to deter-mine the level of parasitism by naturally-occuring parasitoids. Yellow sticky cards were placed in the field every other week for an additional sample of beneficials. On alternate weeks, pitfall traps were used to monitor ground-dwelling beneficials such as ground beetles and spiders, both in the field and in the field borders. The vegetation type and percent in the borders of the fields was recorded. Soil samples included a regular soil test for nutrients, organic matter, pH and cation exchange capacity, assays of microbial activity and nitrogen mineralization rate, and particulate organic matter fractionation. Particulate organic matter (POM) is the “active” fraction of organic matter that results from regular additions of organic matter, and is thought to con-tribute to induced resistance to pests in crop plants. Parasitic and saprophytic nematodes were sampled

Potato Production on Organic and Conventional Farms:

Differences and Similarities

directly from the soil, and parasitic nematodes were also indirectly sampled using a greenhouse bioassay. Soil-borne root rotting fungi were also evaluated in the greenhouse bioassay. Weeds were sampled three times per season; before the first cultivation, at mid-season, and before harvest.

While our goal was to relate different aspects of the systems to each other, our analysis showed few strong relationships between different aspects of the systems. This is not surprising in retrospect because of the amount of variability associated with work-ing on different farms, soil types, and geographic areas. When you are taking as many different types of samples as we did, the trade-off is that the inten-sity of samples is reduced. One important lesson we learned from this study is that to examine relation-ships that are fairly subtle, it’s important to maintain some factors, such as soil type and general insect and disease pressure, relatively constant. This study re-emphasizes the importance of long-term research farm systems trials for teasing apart the sometimes subtle relationships between different aspects of production systems.

That leaves us with the question of how pest levels on organic farms, where the emphasis of the pest management program is on cultural practices and soil health, with occasional use of approved pest management materials, compare with those on similar conventional farms, which use a variety of products to reduce pests to acceptable levels. And how do the different production systems compare in terms of soil health and beneficials? This type of comparison can help identify factors that are limit-ing yield or quality in the systems and focus on ar-eas in need of research or outreach.

Insects:The three main insect pests we focused on in po-tatoes were Colorado potato beetle (CPB), potato leafhopper (PLH), and flea beetles (FB). To obtain

one number that would reflect the seasonal amount of a pest or beneficial we borrowed a measure used by plant pathologists, the area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC). The numbers that appear in the tables are the seasonal AUDPC divided by the number of weeks a particular field was sampled. Higher numbers indicate seasonal higher levels of a particular pest or beneficial. The organic growers who participated in this study used very few insecti-cides in potatoes. One farmer used Bt for CPB and another did some hand picking.

CPB is the most widely recognized potato insect pest. Adults are about 3/8 “ long, and strongly dome shaped, with black and yellow stripes. They over-winter as adults near the previous year’s potatoes, colonizing fields as soon as the potatoes emerge, sometimes stripping the foliage when populations are high. Females lay masses of bright yellow eggs that hatch into reddish nymphs, which grow quickly and chew voraciously on the plants. Larvae bur-row into the soil to pupate, emerging after 5-10 days. Our data showed that numbers of CPB were not significantly different on the conventional and organic farms (Table 1) despite the fact that the organic farmers, on average, invested very little in time and materials to control them. We sampled fourth instar larvae to estimate the levels of parasit-ism for two tachinid fly parasitoids of CPB in fields with sufficient populations to collect a sample of 50. While parasitism levels were not significantly differ-ent between the conventional and organic systems (Table 2), they were higher on the organic farms, as were number and diversity (number of types of beneficials per sample) of beneficials we found on the plants. The lack of statistical significance in the case of the beneficials may be related to the fact that beneficials are relatively rare in the field, and would need to be sampled more intensively than the more numerous pest species to have a chance of seeing a statistical difference. Our sampling intensity was more geared to the pest insects. Another factor that


may contribute to a lack of differences between the organic and conventional systems is the fact that many of the conventional growers were using imi-dacloprid, a systemic insecticide, for early season CPB and potato leafhopper management. Systemic materials do not disrupt natural enemies the way fo-liar applied products do. Carabid beetles, a type of ground dwelling beetle that has been found to climb up into potato plants to feed on CPB egg masses, were one of the insects sampled in the pitfall traps. Both diversity and numbers of beneficial organisms caught in the pitfall traps were similar between the organic and conventional systems.

Flea beetle is an early season pest that feed on the leaves, leaving behind a shot-holed appearance. They overwinter as adults near previous year’s fields and are highly mobile, invading fields soon after the sprouts emerge. Heavy infestations may reduce plant vigor, especially if the plants are al-ready stressed by hot and/or dry conditions. Flea beetle numbers were significantly higher on the or-ganic farms than the conventional farms (Table 1), although it is not clear if they contributed to reduced yield. In all the tables included in this article, an asterisk indicates a statistically significant difference and “ns” indicates no significant difference.

Potato leafhopper is a migratory pest that arrives in the northeast in April-May and often colonizes

potatoes after the first cutting of alfalfa, which is also a host. Adults are pale green, wedge-shaped, and about 1/8 inch long. They lay eggs in the peti-oles and the veins on the underside of leaves, which hatch into tiny chartreuse nymphs that develop into adults over a period of 12-35 days, depending on temperature. There can be multiple generations of PLH during the course of the growing season. PLH have piercing mouthparts, and their feeding causes a reaction in susceptible plants called hopperburn. The first symptom of hopperburn in potatoes is leaf rolling, followed by death of the leaf margins and eventual death of the entire leaf (Fig. 3). New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and parts of Vermont and Massachusetts are in an area of particularly high risk of yield loss from potato leafhopper (Figure 1). The appearance of hopperburn is more similar to a disease than the typical chewing symptoms we asso-ciate with insect feeding. Some organic farmers I’ve talked to have not been aware that the symptoms they were seeing in their potatoes were caused by PLH feeding.

Our study found that potato leafhopper numbers were significantly higher on the organic farms than the conventional farms, and that there was a sig-

nificant negative relationship between yield and leafhopper numbers (Figure 2). Average yields of organic potatoes over the three years of the study were nearly 50% lower than those on the conven-tional farms (Table 3). While I think some of us in research and extension suspected that PLH were causing some yield loss on organic farms, I don’t think anyone expected the yield losses to be so high. Nutrients were sufficient on the organic farms, and we did not find that nutrient levels were associated with yields in this study. We have followed up this work with trials looking at the susceptibility of some potato varieties commonly grown on organic farms to yield reduction by PLH and found that there is a difference between varieties when it comes to PLH.

We surveyed organic potato growers in several Northeast states to determine the most commonly grown varieties, and planted the top ten in a trial at Cornell’s Freeville research farm. We compared the yields in plots with no leafhopper controls with those that received Admire, an insecticide used by conventional farmers to control leafhoppers and Colorado potato beetle, at planting. The trial was conducted during a very wet growing season, so overall yields were low, but we did see some dif-

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ferences between varieties (Table 4). All Blue, Carola, Kennebec, and Red Norland were especially susceptible to PLH, while All Red, Prince Hairy, Yukon Gold, and Elba experienced smaller yield losses. NY-131 is a PLH resistant selection from the Cornell potato breeding program that is more advanced than Prince Hairy (also a product of the breeding program), but shares its susceptibility to scab. Walter DeJong, the Cornell potato breeder, is working on improving the scab resistance in the potato leafhopper resistant clones. Yukon Gold has also proven resistant in on-farm trials conducted by John Mishanec in eastern NY. Other varieties from the eastern NY trials that show some resistance are Keuka Gold, (a yellow fleshed variety), Eva, and Adirondack Blue from the Cornell breeding pro-gram, Katahdin, and Green Mountain.

AphidsAphids are tiny insect with piercing sucking mouth-parts. The females give birth to live young that ma-ture quickly, causing populations to increase rapidly. While they do occasionally occur at high enough numbers to reduce yield in some crops, in potatoes they are a concern mostly because of the possibility of virus transmission. We found that aphid numbers were significantly higher in the conventional sys-tem. The high average numbers are due mostly to spectacular outbreaks in a few conventional fields. Aphids are often kept at low levels by the many natural enemies that feed on them. Aphid outbreaks are often the result of natural enemies being killed by foliar insecticide applications. Aphid outbreaks tend to be followed by an increase in natural enemy levels in the field, In fact, one of the significant relationships we found in this study was a positive

relationship between aphids and beneficials, with higher numbers of aphids resulting in higher num-bers of beneficials, rather than the negative relation-ship we might expect, in which higher numbers of beneficials are associated with lower numbers of aphids.

Plant DiseasesWe also scouted the potatoes for diseases, focusing on early blight and late blight. Late blight was not present on any of the farms the years we conducted the study, and unfortunately. early blight symptoms are similar to and somewhat masked by hopperburn,

so we were not able to collect useful data on that disease.

WeedsWe sampled weeds three times during the season; before first cultivation to assess the potential weed pressure, at flowering to assess the potential com-petition to the crop, and at harvest to assess what would be contributing to the weed seed bank. Weed numbers were not significantly different between the organic and conventional farms, and numbers tend-ed to be lower on the organic farms (Table 5). Most of the organic farmers we worked with were able to

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achieve the same level weed control with cultural practices and cultivation as the conventional farmers were able to achieve using a weed management pro-gram that included herbicides. This speaks more to the experience and skill of our cooperators than ease of weed control in organic systems, in which weeds are one of the more difficult management chal-lenges. There were a few spectacular weed control failures in both systems.

Soil QualityThe soil quality data I’ll discuss is for all the fields we looked at, both potatoes and squash. I’ll focus on the biological aspects of soil quality as nutrient levels on the farms were generally adequate.

Parasitic Nematodes and Root Rotting PathogensWe used a greenhouse bioassay to assess damage from root rotting pathogens such as Pythium, Rhi-zoctonia, and Fusarium, which have the potential to reduce seed germination, cause damping off, and damage roots, decreasing their ability to take water and nutrients from the soil. Soil was collected from the field shortly before harvest and placed in pots in the greenhouse. Beans, which are very susceptible to root rots, and show distinctive disease symptoms, were planted in the field soil and the roots were har-vested and rated for root rot symptoms on a scale of 1-9. Root rot ratings were significantly higher in the soils from organic fields than those from con-ventional fields (Table 6). This was true only with the soils taken from the potato fields, not from the

squash fields, and we don’t know why that would be the case. One potential explanation for the higher levels of root rotting pathogens on the organic farms is that some root rotting pathogens are facultative saprophytes, which means they can operate either as plant pathogens or live on decomposing organic matter. Regular additions of organic matter that oc-cur on organic farms may stimulate the growth of certain root rotting pathogens. One of the organic farms cooperating in the study has problems with germination in large seeded crops such as spinach and beets. They have started to add their compost (partially composted manures) in the fall instead of the spring and report that this has helped.

Nematodes were sampled directly from the soil using the pie pan method in which soil is placed on filter paper in a flat pan and moistened. The nematodes leave the soil and can be counted under a microscope in samples of the water. Two species of parasitic nematode were identified, root lesion nematode and root knot nematode. Both cause damage to the roots and disrupt the uptake of water and nutrients to the top of the plant. We did see sig-nificant differences in parasitic nematode numbers between the two systems. Interestingly, root lesion

nematode was higher in the conventional system than the organic, but the opposite was true for root knot nematode (Table 6).

Organic MatterBoth total organic matter and particulate organic matter (POM) were significantly higher on organic farms than conventional farms (Table 7). POM is a measure of actively decomposing organic matter. Total organic matter includes both POM and more stable forms of organic matter that contribute to soil structure than to microbial activity. There was a sig-nificant relationship between the amount of organic matter in the form of compost and/or cover crops and soil organic matter. Each of the different POM fractions was significantly higher on the organic than the conventional farms. The middle fraction (250-2000 µm) is of particular interest to research-ers as it appears to be related to induced resistance reactions in plants. Induced resistance occurs when a plant is exposed to any of a number of things that turn on the defense reactions that occur when plants are attacked by insects or diseases. Among the things known to turn on, or induce, plant defense mechanisms are: growing in compost amended potting mixes, seed treatments with specific plant

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growth enhancing bacteria, addition of beneficial fungi to soil or potting mixes, and foliar applications of certain proteins, plant extracts, or nutrient solu-tions.

Microbial ActivityWe used two laboratory assays to measure micro-bial activity, the fluorescein diacetate (FDA) assay, which measures total microbial activity, and nitro-gen mineralization rate, which measures the amount of ammonia generated by decomposition of organic matter in a soil sample that is incubated at a constant temperature for a prescribed amount of time. Both measures of microbial activity were higher in soils from the organic farms than those from the conven-tional farms, reflecting the higher levels of organic matter on the organic farms. Both microbial activity and nitrogen mineralization rate showed a signifi-cant positive relationship with total organic matter (Fig 4), meaning that in general, higher organic matter levels result in higher microbial activity and more available nitrogen. An exception to this gener-alization would be muck soils, which are composed mostly of stable forms of organic matter.

Saprophytic NematodesSaprophytic nematodes are an integral part of the soil food web. They feed on bacteria, protozoa, and

fungi, releasing plant available nutrients into the soil. Both the total number of saprophytic nema-todes and the ratio of saprophytic to pathogenic nematodes are being examined by researchers as indicators of soil health. We found that numbers of saprophytic nematodes were significantly higher on the organic than the conventional farms (Table 7). Numbers of saprophytic nematodes had a significant relationship with total organic matter and all the POM fractions. The strongest relationship was with the POM 250 fraction (Fig. 5) meaning that num-bers of saprophytic nematodes, which are relatively easy to sample (by the right person), could conceiv-ably be developed as an indicator for POM 250 lev-els, which are difficult and expensive to quantify.

EconomicsOur economic analysis is from such a small sample of farms with a variety of marketing strategies that general conclusions should not be drawn regarding the economics of organic and conventional potato production. For the farms we sampled, we found that the expenses associated with growing organic potatoes were higher than those for conventional potatoes but the overall income per acre was higher for organic potatoes because of the price difference between organic and conventional potatoes (Table 8). This may in part reflect different proportions

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of direct marketing between the organic and con-ventional farmers, but there’s no doubt that organic potatoes are selling for a lot more than conventional potatoes.

This article summarizes some of the results of this study. We found that organic systems provide reasonable management of some pests ( CPB and aphids) but that other pests are present at problem-atic levels (PLH and possibly flea beetles). Soil quality is clearly better on the organic farms, but we were unable to relate soil quality to lower pest levels. We are still working on the data, and trying to tease apart some of those questions about rela-tionships between different aspects of the systems, using some different statistical techniques. But in the meantime, the data has generated some useful information, interesting research questions, and im-portant extension needs. I have been collaborating with Ward Tingey, from the Department of Entomol-ogy at Cornell, to work on management of potato leafhoppers in organic systems. We’ll have some results to present from that work this winter.

Many thanks to the farmers who allowed us to in-vade their potato and squash fields during the course of this study.

Abby is WNY Vegetable IPM Educator for the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program


Want to grow potatoes that stay fresh and store longer into the winter? Alvin Mosley, potato expert with the Oregon State University Extension Service has sage advice for home gardeners. He’s spent more than three decades studying the best way to grow, harvest and store potatoes.

Mosley advises gardeners to:

• Grow potatoes that keep well. Red potates don’t keep as long as yellow or white varieties. Thin-skinned potatoes don’t last as long in storage as those with thick skins, such as Russets.

• Toughen up your potatoes for storage before harvest by not watering them much after they flower. Let the vines die all the way back before you harvest them.

• Clean your potatoes before storing them. You need only brush the soil off potatoes grown in coarse, sandy soil. But if you grow potatoes in fine, sticky clay soil, your potatoes may need washing. If so, be sure the potatoes are completely dry before placing them in storage.

• Cure your newly dug and cleaned potatoes for a week to 10 days in moderate temperatures and high humidity and they will last longer. After digging them out of your garden and cleaning

How to Harvest & Store Your Spuds to

Make Them Lastthem off, store your newly harvested potatoes where the temperature is about 65 ˚F and the relative humidity ranges from 85 to 95 percent. Keep them under these conditions for a week to 10 days to harden off and heal any injuries caused during harvest.

• Sort out and cull your injured and diseased spuds before storing them long term. Once they are cured, sort the potatoes, putting the best ones in well-ventilated containers. Eat the ones hit by your shovel and the ones with bad spots or disease in the first month or so after harvest, as injured potatoes don’t last as long. They also may spread spoilage or disease microorganisms to uninjured potatoes.

• Store your tubers in a cold, dark, environment with moderate humidity. Store your best tubers in a dry room with constant temperature of 35 to 40 ˚F and moderate humidity. Make sure to keep them dark, as light will turn them green and make them unfit for table use. Discard potatoes with an excessive amount of greening.

Under these conditions, well-matured potatoes will stay in good condition for seven to eight months. When storage temperatures exceed 40˚F, potatoes should keep for two to three months, but sprouting and shriveling may occur. If they sprout and shrivel, save them for planting.

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by Jack Kittredge

Aroostook County is as far north as you can go in Maine. Actually, it is as far north as you can go any-where in the United States east of the Mississippi River! The first potato grown there was planted in 1807 by Joseph Houlton, the founder of the town of the same name. At first, the roads were bad and it was hard to move such bulky crops to the northeast markets. Instead, most towns had starch factories. Starch was used in great amounts to starch clothing, so they would condense the potatoes down to starch and sell that. The same economic dynamics resulted in making whiskey out of corn in Appalachia -- make a high value, light product out of a low value, heavy one.

When the railroads came through in about 1880, however, potatoes came into their own. At the peak, right after World War Two, there were 237,000 acres of potatoes grown in Aroostook County. Thirty years ago the number was down to 145,000 acres, and now it is 62,000 acres. Even more striking that the acreage reduction is the reduction in the number of farmers. Thirty years ago there were approxi-mately 35 potato farmers in the town of Bridgewa-ter. Now it is down to five. While the yield per acre keeps going up, consumption has shifted dramati-cally. Up until 20 or 30 years ago people would eat a lot of fresh potatoes and consumption stayed at about 73 pounds per capita. While per capita con-sumption has not declined, 60 of those pounds are now processed into chips and French fries. It seems that people have busy lives and potatoes take a while to cook.

The trend does not seem like it is going to change. Conventional potato farmers in Aroostook County lost money 8 of the past 11 years. Agricultural land goes for $1000 an acre, and you can buy a house for $2000. One group which has been showing inter-est in the area is the Amish. A community moved in about 10 years ago because land was cheap. They went up and down the road knocking on doors and asking if the farm was for sale. If it was, they paid for it in cash. The elders in the community discuss each technology and decide what is appropriate for that community. The kids go through 8th grade, and then work on the farm.

Bridgewater is where Jim Gerritsen and his wife Megan have built Wood Prairie Farm. Jim bought the place in 1976 for $150 an acre. It last had po-tatoes on it in 1960. After that it had been used for beef cattle, which kept the fields open and free of chemicals. Jim’s dad grew up on an apple farm in Yakima and his mom on a wheat and cattle ranch in South Dakota. “They were the generation that left the farm for a better life,” he smiles. “I dropped out of college when I was 19 and started working on farms. I came here 2 years later. I looked into Alas-ka, where land was cheap, but I couldn’t stand those long dark winters. I worked on local farms here and started selling in 1979.”

During his early bachelor days, for three winters Jim went south and planted trees. He worked piece rate, making 4¢ a tree. He says that all the members of the crew he worked with had the same dream -- buy-ing a piece of land. When they learned that he had a piece of land already and was still down there with them every winter, it was sobering.

Megan was born in 1961 in a rural area of upstate New York. She was going to college at Middlebury when she went to visit a friend who was working on a farm. It clicked, she says, and she knew what she wanted to do. Megan came to Maine in 1984 with $600. “I figured Vermont was a little expensive,” she laughs. “So I decided to buy a farm in Maine.”

The couple met through a mutual friend in 1984 and married in 1985 and sold in several farmers markets until 1989. But they couldn’t make a go of that, so started a CSA in 1990. “When we had our CSA,”

Gerritsen relates, “I figured the standard was we had to provide vegetables as soon as any market garden-er in the area. So we had tomatoes by the Fourth of July. It wasn’t a lot, but one or two per share. Then by mid July we had a gush for 6 weeks! Of course it was all from having a hoop house. We’d be putting the plastic up the first week in April. Then for a few weeks we’d bat the snow off! Now that we don’t have the CSA we’re not so ambitious.

“We were the second CSA in Maine,” he continues, “after Jill Agnew. We heard Robin Van En talk and we started off with 25 families buying 20 share equivalents for $500. We started in 1990 and did it for four years. We had a 90% renewal rate and people loved us. But this is the most sparsely popu-lated county east of the Mississippi River. It’s very rural. At the end of four years we still had 20 shares, but the mail order business grew and grew. So we stopped killing ourselves with the CSA and focused on the mail order. We started out thinking the mar-ket would be for table stock potatoes but the seed potatoes took off.”

The Gerritsens have four children: Peter 15, Caleb 12, Sarah 7, and Amy 3. “Children is one of the rea-sons that farming works,” Megan says. “Seven or eight kids would be great. We couldn’t do it without our sons. They get paid, but they do a man’s work!”

The family has a milk cow around which an econ-omy swirls. She has a calf or two each year, so at times they are raising a steer or replacement heifer, as well as processing the milk. Unlike many Ameri-cans, they still eat a lot of potatoes. They put fresh ones in the wood stove every morning and have baked potatoes for lunch. They’ll make home fries for supper if any are left over.

“Of course that’s a lot easier when you are working at home,” Gerritsen acknowledges. “And that brings up one of the weaknesses in organic -- this sustain-ability thing. We talk a good game, but many of us work 80 hours a week and tell our kids we don’t have time for them. We try to treat our employees right, so often end up paying our help more than ourselves. We keep figuring it will get better, but it’s a hostile market for a small business!”

Although he was living in Aroostook County, Maine, Jim admits “It took me a while to find out what to grow. You have to grow something that

you’re good at, that you like to grow, and that you can find a market for. I worked on a couple potato farms and enjoyed growing them, but it took me a while to figure out how to market potatoes. We started the mail order business in 1988 and weren’t convinced it was solid until 1994.”

Northern Maine is probably the best region in the country for seed potatoes. The soil and the climate are perfect -- the coolness of the summer limits in-sect vectors, specifically aphids. And the severe cold of the winter results in high insect mortality so there is a lot less insect activity than in central or southern Maine. Maine also has an excellent seed certifica-tion program. One aspect of that is that the state of Maine owns a farm in Homestead, Florida where they will take a 400-tuber sample of every seed lot that a grower wants certified. It is hauled to Florida and planted on their farm in early November. After Christmas they take field readings – it’s called a post-harvest grow-out test. The results tell a poten-tial buyer what potential disease content is in that seed. Other components of the certification program are that the grower has to have credentialed seed to enter the program, have three field inspections dur-ing the year, segregate varieties to prevent mixing, and pressure wash equipment to prevent contamina-tion and disinfect storage areas to prevent disease.

As part of this program, during the season Jim and Megan walk their potatoes, spotting and eliminating ‘rogues’. “Our 7-year old, Sarah, drives the tractor pulling a cart when we’re roging.” Gerritsen smiles. “Megan and I go through with cans of red paint in our back pockets. We mark the rogue plants, the boys pull them and their sequentially planted mates, and throw them in the roging cart. Then we take them out of the fields and bury or burn them.”

Jim kills his potatoes down early for seed. “It’s a common practice,” he says, reassuringly. “It means they will have more vigor next year, since their physiological age will be less. We sometimes kill them as early as August 3, but usually it’s the 15th or so of August for the early varieties. I record the dates that we plant, and the Maine cooperative extension sends out a list of growing degree days based on what week you planted. I use that as a gauge. I’m still trying to get this refined, but I try to figure out the number of days from planting and cal-culate a kill date based on the growing degree days in the 5 or 10 year average.”

Wood Prairie: Seed Potatoes from Where They Grow Best!


Gerritsen ponders the answer to a question. Behind him is an irrigation pond which doubles as a swimming and boating hole.


The Gerritsens also green-sprout their seed in the spring to cut 10 to 14 days off the growth cycle in the field. It’s an optional preconditioning procedure beginning 30 days before the intended planting date. You break the potatoes out of dormancy at a high temperature, typically 75 degrees, and in the dark. It takes them about a week to break dormancy. Once they’ve broken dormancy you turn the temperature down to 50 or 55 degrees, and turn the lights on. The spuds are in green-sprouting trays, which hold the potatoes 2-thick. The trays have slatted bottoms so light can get through and Jim stacks these 10-high on pallets 3 stacks per pallet. Then they can move them around with the forklift. The light greens up the tu-ber and the sprout, which prevents elongation of the sprout.

“All of us have had potatoes in the cellar which get away from us,” he explains. “In the absence of light they will grow long, white sprouts. In the presence of light they will grow short and stubby, and turn green. Through this procedure you gain about 10 to 14 days in the field. When you get into August and you have pressure from Colorado potato beetle or leafhopper or late blight or aphid spread, you thank your stars that you can kill them now and not have to keep that crop going.”

The Gerritsens plant the late potato varieties first, then the mediums, and they end up with the short season varieties. They take a lot of care to keep potato virus out of the fields during planting. They disinfect the seed knives every 250 feet, and cut the seed right in the row rather than ahead of time. This enables them to plant the seed pieces sequentially into the row on the planter’s segmented conveyor belt. That extra step is what enables them, once they have spotted a rogue potato, to remove it was well as all the other plants from that original cut potato.

A good yield for seed potatoes is similar to that for table stock, Jim says. “We try to get smaller tubers, but we plant them closer together so it probably evens out. We can’t really afford to sacrifice yield. The county average is 273 hundredweight per acre. We grow some varieties like fingerlings that just don’t yield. But in a good year our rolling average over the whole crop is about equal to the Aroostook County average, 250 to 270 hundredweight an acre.”

Gerritsen grades all his potatoes himself -- probably a million a year. “As I do that I look for mutations,” he says, “and I found one that we’ve been growing out for a few years and are planning to commercial-ize. It’s a mutation off a Yukon Gold. In this muta-tion the pink normally associated with the eye of the Yukon Gold takes up between a third and a half of the skin. It’s a beautiful potato with splashes of pink, or blushes, against a golden background. We’re planning on propagating it up by tissue culture. It’s a way of getting around the high risk of disease when you propagate vegetatively, from the seed piece. Old timers used to say a potato had “run out”. What hap-pened was a virus was being propagated along with the seed, and was robbing that line of vigor.”

Wood Prairie Farm sells 16 varieties of potatoes, and grows an additional 5 or 6 each year which they are trying out. Yukon Gold is still their number one variety. It’s Megan’s favorite. Jim, however, likes the Rose Gold. “That’s a good seller,” he says. “The Russet variety Butte is good. The Burbank Rus-set is a remarkable variety. Luther Burbank bred it as a Russeted version of his original variety called Burbank. There are potato breeders who will do a hundred thousand crosses and thank their lucky stars if they get one good variety. Luther Burbank bred 17 crosses and got the most widely grown potato in the world.

“It’s a good variety for processors but a lousy one for farmers,” he continues, “at least here in the east. It does best under irrigated conditions. If it goes through a dry period, then gets water, then is dry again, it will tend to lump up and get second growth, or knobs. That is a problem for production in the east. Butte doesn’t get second growth. It was released in 1977 and has 20% higher protein than the Russet Burbank and 57% more vitamin C. It’s a dry potato with a good taste, and few production deficiencies.”

Carola is an excellent eating variety, with a golden or yellow flesh. It’s mid dry with a waxy texture and good eating, and yields well, especially farther south. Red Cloud is a high gravity, dry potato. Most red potatoes are red and moist, but Red Cloud has a high level of dormancy -- which is perfect for a storage potato. It is quite resistant to sprouting. In fact, even when green-spouted, they are slow to get going.

Gerritsen is on the lookout for the occasional muta-tion, but does not breed potatoes. He feels it is more an art than a science. “Once the flower drops,” he explains, “there will be a seed ball that looks like a miniature tomato. Some varieties will set many seed balls every year. Some varieties will set many seed balls in certain years. And some varieties, like Yukon Gold, are extremely cheap with regard to set-ting seed and seed balls. Inside that seed ball will be from 50 to 100 seeds, which are a cross between the mother plant and the father plant. Breeders will use cages to prevent bees from getting in with unknown pollen, and then at the appropriate time will use a paint brush to pollinate the flower with the pollen they select. You can then grow that potato out from true seed. But it’s very slow growing -- the seeds are tiny, quite a bit smaller than the head of a pin.”

Jim likes a variety called Island Sunshine, which was bred by two Dutch brothers (Everett and Gerrit Loo, pronounced ‘low’) who emigrated to Prince Edward Island from Holland. They were what they call ‘hobby breeders’. They would cross 5000 crosses a year and did it for 40 years. In the typi-cal protocol it takes about 12 years from coming up with a cross to commercializing it. And it isn’t until the seventh year that any taste testing is done. The breeders are looking for qualities like yield, disease resistance, and alkaloid content.

“What Garrett does,” Gerritsen enthuses, “is plant his 5000 crosses and not baby them. He says: ‘It will make my life easier if Nature wipes out half of them!’ If they’re weak I don’t want them any-way. Then in the first year, at harvest, he’ll take his pocket knife and slice off a little sliver of potato from each plant and put it on the back of his tongue. After 40 years he knows instantly from how bitter it is whether it’s worth pursuing. If it’s too bitter the alkaloid content is too high and he spits it out and eliminates it.”

The industry measures the alkaloid content of po-tatoes as the milligrams of alkaloid per kilogram of potato flesh. A low number is good, and Yukon Gold, which is incredibly free of alkaloid, has a reading of about 6. The Island Sunshine, Jim in-forms me, has a reading of 2! The threshold right now is 30. If you have higher than that Ag Canada won’t let you register it. But the reading of the Rus-set Burbank is thirty-two. If Luther Burbank showed up with that today, Jim laughs, he wouldn’t be al-lowed to register it.

Of all the varieties identified, Island Sunshine has the highest tolerance to late blight -- the fungus which thrives in rainy weather and temperatures from 62 to 75 degrees – and wiped out the Irish potato crop. Of course, all the potatoes grown in Ireland supposedly originated from two tubers, and that’s not a lot of genetic diversity, Jim suggests.

There is a concept called horizontal resistance that breeders for the organic market are investigating. They plant test varieties in an area open to every-thing Nature can throw at you. Any plants that survive will be genetically suited to organic condi-tion, the reasoning goes. This concept is opposed to that of vertical resistance where breeders look for a particular quality, say resistance to late blight, and narrowly breed for that. But with vertical resistance breeding you can go backwards on other traits and these potatoes tend to become pampered varieties that do well only with a lot of chemical inputs.

Jim has worked out a careful 4-year rotation that works for him. “We farm 116 acres, and about 60 acres of that is woodlot,” he explains. “We grow 10 or 11 acres of potatoes each year in a four year rota-tion. The first year is seed potatoes, the second is a spring grain, usually wheat and sometimes oats. We undersow that grain with timothy and three clovers so when the wheat is combined the field overwinters as clover. The next spring we take an early cutting of hay about the middle of June, chop the regrowth with a bush hog to feed the ground, turn the cows out and it overwinters as clover for a second year. The final spring we plow the field, sow buckwheat and grow that for 7 weeks, then plow it down and grow Dwarf Essex rape seed as a plow down crop and biofumigant. They are doing research on this at Orono. Apparently when you plow down any brassica the decaying organic matter gives off a gas similar to methyl bromide, which kills pathogenic fungi and weed seed without depleting the ozone. In the fifth year we go back to seed potatoes.

Gerritsen plows down the rape seed late in October or early November, just before the ground freezes. He tries to get it as close as possible to when the tu-bers go into the ground. Sometimes he leaves a little to plow down in the spring. The whole goal of the rotation and the biofumigant is to try to grow a bet-ter crop of potatoes.

In year three the first cut may be 60% clover and 40% timothy, with the timothy coming back stron-ger. The buckwheat in year three helps rot down the residue in the soil and improve its friability. After the potatoes come out Jim tries to put in a cover crop of oats, but half the time he doesn’t have enough degree days in the fall to get it up more than 3 or 4 inches. The oats winter kill so he discs them in come spring.

Gerritsen’s potato planter is old, from the fifties. Four women sit on the back and take green-sprouted seed from the hopper, cut it, and lay the pieces se-quentially on the conveyor so they are planted one after the other in the row. Different spacing cogs enable them to space appropriately for each potato. Yukon Gold, for instance, go in 6.7 inches apart. In the front is a fertilizer box to drop fertility into the row as each potato is planted.


Wood Prairie Farm catalog

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rF a l l , 2 0 0 6 2�“We can do an acre or an acre and a half in a day,” Jim says. There are some farmers up here with 2500 acres of potatoes. They have to go a lot faster! Our rows are a thousand feet long and we’re planting two rows at a time. In the 20 minutes it takes to get from one end of the field to the back we’re cutting 4000 seed pieces, a thousand apiece. That’s fast, a little over one second per seed piece. We do all that so we can get sequential planting. Then we can bet-ter catch disease when we’re roging.

Gerritsen gets herring scales every two years from a sardine cannery on the coast of Maine, plus the heads, tails and backs of salmon left over from fil-leting that comes dried and hammermilled. They are dispensed through the fertilizer box of the planter.

Jim and Megan have dug two big ponds on their land to catch and hold water. “What I’m figuring about global warming,” he says, :is that it’s also going to be a drying. But to grow a good potato crop you need uninterrupted growth, and if you go ten days without rain you’re going to interrupt that growth. So I figured let’s dig as much pond as we need to take care of two dry years in a row.”

Potatoes are hard to grow organically. There is a lot of disease and insect pressure. Their nutritional requirement is relatively high. There is late blight, early blight, verticillium, white mold, Colorado Po-tato Beetles, Leafhoppers, aphids, cutworms, spider mites and secondaries, which used to be regularly killed by spraying but now that less toxic chemicals are used they are also a problem.

“We’ve had a nice vacation from CPB over the last 10 years,” Gerritsen confides. “In 1995 the commer-cial growers up here started using a chemical called Admire. When it first came out it was $70 per acre and about half of the farmers used it. The second year about 98% of the farmers did! In the short term it has been an incredibly effective insecticide. There has been CPB genocide going on in our midst and the population is only a fraction of what it was.

“Admire is applied in furrow and gives good cover-age until the second week in August,” he continues. “Before that we used the Bt product Novador. But it doesn’t meet the new standards because of a group 3 inert in it. I hope it will be reformulated for organic growers. It’s a wonderful product and only goes af-ter CPB. I tried the product Entrust this year. It’s a biological product, I think a bacterium. It has a long shelf life because it is the product of a living organ-ism, not itself alive. It can also kill adult CPBs. But I’d still prefer a narrower spectrum product. Of course there is a danger of resistance developing, so the ideal would be to have two products available and rotate them to slow down the growth of resis-tance.”

Up until 10 years ago Jim said he’d only read about leafhoppers in a book. They don’t over-winter that far north and he’d never seen them. But as the win-ters get more moderate they are beginning to show up. “If they come in late June or July you have a problem,” he cautions. “If they don’t come until August, you can ignore them. You’ll be killing your potatoes soon anyway. With late varieties you might have a problem.

“One year I used Surround WP for leafhoppers,” he continues. “I’d spray it on and it would rain. That happened many times. It would be ideal for west-ern agriculture where you don’t get rain and you use drip irrigation. But I’m not convinced kaolin clay is right for New England. The other possibility is Pyganic. I don’t like to use that because it is so broad spectrum. My preference is to use nematodes to control the larva. It’s the second generation of leafhoppers that tunnels into tubers. Leafhoppers are often misdiagnosed as wire worms. But with wire worms the hole is 3/4 inch long and perfectly round. The leafhopper goes in only a quarter of an inch and the hole is irregular.”

One year Aroostoock County had a tropical storm that brought in melon aphids. It turned out that they were the vector for a particular virus and growers who were still needing a couple of weeks more had real problems. Gerritsen buys several gallons of ladybugs and releases some of them in the morning when it is supposed to rain. “The idea is to spread

them when it’s raining,” he explains, “since they won’t fly away then. You want them to hang around long enough to lay eggs. Then you have a popula-tion there. Typically the aphids will spike around the 25th of July and you want to have ladybugs out then. What an aphid will do is jump onto a plant and put it’s probe in to feed. If it’s a sick plant the aphid picks up the virus, and as soon as it next puts the probe into a healthy plant it transmits the virus. Even these very potent chemicals like Monitor take three seconds to kill the aphid. But it can transmit the virus in one second.”

A localized strain of European corn borer that pre-fers potatoes over corn has become a problem in Maine. Jim and Megan burn their potato tops in the fall, which destroys their habitat. They also trap to monitor for ECB. Once the moths show up they calculate how long it will be until egg laying. Then there is a 72-hour window for emergence before the larvae tunnel into the potatoes where nothing will kill them. Wood Prairie Farm’s numbers are low partly because they’re west of most of the local potato growers and the prevailing winds are from the west. The nearest potatoes are three miles to the east.

“Our isolation here is extremely valuable,” Gerrit-sen stresses. “The old adage here is that if the seed potato growers were really concerned about quality they would give their table stock growing neighbors their seed for free. Usually the problems you get up here are from your process-growing neighbors. They’re going for tonnage, they’re growing older stock and are not that concerned about disease, and they become the inoculum source for spread. Maine was one of the first states to require the planting of certified seed. That has lowered the level of disease in the whole system.

One of the big disease problems in the potato in-dustry is bacterial ring rot. It’s a persistent bacteria that can live for several years in potato dirt or potato slime. The Gerritsens go through a long process of washing out their boxes to get rid of all organic mat-ter, then disinfecting them with bleach. They do the same in their potato storage area. Jim says: “When we’re done you could eat off of the floor!”

But the worst disease affecting growers in potato virus. There are six primary viruses in the US, and a number in Europe that aren’t a problem here. “It’s easy to spot a plant with two viruses,” Gerritsen says. “The leaves will be all shrunken and mottled. But often you will miss if there is only one. We go through the field three or four times a year and rogue out the bad plants. But some varieties like Shepody and Pontiac are what we call symptomless carriers. You can’t spot the infected ones, but they are still an inoculum source.

“Our strategy to avoid virus in our seed,” he con-tinues, “is to plant the best possible seed, and ‘tuber unit’ plant it. That means to plant the pieces of the same potato sequentially in the row so that when we go through, if we see a plant with virus we cull it and the others from the same tuber unit or original seed potato. We do that by pulling adjacent ones until we can jigsaw the pieces back into the original potato.”

Technicians can, however, produce back a virus-free potato from an infected one by tissue culture. The way they do it is to take the very tip of the sprout for the culture. That is growing faster than the virus can keep up, so it is virus free. There are also some heat treatments and some chemical treatments that can burn out the virus, too.

The Gerritsens have constructed a large root cellar below their packing shed. It is big enough for their entire harvest, plus 30% for safekeeping. A large fan brings cool air into the cellar every cold night beginning October 20. They shut the fan off in the morning, close the doors, run the humidifier for an hour or so to get the moisture up, and then shut that down. Then they wait for the next cold night.


Gerritsen grows his potatoes in one thousand foot rows. Each variety is easily seen by differences in leaf color and stage of flowering.


The farm has two irrigation ponds. Here Jim is using the water to irrigate rows of carrots for sale in his mail order catalog. They are

French Chantenay, an heirloom variety, and can yield close to 20,000 pounds per acre.


Gradually they bring the temperature down but keep the humidity up. The ideal temperature for potatoes in storage is 38 to 40 degrees, and Jim shoots for 38. Once into November they worry about it getting too cold. They have a heater that hardly ever runs, but during a cold January two or three years ago it was essential.

Once the potatoes are in storage, during November, December, and January, Gerritsen pre-grades them into small 50 pound boxes on pallets. Once the busy period starts in the last week of February, they’re working 7 days a week to get the potatoes shipped on the exact day they promise people. This lasts all of March and the first two weeks of April. Jim brings the potatoes out of storage in graded boxes and they bag out of those boxes.

Wood Prairie Farm markets most of its products through a brightly colored catalog that makes an asset of their far northern location and includes pic-tures of the family, recipes, and ample descriptions of the products. Besides the potatoes, the catalog lists organic root crops such as carrots, beets, onions and garlic, whole grains and grain mixes, a num-ber of Maine gift items, and new this year organic garden seed for 10 different fruits and vegetables. The seeds are bought from friends who raised them nearby. But potatoes are really the mainstay of the business.

“The beauty of our business,” Gerritsen confides, “is that we take the large potatoes and sell them as table stock. The eating customer wants the big ones because they are easier to clean and there is more perceived value in size. But the seed customers want the smaller ones.

“We have a wholesale business and sell to compa-nies like Johnny’s, Moose Tubers, Cooks Garden, and Territorial,” he continues. “But the lions share of our business tends to be direct sales to growers. We say we’ll sell one pound to ten thousand pounds. We don’t sell many at the ten thousand level, but we do sell a few in the 3000 or 4000 pound level, and a good number of 1000 pound lots. We sell a lot of 200 to 800 pound shipments, and then plenty to gar-deners who buy down to a few one-pound bags.”

Seed potatoes are 75% to 80% of their business, for which they get $69 for a 50 pound box, $38.95 for 20 pounds, $24.95 for ten pounds, $13.95 for 5 pounds, $9.95 for 2 and a half pounds, down to one pound at $6.95. Table stock goes by similar pricing. Fingerlings, of course, are a lot more per pound. Shipping hikes the final total as much as 25% to 50%, depending on size of order and distance to travel.

“We’ve been hit by the price of oil,” Jim says. “Ev-erything that is trucked has gone up. We ship seed to a company in Oregon and it used to be $300 a pallet. Now it’s $600 a pallet. They pay the trucking, but at some point it will impact on us. They may decide it’s too expensive to buy seed in from here.”

Gerritsen feels the prices he charges are fair, given the quality of the product and the service. “On our scale we have to get retail dollars. For the customer, trying to save money at the seed stage is usually being penny wise and pound foolish. In fact in Eu-rope they sell seed potatoes by the count, not by the poundage!”

Jim is a little scornful of folks who pride themselves on buying locally. “This local thing has gotten a little carried away in my humble opinion,” he says. “Do I want to buy my potatoes from my neighbor after he has sprayed Monitor on them? No I don’t! I want to buy local, but still it has to be organic! Johnny’s grows five or ten percent of their seed at most. “They’re a marketing company. If you want to support a local company that is buying from seed growers all over the country and call that buying local, fine. But we’re unusual in that we grow all of our seed.

“Boutique farms on the coast may be able to sell lo-cally to tourists up from Philadelphia,” he continues, “but Aroostook County is much more the norm for American agriculture. Family farming here means you also have to have a job in town if you want to survive. We market primarily through the catalog, and maybe a third of our orders come through the website. Most of our customers are east of the Mis-sissippi. A lot are in the south, because you can’t grow good seed in the south -- too many insects that can be vectors for disease.”

Gerritsen seems proud of his success and feels small farmers have to adopt similar marketing strategies if they are going to remain viable. “Most of the potato growers around here are third or fourth generation growers,” he says, “and they are completely out of touch with consumers. That’s the way they want it. But they’re having a harder and harder time, too. You can’t continue to grow commodities at their level and compete in this world. Somebody else can grow them cheaper. We need to grow for taste, for nutrition, and attract consumers back into eating high quality food!”

You can get a free copy of the Wood Prairie Farm catalog, or order online, at www.woodprairie.com. Or you can contact them at Wood Prairie Farm, 49

Kinney Rd., Bridgewater, ME 04735


Jim stands at the rotational divide of one of his fields. To the left is spring wheat, to the right is hay.

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by Brian Schultz

Potato leafhopper (PLH) has been one topic of study as well as a conspicuous pest in potatoes at the Hampshire College farm. PLH in general arrives on winds from the south in summer, and while feed-ing it introduces a toxin to the plant that can cause the spectacular withering and blackening of potato plants called hopperburn (“h-burn”) (see Howell et al. 2006, PSU 2004, Tingey and Muka 1983, includ-ing web pages and photos) .

Potato leafhopper adult and nymph (source: Penn State; PSU 2004, web page http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/potato_leaf-hopper_veg.htm)

Early, moderate hopperburn on a potato leaf (source: Penn State; PSU 2004, web page http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/potato_leafhopper_veg.htm) The Hampshire farm is mostly organic with a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture share program for the college. We were interested seeing in how organic sprays might control PLH and how different varieties that we use might differ in their responses PLH, and perhaps find that some that are more re-sistant to PLH. This article is largely adapted from a paper for the New England Vegetable Growers meetings in December (Schultz 2005), about some work with PLH at the farm. Results from larger studies by others in New York on potato varieties vs. PLH also appear in those proceedings (Mishanec 2005).

In a nutshell. Here is a very brief overview if you don’t want to wade through the details below. Py-Ganic greatly reduces the numbers of leafhopper adults and nymphs, including at the lowest labeled rate, but did not affect other pest species we sam-pled, Colorado potato beetle (CPB) and tarnished plant bug (TPB), nor greatly affect natural enemies. However, we had quite a bit of h-burn even when hoppers were kept below the commonly cited eco-nomic thresholds. There were relatively small dif-ferences in yield among treatments despite some large differences in hopper numbers and/or h-burn.

One idea of our design was to see if some com-mon varieties were more or less resistant to PLH, by comparing them with and without sprays. If a variety shows little or no yield increase when sprayed, that should mean it is relatively resistant.

Potato Leafhopper vs. Some Organic Pesticides & Common Potato Varieties

However, since we got so much h-burn even in our sprayed plots, despite low PLH numbers, our results are still ambiguous: there is still the possibility that even very low numbers of PLH cause similar yield loss. But a more optimistic possibility, given that such large differences in PLH numbers could affect yields so little, is that most of the burning does not affect yields, perhaps happening too late (mainly in August) to affect yield that much (and maybe espe-cially for potatoes or varieties that are planted early and/or that mature early, though we have no data on this yet).

Farmers who want to greatly reduce PLH numbers can do so with PyGanic, but may want to try treat-ing only some potatoes and leaving some areas un-treated, to see if yields really differ enough, if at all, to justify the sprays.

These common potato varieties did differ in their effects on hoppers and response to sprays: in our plots Kennebec showed the least h-burn and also the most increase in yield when sprayed. Red Nordlund was pretty much killed completely whether sprayed or not, but still could yield relatively well (it may show some phytotoxic response to PyGanic too). Yukon Gold was intermediate in h-burn and yield and showed little or no yield response to sprays. Red Nordlund seemed to encourage reproduction of PLH, and also CPB, with similar adult pest num-bers, but then more PLH nymphs and CPB larvae in RN than in the other varieties (TPB numbers also increased more in RN).

This next photo is more directly related to my article:

Late August 200� differences in hopperburn are evident in this photo of a plot boundary with Red Nordlund on the right and Kenne-bec on the left (by Brian Schultz)

So now here is a year by year account of some of our results in detail…

In 2003, we began studies of PLH in three of our main potato varieties with some organic sprays. These were compared in a randomized block trial in small plots within the actual farm CSA plantings (basically organic with cultivation but no mulch). In a single preliminary spray trial late in the summer we compared three sprays, applied with backpack sprayers, to see how they might act against PLH adults and nymphs. The spray materials were: 1) PyGanic,TM a pyrethrin spray (5%), at the max. la-beled rate equivalent to 18 oz./ac.; 2) Diatect V, TM with pyrethrins in diatomaceous earth (max. rate of 6 lbs/ac); 3) a mixture of Surround TM, a kaolin clay repellent (ca. 50 lb/ac), with BioNeem TM (3 oz/gal water). The pyrethrin sprays greatly reduced numbers of both PLH adults (especially PyGanic) and nymphs (ca. 95% reductions) compared to no-spray control or check plots. The Surround+neem combination showed much less effect; the clay also made this messy to use. In retrospect, our coverage with the Surround may not have been that complete so it may be worth trying again, especially given its apparent success in some other crops (R. Hazzard personal comment; we have also found that it repels cucumber beetles in our squash at Hampshire).

Numbers of adult PLH by treatment .after spray trial in 2003 (different letters on bars indicate statistically significant difference between treatment; same letters indicate lack of a signif. diff.).

Numbers of PLH nymphs (per 10 potato leaves) after spray trial in 2003. In general, the variety Red Nordlund (RN), showed drastic h-burn, Kennebec (K) much less, even rela-tively little, with Yukon Gold (YG) in between. One interesting possible factor: PLH nymphs appeared in greater numbers in the RN, even though the numbers of PLH adults did not differ significantly among varieties (suggesting greater PLH reproduc-tion and/or nymph survival in RN potatoes). PLH is known from previous literature to be sensitive to variation in plant features that include trichome hairs and chemicals such as glycoalkaloids in plant leaves, a source of breeding efforts by some for more resistant potato varieties (Madeiros et al. 2005, Madeiros and Tingey 2006).

Differences in adult PLH numbers in 2003 by potato variety.

Differences in PLH nymph numbers in 2003 by potato variety.


In 2004, we used only PyGanic in more complete tri-als for the whole season, again in small plots (6 rows x 6m ea.) within our CSA potatoes, at a range of la-beled rates: 4.5, 9 or 18 oz/acre (vs. unsprayed check plots). PLH was again greatly reduced, with greater reductions as rate increased, but all rates showed large reductions that allowed PLH to be kept by the sprays at generally below commonly noted economic thresholds of 1 adult per net sweep or 1 nymph per potato leaf (e.g., Madeiros et al. 2005) (FYI, 4.5 oz. of PyGanic = ca. $25/ac/spray).

Effects of different rates of PyGanic on PLH Nymph numbers in 2004.

Again in 2004 we found that more PLH nymphs, but not more early adults, appeared in Red Nordlund, especially as the season progressed, and especially in terms of nymph numbers adjusted for variety leaf area (RN has much smaller leaves, but still had as many or more nymphs per leaf as the other varieties). We recorded plant damage observations and yields in 2004. Yields were low in general (probably be-cause we mainly use just our dining commons food wastes as compost for fertilizer, which is enough for our CSA needs). H-burn was evaluated by asking an alumnus farmer, who not did know how each plot was treated, etc., to survey them (on 2 August), and she rated each plot from 1 (if all withered) to 10 (all green, no h-burn). There were significant differences between varieties in apparent h-burn, and reductions in apparent h-burn with the PyGanic sprays, though even many sprayed plots showed a lot of damage. However, even though there were reductions in PLH numbers in sprayed plots, and also apparently

healthier plants (greener, with less burn damage), there was no consistent, significant effect of spray upon yields.

It is possible that our yield results were just too variable in 2004 (given small plots; we also had me-chanical problems with the harvester); otherwise a lack of yield differences due to sprays could suggest that either: any of the very small numbers of PLH in sprayed plots were still enough to cause comparable yield losses, or that PLH just did not affect yields much after all and damage is really mainly cosmetic or was too late, or that other factors besides and/or greater than PLH may be involved in the yields. (If real, yield differences of particular interest were that: yields improved only at the highest PyGanic rate in YG, only at the lowest rate in RN, compa-rable to the damage rating pattern, and not at all in K despite damage differences; in general K is our highest yielding variety, followed by YG and then RN). Ideally, we would hope to see no response to spraying in a given variety as evidence of plant yield resistance or tolerance to the pest or its appar-ent feeding damage.

In 200�, we simplified the experiment to one Py-Ganic spray treatment at the highest rate (vs. no-spray check plots) with the three potato varieties (with bigger plots, 9 rows x 9m ea., as well as the large rate difference, to focus more on possible yield effects). Again, PyGanic effectively reduced PLH adult and nymph numbers (and again, nymphs but not adults were relatively more abundant over time in RN).

PyGanic and PLH Nymph numbers, 200�. The s4, s�, & s6 marks indicate spray dates.

Damage and yield results were more complicated in 2005. Kennebec and Yukon Gold both showed less h-burn in sprayed plots, but Red Nordlund showed little or no reduction with sprays, and again even the sprayed plots looked badly burned, especially in RN (here we rated six plants in each plot, estimating the proportion of green foliage remaining, on 15 Au-gust). This year Kennebec showed yield increases in the sprayed plots, but the other varieties did not (a statistically significant spray x variety interaction). (Kennebec potatoes also were larger in the sprayed plots with relatively little difference in size in the other varieties, though not quite a significant effect overall).

Hopper burn ratings by potato variety and spray treatment in 200�.

Potato yields burn ratings by potato variety and spray treatment in 200�.

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An optimistic interpretation, overall now, might be that for some varieties (perhaps Kennebec for example), spraying for PLH will improve yields in some years, but that other common varieties may not need or benefit from PLH control. Again, we ideally would hope to see no response to spraying as evidence of varietal resistance or tolerance to the pest, but more consistent and reliable yield data are still needed here.

This year we also noticed a browning to the RN foliage that did not seem like h-burn and suggested phytotoxicity to us. In whole-plot rankings by our vegetable grower, sprayed RN plots were actually ranked worse for this reason than unsprayed plots. Perhaps this could also have been a factor in the plot ratings where RN showed a decline at higher spray rates in 2004, and perhaps yield declines with spray in both years, unlike the other varieties. Note that the increased PLH nymph numbers in RN occurred in unsprayed plots too, so it is not an indirect effect of any phytotoxicity.

Planting date could be an important underlying con-sideration. One difference between 2004 and 2005 was that potatoes were planted a bit later in 2005 (17 vs. 24 May resp.), so they could well have been all the more susceptible to any damage by PLH, and also other pests in 2005, although on the other hand, PLH arrived later and was not as abundant here in 2005. Both planting dates were relatively late (due to wet fields), and earlier plantings could be tried, which could be more resistant to relatively late pests like PLH in general. Other Arthropods were also noted in 2004 and, more extensively, in 2005. We used Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis; Btt or Btsd) sprays to control Colo-rado potato beetle (CPB) in all years, but control was poor in 2005, perhaps due to rains interfering with early applications of Bt, and we made counts of CPB numbers too in 2005. CPB was not affected by the PyGanic spray at any stage (adult; egg; larvae). However CPB also showed potato varietal differ-ences, where again no difference was observed in CPB adult numbers but more eggs and larvae were found in Red Nordlund (followed by K and then YG).

We noted major arthropod predators (e.g., lady beetles, spiders, etc.) in four sets of sweep samples in 2004 and found a significant reduction in total predator numbers (ca. 45%) at the highest PyGanic rate, but in 2005 there was no significant difference in predator numbers overall (despite our use again of the highest rate) in the more extensive, season-long sweep samples.

Tarnished Plant Bug (TPB) was abundant in these plots, so the numbers of adult TPB were noted in three sweep samples in 2004, and again in more extensive samples all season long in 2005. TPB was not significantly affected by any of the PyGanic sprays. Note that since PyGanic seems to affect only PLH among prominent arthropods, it should still be especially useful in eventually isolating the effect of PLH on yields in these and any future ex-periments.

TPB adults occurred in lower numbers in RN than in YG and K in 2004, at least at first, but overall in 2005 it briefly showed lower numbers but was more abundant at the end of the season in RN than in YG and K (again suggesting greater reproduction or sur-vivorship in RN).

In 2006, now in progress we were able to plant on two disparate planting dates for comparison, 26 April vs. 25 May, along with three varieties, Ken-nebec, Yukon Gold, and Chieftain (Red Norlund was not available), and sprayed vs. not-sprayed plots, although the heavy early rains damaged or de-stroyed some plots. Here we have found adult PLH seemed to choose the early plots more, and so too early results indicate more h-burn in the early plant-ings. Small plots here may not well represent large fields where no easy choice by the PLH is possible, though small farms and gardens might be similar in scale and such results in any side by side plantings for different dates. We do not have yield data yet.

In summary, again, PyGanic greatly reduced PLH numbers in potatoes in all years, even at the low-est labeled rate used in 2004. In the limited trial in 2003, Diatect V also showed very strong reduc-tions, while a mixture of Surround and BioNeem was less effective. There may, however, also be

some phytotoxicity with PyGanic, perhaps at higher rates in some varieties (e.g, Red Nordlund). Red Nordlund seemed to engender greater numbers of PLH nymphs, despite a lack of difference in arriving adult numbers, suggesting greater PLH reproduction or survival in RN.

Other arthropods were also sampled. PyGanic sprays did not affect CPB nor TPB, but varietal ef-fects were also observed with them. CPB produced more eggs in RN (followed by K), and TPB adults in RN showed lower numbers early but greater numbers later in the summers. Common predators showed reductions at the high PyGanic rate in 2004 but not in 2005. We could see differences in apparent hopperburn among potato varieties and among spray treatments, although even sprayed treatments showed real dam-age. However, there was some, but surprisingly little, effect of sprays on yields. Our yield samples could just be too variable and/or other factors could have overshadowed any effects of PLH in our plots. Otherwise a relative lack of yield differences could mean that any number of PLH causes comparable yield losses, as well as noticeable damage, even though sprays reduced PLH numbers greatly and did affect damage levels too (ultimately we still need to get essentially perfect PLH h-burn control in check plots to see how much they really affect yields or not). More optimistically, no yield differ-ences among sprays could mean that PLH damage is actually often cosmetic or too late to affect yields for some varieties or perhaps planting dates. More complete and consistent data on yields, especially in relation to planting date and variety, are still needed.

A Final Note or Two. I am finishing this just after the NOFA Summer Conference where I attended the Potatoes talk by Bryan O’Hara (noted here by per-mission). He plants late, usually in June, to avoid CPB (among other reasons, such as better winter storage), and sees h-burn but only rarely sees it as a real problem (despite the late planting). He mulches and thought maybe that helps by discouraging PLH and encouraging spiders and other predators. We have found in earlier experiments at Hampshire that PLH numbers were lower in mulch though not

THE COOPERAT IVE CHOICE

F OR ORGANIC DAIRY FARMERS

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r F a l l , 2 0 0 630enough in our plots to affect burn or yields, but of course this could be worth more study, especially in larger plots or fields.

I would also note that PLH nymphs seem like they would be very susceptible to predation, much more than the very jumpy adults. If you touch a PLH nymph while counting them (I sometimes nudge the very small ones with a thumbnail to help distinguish them from other small insects by their sideways scurrying), they are very likely to climb up your hand, so it seems like any active predator would find them easy prey, although the numbers of PLH needed to produce h-burn are so low that predation would have to be very high to have an impact. Also by the way, Entrust TM applied in other plots this year did not seem to affect PLH at all (in counts after spraying). At Hampshire we also seem to see more PLH entering the fields from legumes like clo-ver (and PLH is a pest of alfalfa) after mowing, so the relationship with other nearby hosts and where and how they are planted and managed could be important.

Some other farmers in discussion in Bryan’s talk noted that PLH seemed like a serious problem for them, but others did not, for various reasons (e.g., one suggested that Keuka Gold was a good variety vs. PLH). We would love to hear about other peo-ples’ experiences with PLH, whether it is a problem or not, why or why not this is or seems to be the case, or any other thoughts or suggestions (see my e-mail and address here in this article).

References

Howell, J.C., A. R. Bonanno, T. J. Boucher, R. L. Wick, and R. Hazzard. 2006. New EnglandVegeta-ble Management Guide 2006-2007. Univ. of Mass. Extension, Amherst, MA.

Madeiros, A. H., I. Delaliberia, Jr., and W. M. Ting-ey. 2005. Aspects of potato leafhopper, Empoasca fabae (Harris) (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) biology on Solanum berthaulti and other potato genotypes. J. Econ. Entomology 98: 1704-1709.

Madeiros, A. H. and W. M. Tingey. 2006. Glandu-lar trichomes of Solanum berthaulti and its hybrids with Solanum tuberosum affect nymphal emergence, development, and survival of Empoasca fabae (Ho-moptera: Cicadellidae). J. Econ. Entomology 99: 1483-1489.

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59 The NOP After 1 Year58 Irrigation57 On-Farm Dairying56 Farm Equipment55 Beginning Farmers54 Organic Berries53 On-Farm Research51 Farming & Families48 Home Gardening47 Can Organic Feed the World?46 Transition to Organic

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O’Hara, B. Potatoes. 2006. Workshop 199 at the Northeast Organic Farming Association 32nd Sum-mer Conference, at Hampshire College, Amherst MA, 10-13 August 2006.

Mishanec, J. 2005. Potato leafhopper variety selec-tion trials. Proceedings of the New England Veg-etable & Fruit Conference and Trade Show. 13-15 December. Manchester, NH. Pgs 26-30.

PSU. 2004. The Potato Leafhopper. Pennsylvania State University Entomological Notes. http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/potato_leafhop-per_veg.htm

Schultz, B. 2005. Effects of some organic pesti-cides and common potato varieties on potato leaf-hopper (Empoasca fabae). Proceedings of the New England Vegetable & Fruit Conference and Trade Show. 13-15 December. Manchester, NH. Pgs 31-37.

Tingey, W. M. and A. A. Muka. 1983. Potato Leaf-hopper. Cooperative Extension; New York State; Cornell University. http://www.nysipm.cornell.edu/factsheets/vegetables/potato/plh.pdf

Acknowledgements

This work was only possible with the support and infrastructure of the Hampshire farm and Hampshire and Five College administration, staff and students, especially Hampshire vegetable and CSA director Nancy Hanson, student Christal Boutte, and harvest help by Lynn Adler’s U.Mass. plant-insect interac-tion course in 2005; Ruth Hazzard of U. Mass. Ex-tension made many helpful suggestions and obser-vations and provided extra Surround in 2003.

Brian Schultz is at the School of Natural Science, Hampshire College , Amherst, MA 01002, Ph: 413-

559-5486, e-mail: [email protected]

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by Eric Sideman and Steven B. Johnson

Organic farming is the fastest growing segment of U.S. agriculture, and potato production follows the trend of other commodities. In 1986 the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) certified fewer than 10 farms selling potatoes. In 2005 MOFGA certified nearly 100 small- and moderate-sized farms marketing organic potatoes. Most organic potatoes are sold directly to consumers at farmers markets and farm stands, but some are directed toward the high-value restaurant and specialty-store market. Some are sold as organic potato seed. Organic potatoes generally demand a much higher value in the marketplace, usually two to three times that of conventional potatoes. The premium rewards the farmer for more expensive inputs and greater management demands.

In the marketplace, consumers commonly buy organic potatoes to avoid pesticide residue and other chemical treatments. However recent surveys have shown that many consumers are also aware of and support the values of organic production that include taking care of the soil and protecting the environment. Organic potatoes command a premium price because consumers recognize and are willing to pay for the direct and indirect benefits of organic farming practices.

Organic production is based on soil husbandry practices that build reservoirs of plant nutrients, increase the level of organic matter and biological activity in the soil, and improve soil structure. A key practice is crop rotation out of potatoes into green manures that build the soil. Other practices include adding recycled organic matter to the soil such as crop residues, compost, and livestock manures. Pesticides are avoided as much as possible because they can disrupt beneficial biological activity, and synthetic pesticides and fertilizers are regulated by the USDA’s National Organic Program standards.

SoilA soil test should be one of the first steps in potato production. Standard soil tests will provide basic information on the chemical condition of the soil and level of organic matter. Soil tests by your state University will provide specific recommendations for the production of organic potatoes.

Potatoes will grow in many types of soils but prefer fertile, well-drained soils. Heavy, wet soils with poor drainage tend to cause tuber rot problems. Current organic certification standards require a crop rotation between potato crops. This helps control soil-borne pathogens like Rhizoctonia and Verticillium. Growers must rotate to manage the soil, pests, and pathogens. Longer rotations provide greater benefits. A four-year rotation with a soil-building cover crop is ideal. Pay attention to rotation crop choices to help break pest cycles.

Maine has many acid soils. The measure of soil acidity is the pH. Potatoes do well across a wide range of pH, but a soil pH of 5.3 to 6.0 is typical for potato production in Maine. The addition of lime to soil can be used to raise the pH above 5.0. A soil test will provide a recommendation for wood ash or lime.

The best time to incorporate wood ash or lime into the soil is in the fall, but this can also be done in the spring before planting. Better fertilizer efficiency is obtained at neutral (7.0) pH than at 5.3, but this higher pH is more conducive to scab, a disease caused by a soil-borne pathogen. Prepare for planting by plowing and disking the field to create a smooth seedbed.

Cutting and Storing SeedPotatoes are traditionally produced from seed pieces. These are not true “seed,” but rather pieces of or whole potato tubers. Always plant certified seed. Certified seed has been specifically produced to be replanted under strict guidelines to ensure the health of the tubers. By Maine regulation, certified seed is required for plantings larger than one acre. Earlier generation seed is closer to tissue culture and more desirable.

Seed that is received before planting should be kept cool. Warm seed for seven to ten days before planting to encourage rapid sprout development. Many suitable varieties are available; let your markets determine the variety you plant.

Seed tubers that are less than two inches in diameter should be planted whole. Avoid seed smaller than one inch in diameter. If larger seed is used, cut it.

Potato seed pieces should be blocky, must have at least one eye, and should weigh between 1 3/4 ounces and 2 1/4 ounces. The fewer cut surfaces the better, as less energy is used by the seed piece to heal the cut surfaces. Make sure all cut surfaces are smooth. Any jagged or torn surfaces will invite seed-piece rot to occur. Seed pieces do not have to be healed; they can be freshly cut and planted into soil. If the seed is to be cut well before planting, store the cut seed in an area with temperatures of 50 to 55ºF, and over 90 percent humidity, to allow the cut surfaces to heal. The healed seed pieces can then be held at low temperatures.

“Pipping” or “green sprouting” can be used to encourage early production. Green sprouting can produce short stubby sprouts that emerge quickly and set tubers early. To green-sprout tubers, spread seed tubers out in a single layer in an area exposed to light. This can be done on a floor indoors or out, or in trays that can be stacked, as long as the temperature doesn’t drop below freezing.

Temperatures up to 70ºF, with high humidity, produce ideal conditions to green-sprout potatoes. Once sprouts reach about an eighth inch in length, reduce the temperature to around 50ºF. This will encourage the sprouts to be green and thick. In reality, many places in a barn or garage during early spring will work well. Turn the potatoes over to encourage uniform sprouts.

FertilizingA soil test will provide site-specific recommendations for fertilization. Establish soil fertility before planting. Meet any initial needs for potassium, calcium, magnesium sulfur, and phosphorus with rock powders; then maintain them over the years with organic amendments. Meet nitrogen needs with crop rotations of legumes— residual nitrogen in other soil organic matter will help. Supplemental nitrogen, if needed, often comes from such sources as soybean meal, processed manures, or fish meal.

Table 1 provides a guide to the analysis of some common organic soil amendments. Potatoes have high nitrogen and potassium requirements. Most organic potato producers in Maine should consider producing a crop with about 120 pounds of nitrogen, 25 pounds of phosphate (P2O5), and about 140 pounds of potash (K2O) per acre.

PlantingPlant potato seed tubers when the soil warms to 50ºF. Potatoes planted earlier in colder temperature soils may emerge a little earlier, but since they will sit in a cold, wet soil, they are susceptible to decay. Space seed from 8 to 18 inches within the row and 34 to 36 inches between rows (Table 2 gives seed requirements per acre).

Make a furrow four to six inches deep, and, after fertilization, place seed in the furrow and cover with two inches of soil. Hill the plants once they are about six inches tall by forming a mound onto the potato row. Avoid late cultivation as this may damage the potato roots and stolons.

Up to three hillings may be needed to build a potato hill, depending on conditions. A good job of cultivation will control weeds between the potato rows, but crop rotations should be designed as your main strategy against weeds. Get grass weeds under control before planting potatoes.

Pest ControlFirst and foremost, any pest control materials must meet the current standards approved by organic

certification bodies. Check with your certifier for up-to-date information on approved materials. Adherence to pest control practices will not only improve the potato yield; it will help protect the potato industry.

WeedsWeeds compete with potato plants for water, nutrients, and light. Weeds can be quite a hindrance in harvest operations. Plan crop rotations to clean fields between potato crops. For very weedy fields, short periods of cover crops separated by fallow periods can be used to help kill perennial weeds and use up the seed bank. For example, plant oats in early spring, followed by buckwheat for the summer and then back to oats or a brassica crop for the fall cover. Separate these cover crops by a few weeks of fallow ground with periodic tilling to stimulate weed seed germination and subsequent killing.

Propane-fueled flamers have shown some promise in weed control. Mechanical weed removal is still the predominant means of weed control. While hand weeding has a place on a small scale, tillage is effective for larger operations. Preemergence cultivation tends to be risky, as the seed tubers and emerging potato sprouts are easily damaged. The best results are achieved when the soil is dry at the time of cultivation. Cultivation will dry the soil out. Cultivation performed under wet conditions will tend to compact soils and produce clods. Adjust the cultivator to throw soil around the base of the potato plants and bury weed seedlings. Use standard S tines for between-row cultivation. Up to three cultivations may be required. Avoid very late cultivations, as root pruning is likely to occur.

Complete all cultivation and hilling by the time the plants are 10 inches high. Early weed control is essential for good potato yields. The potato canopy should close within 30 to 45 days after planting. After this, canopy shading will reduce weed germination. Even plant stands will improve weed shading. Try to keep weed seeds from external sources from entering your potato fields. Do not allow cover crops to set seed.

InsectsLocate potato fields a tenth to a quarter of a mile away from last year’s potato crop, or at least as far as possible. This will reduce the movement of overwintered Colorado potato beetles into the new potato crop. Leafhoppers, European corn borers, and aphids occur each year, with very high populations some years. Flamers provide some control. Microbial, biological, botanical insecticides (rotenone, Bt, pyrethrum, neem, etc.) may be permitted in organic production, but only as a last resort.

Check with your certifier for up-to-date information on approved materials. Be sure to follow IPM scouting reports.

DiseasesLate blight and early blight are the two main disease threats to potato plants. Of the two, late blight is the real threat. Late blight can spread and affect potato production miles away. Late blight is a community disease that needs community-wide attention and response. Sanitation is the best defense against late blight. Eliminate cull piles and control volunteer potato sprouting in the spring. These are the cheapest and best ways to reduce inoculum. While no potato varieties are immune, some varieties have some level of resistance to some races of the pathogen that causes late blight.

Preventative copper sprays can be used for late blight control; copper oxide is the most common formulation. Copper is an ingredient in Bordeaux mixture, one of the earliest fungicides. Check with your certifier for up-to-date information on approved formulations of copper fungicides.

Copper is toxic to many forms of life and tends to accumulate in soils over extended use, so be sure to monitor copper levels in the soil.

Producing Potatoes Organically


Supporting Our RegionalGrowers and Producers

At Fairfield Farm Kitchens, we are committed to supporting small,regional growers and nurturing the relationships we have with our

farmers. We invite you to taste their fresh, organic products in everybite of our Moosewood and Organic Classics refrigerated soups, frozenentrees and toaster muffins, available at your local natural foods store.

Fairfield Farm Kitchens is proud topartner with organic farmers!

If you are interested in becoming one of our supplier partners, pleasecontact John Weaver via e-mail or phone,

[email protected] or 508-584-9300 ext. 301

www.fairfieldfarmkitchens.comBrockton, MA

Harvesting and StoringPotatoes are traditionally harvested at the end of the growing season. At this time, temperatures have dropped and there has frequently been a frost. If the tops have not died, slash them off 14 to 21 days before harvest. Harvest potatoes with any implement that can lift the potatoes out of the soil without damaging them. Potatoes will bruise—handle them like eggs! Get harvested potatoes out of the light to avoid greening. Select only intact and healthy potatoes for long-term storage. Don’t store diseased or damaged potatoes. Store the harvested potatoes in a cool, moist, dark environment. Ideal storage conditions would be 38ºF with 95 percent humidity. As this is not always available, a cool, damp basement usual does fairly well as long as the floor isn’t prone to wetness. Maintaining tuber quality beyond two months of storage will require that you adhere carefully to ideal storage conditions.

A Growing MarketPotatoes require more attention than most vegetables, but can be grown in all parts of Maine. Organic potatoes in Maine are an industry that is increasing in scope and in value. Organic potatoes may bring a premium price in the marketplace, because many consumers understand that organic practices not only produce safe, high-quality food; they preserve topsoil and reduce pollution. Organically grown foods are flavorful and nutritious, which is why gourmet restaurants are increasingly seeking organic suppliers.

Table 1. Analysis of common organic soil amendments

Source N P2O5 K2O percent percent percentAlfalfa meal 2 to 3 0 2Compost 1 to 3 0 to 1 1 to 2Fish meal 9 to 10 6 0Kalinite 0 0 12Kelp 0 to 1 0 to 1 4 to 13Manure (dairy) 1 to 2 1 2 to 4Manure (horse) 1 to 2 1 1 to 2Manure (poultry) 2 to 5 5 to 6 2Manure (rabbit) 2 1 1Manure (sheep) 3 to 4 1 3 to 4Manure (swine) 3 to 4 1 1Rock phosphate* 0 20 to 30 0Soybean meal 7 1 1Sul-Po-Mag 0 0 22 (11 Mg)Wood ash 0 0 5Potassium sulfate 0 0 50 to 53 (17 S)

*As these are slow release, the University of Maine Soil Testing Service adjusts the required rate of these by the following factors; rock phosphate, increase the rate by 4. These adjustments are to correct a deficiency in the first growing season after application. For long-term adjustment or when this material has been applied in several sequential years, do not use the multiplication factor.

Table 2. Seed tuber requirements

Row Plant 1.75 oz 2.0 oz 2.25 oz Seedspacing spacing seed seed seed pieces(inches) (inches) cwt/ cwt/ cwt/ per acre acre acre acre34 8 25.2 28.8 32.4 23,061 9 22.4 25.6 28.8 20,499 10 20.2 23.1 17.3 18,449 11 18.3 21.0 26.0 16,772 12 16.8 19.2 21.6 15,374 14 14.4 16.5 18.5 13,178 16 12.6 14.4 16.2 11,531 18 11.2 12.8 14.4 10,24936 8 23.8 27.2 30.6 21,780 9 21.2 24.2 27.6 19,360 10 19.1 21.8 24.5 17,424 11 17.3 19.8 21.8 15,480 12 15.9 18.2 20.4 14,520 14 13.6 15.6 17.5 12,446 16 11.9 13.6 15.3 10,890 18 10.6 12.1 13.6 9,680

from PRODUCING POTATOES ORGANICALLY IN MAINE, BULLETIN #2419

For a printed copy of the UMaine Extension publications catalog call 1-800-287-0274 (ME only)

or 207-581-3792.Visit us online at www.umext.maine.edu

SEEKING AN INTERIM STORE MANAGER

The Board of Directors of Abundance Cooperative Market is seeking

qualified candidates interested in the position of Interim Store Manager

POSITION TO BE FILLED IMMEDIATELY

INTERESTED CANDIDATES SHOULD SEND A RESUMEAND SALARY HISTORY & REQUIREMENTS TO:

Search CommitteeAbundance Cooperative Market62 Marshall Street, Rochester, NY 14607Or to: [email protected]

Abundance is a five-year old retail food cooperative withover $2 million in sales, over 1100 shareholders and 25employees. We are and Equal Opportunity Employer

www.abundance.coop


by Margaret Tuttle [email protected]. Department of Plant Pathology,

Cornell UniversityLong Island Horticultural Research and Extension

Center, Riverhead, NY 11901

and

Barbara J. ChristDepartment of Plant Pathology, The Pennsylvania

State UniversityUniversity Park, PA 16802

There are several diseases that can challenge suc-cessful potato production. They include Fusarium dry rot, Rhizoctonia canker (black scurf), silver scurf, common scab, powdery scab, blackleg, bacte-rial soft rot, Verticillium wilt, Fusarium wilt, early blight, late blight, Pythium leak, black dot and root rot, bacterial ring rot, pink rot, Botrytis gray mold, white mold (Sclerotinia stalk rot), and viruses. In-formation about these diseases is available on the web at http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/fact-sheets/Potato_List.htmand at http://potatohealth.cas.psu.edu/pages/DiseasesOf-Pennsylvania-1.htmas well as numerous other sites.

To manage diseases in potato begin by selecting a field with good drainage that has not been planted to potatoes for at least 2 years and is not adjacent to where potatoes were grown last year. Longer rota-tion is needed for some diseases, especially powdery scab and Verticillium wilt.

Crops grown in rotation with potato can affect pathogens that survive in soil. Other solanaceous crops, especially eggplant and tomato, are a poor choice because they are affected by some of the same diseases, especially Verticillium wilt and black dot. Avoid rotations with carrot, beet, spinach, tur-nip and radish to manage common scab. Corn, small grains, grasses (especially sudangrass), and legumes are good rotation crops. When grown as green ma-nures they may provide greater benefit. Alfalfa, rye, and soybeans are also good rotation crops.

Select varieties with resistance when available. Those that mature early are more susceptible to ear-ly blight than late-maturing varieties like Katahdin, Kennebec, Sebago, Elba, and Atlantic. Elba is re-sistant to Verticillium wilt, while Katahdin, Norchip, and Atlantic are moderately resistant; avoid Ken-nebec and Superior as they are susceptible. Rus-set-skinned varieties are less susceptible to powdery scab. Superior, Monona, Norchip, Atlantic, Kenne-bec, and Norland have some resistance to common scab.

Purchase high-quality, certified disease-free seed and ask before buying about diseases present in the seed production field and the potential that any pathogens are present. Most pathogens can be on seed.

Frequently clean seed cutting equipment. Warm the seed prior to planting and plant in warm (60°F) soil. These and any other practice that promote rapid

Managing Potato Diseases Organically

emergence will reduce attack by the fungus Rhizoc-tonia and Erwinia bacteria.

Dispose properly of any cull potatoes well before planting, such as by completely freezing, feeding to livestock, burying at least 3 ft deep, or composting. This is especially critical when late blight could be present in the tubers.

Do not use manure as fertilizer if animals were fed potatoes with common scab or powdery scab.

Contact local extension specialists for information on which diseases are most important in the area and for updates on disease occurrence during the growing season.

Decide in advance which diseases could require foliar applications of a disease-control product (fun-gicide) such as copper to obtain desired quantity and quality of yield. Note that in the US products for which the manufacturer claims disease control must be registered as fungicides with EPA unless the ingredients are ‘generally recognized as safe’ (GRAS) by EPA. Learn what the initial symptoms are because it is essential for successful control to be able to accurately identify the disease and to ini-tiate treatment at the first sign of disease. There are fungal diseases (eg Verticillium Wilt) that cannot be suppressed even by conventional (non-organic) fun-gicides. The many images of symptoms now posted on the web can be accessed by typing ‘potato’ fol-lowed by the disease name in Google, then clicking on ‘Images’ right above the search line. Select a sprayer that will provide thorough coverage of foli-age, such as a high-volume boom sprayer equipped with hollow cone or flat fan nozzles and operated at ground speed of 4 mph or less, using 50-60 gal/A, and with 60-100 psi of pressure.

Inspect crops at least weekly for disease symptoms, especially those of diseases identified as being most critical, more often when there has been fog, heavy dews, high humidity or rainy weather, or when there has been an outbreak of a disease like late blight in the area. Most fungal and bacterial diseases are favored by leaf wetness, which enables the patho-gens to infect. Some are dispersed in splashing water. Give special attention when scouting to early varieties and any section of the crop that is near last year’s potato field or dries slowly, such as where trees provide shade or restrict air movement.

Determine the cause of any disease symptoms found and assess severity so that a targeted management program can be developed for subsequent crops.

Avoid over-irrigating and irrigating such that it extends the leaf wetness period due to rain or dew to manage foliar diseases. Withhold irrigation dur-ing tuber set to manage powdery scab. Also avoid excessive irrigation late in the season as this can provide favorable conditions for tuber diseases, in particular pink rot.

Make sure plants are adequately hilled so tubers are well covered with soil and thus protected from late blight.

Manage weeds. Solanaceous weeds can harbor pathogens. Numerous weeds can increase humidity thereby improving conditions for disease develop-ment and interfere with fungicide coverage.

Remove soil from farm equipment and workers’ boots between fields.

When a fungicide is considered necessary, based on the destructive potential of the disease and time of disease onset, begin applications at first sign of disease. Diseased tissue cannot be cured; fungicides can only protect uninfected tissue. Furthermore, when a disease is well established the pathogen may be unstoppable because lesions present continue to expand and produce spores.

Promptly destroying infected plants is recommend-ed with a disease like late blight when it is found early in disease development on a few plants.

If late blight becomes widespread in a field, kill foli-age to kill the pathogen and prevent it from infect-ing tubers.

Harvest as soon as tubers are mature, vines are dead and soil is dry. Do not delay harvest as this provides more opportunity for tubers to become infected. Also cold tubers are more susceptible to Fusarium dry rot. However, avoid harvesting under extremely warm conditions as this can favor development of Pythium leak Minimize skinning and bruising during harvest. Fields with tuber rots should be harvested last. Grade out tubers starting to rot. Re-move excess dirt from tubers before storing.

Provide proper conditions for stored potatoes. Dis-infect storage space and equipment. Promote proper wound healing by holding tubers before storage at 55 - 60 F with 90 - 95% RH. Reduce the storage temperature gradually when curing is complete. During storage avoid moist conditions that favor disease development by providing good air circula-tion and keeping relative humidity below 85%.

Destroy volunteer potato plants during rotation.

photo courtesy Meg McGrath

Potato blight

photo courtesy Meg McGrath

Rhizoctonia canker in a potato plantphoto courtesy Meg McGrath

Rhizoctonia canker in potato tubers


by Jack Kittredge

The Connecticut River Valley in Massachusetts and Connecticut contains some of the best growing land in New England. The deep deposits of rich alluvial soil, hot summers, and absence of rocks mimic conditions in Illinois or Iowa. Hadley loam, prized as a top vegetable-growing soil, gets its name because it is found so commonly in the Connecticut River town of Hadley, Massachusetts. Just across the river from Hadley lies Whately, home of Paul Maiewski and his organic potato farm.

“My great grandfather bought this farm in 1908,” says Paul, “on halves with another fellow. It was wet and after a year that other guy said ‘You’ll grow nothing but frogs here!” So my great grandfather bought him out in 1909.”

During the Depression Paul’s great grandfather bought more land. “Back then many people had made a living on a 5 acre farm,” he explains. “Well, those places went under and my great grandfather bought them. Banks were selling land for just the payments. He took over the payments.”

Paul’s great grandfather passed the farm to his 3 sons, one of whom was Maiewski’s grandfather. At that time, most Whately farms were raising onions and tobacco. ‘They would plant set onions,” Paul relates. “In their planter they had a tank, and it had formaldehyde in it. They would drip formaldehyde on the onions as they were planting them, for onion maggot! So they weren’t what you would call organic.

“But it’s hard to blame someone who does something all their life,” he continues, “and there’s this pest you can’t do anything about. Then all of a sudden somebody hands you something and says ’Try this’. And it works! Hey, it seems wonderful. Slowly you come to find out all the bad things about it. But at first, you just know about the problems that are going away.”

Paul’s father worked on the farm for a while when Paul was young, but he ended up quitting and became a librarian. Paul, however, liked working with his grandfather. After high school he went to the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts. After that 2-year program, he returned to work on the farm.

“Our farm has always had potatoes,” he states. “It’s a fourth generation potato farm! But when I started managing it 12 years ago I started growing them organically. My grandfather loved the idea of going organic. He was born in 1916, so they didn’t use many chemicals back then.”

“Of course the ones they did use were pretty strong,” he laughs. “I have an extension leaflet from 1935 and it says for seed treatment to dip the potatoes in mercuric chloride!

When it came time to pass the farm along, Maiewski’s grandfather and his bachelor great uncle Myron gave Paul their shares, and he had to buy out only the other brother.

“It was pretty cheap for what I got,” he says.

What he got was a hundred acres of tillable land, on which he rotates 40 acres of potatoes. He also rents out 16 acres to another organic farm. Even on that much land, Paul says he has trouble with his rotation because some fields just aren’t suitable for potatoes.

Another problem is that there is no easy access to irrigation. “I haven’t invested in irrigation yet,” he says. “It would make great sense if I could get the water. But an acre inch of water is 27,000 gallons. There’s not a place here where I could draw that

Forty Acres of Potatoes on Maiewski Farm

volume. I could get it from the river, but that would be a lot of piping!”

Right next to one of Paul’s fields is a neighbor’s planting of tobacco. It’s used for cigar wrappers and is a high value product – not the $50 a pound that shade tobacco brings, but still valuable at $5 to $8 a pound. Since tobacco farmers can get a yield of one ton per acre, they are not about to leave any row unplanted. And while not many insects bother tobacco, it is highly vulnerable to fungus and so is heavily sprayed. Thus Paul has to take the required 50 foot buffer zone between organic and conventional land out of his field.

Maiewski uses a lot of seed, which he buys from Moose Tubers, in Maine. “I get two trailers of seed,” he says. “I use a ton per acre. They say you get 10 to 1 in yield, but I think I can get to 15 to 1. Sometimes I plant only 1800 pounds. It depends on the spacings. Yukon Golds tend to be hollow hearted -- there’s a hollow cavity inside. One of the solutions, they say, is to crowd the potatoes a little closer and they don’t grow as fast. Russets need more space. If you crowd them you won’t get the big ones. Reds are in the middle. So the spacing in the row is different for each variety.

“The best yield I ever got,” he continues, was 300 hundred-weights to the acre. That’s 30,000 pounds. I shoot for 200, if I get less than 175 it’s not so hot. The year I got 300 it was in new ground a year after it was in alfalfa. Of course those taproots don’t decay quickly and they made it hard to work the field that first year.”

Paul tries to start digging his potatoes on September first. Ideally, he says, you wait for your vines to die back naturally. But he can’t really wait for that because he has so many potatoes to harvest he wouldn’t get to the last ones until too late in the season. So rather than wait for a natural dieback, he mows his vines.

“I’ll do a whole field at once,” he says. “Once you kill the plant, you have to wait a while for the skins to be tough enough to be mechanically harvested – two or three weeks. But you know mowing doesn’t always kill them. There are still some vines growing. What conventional growers do is go through with a general herbicide. That leaves them nice and dead. What I like to do is start mowing in early August, and then harvest the first of September. But the problem is that leaves three weeks or more for the weeds to start growing. The first potatoes I harvest that way are nice and clean


Paul stands in one of his �00 to 600 foot rows of potatoes.


and easy. But if I take too long, oh boy, those weeds are fierce!”

Maiewski has a specialized mower he pulls behind the tractor. It has two blades and two wheels he sets in the aisles. The wheels are adjustable for height. He says you want to shred the vines at the top of the hill, but keep from cutting into the hill at all on pain of exposing the tubers to the sun and turning the skin green -- or worse, cutting into the potato itself.

He throws a cover crop of rye down after the harvest. He would like to do wheat, he says, but needs to do that in September for it to take and he just doesn’t have the time then. Thus the rye after the harvest is over.

“If I could sow a winter wheat in the fall,” he sighs, “when it would start up in the spring it would have such a head start on the weeds that they wouldn’t have a chance. That would be a good way to rotate. But I’d need to sow the wheat in time. As it is, I can use rye to cover the ground. I could do a spring grain, but it would start off with the same timing as the weeds, and would have a hard time out-competing them.”

Paul says he finds that progress is slow. Every year he learns something, but it takes a whole year to correct his mistakes. And these days everything changes. “You used to be able to make do by doing what your father did,” he says, “but no more.”

Despite the size of his potato planting, Maiewski feels he has insect problems under control. For Colorado Potato Beetles he uses Entrust. It’s a fermented by-product of a soil dwelling bacteria, whose active ingredient is called Spinosad. It is a fairly broad spectrum larvacide so he tries to be moderate in using it, but it needs to be sprayed several times while the CPB pressure is on.

“I use 2 ounces to the acre,” he laughs, “and it really kills them dead! It’s shocking! It’s a product that conventional growers could do well with. I only need three applications per year. Everyone asks about beetles, but beetles are easy to control with Entrust. I foresee a time, however, when they will become resistant to it. I can’t rotate away from it. I can rotate my fields away, which helps a lot, but I have no other product to rotate through. If you don’t control beetles, they’ll eat your crop up!”

Every year, Paul says, he gets his sprayer out and the tubes are filled with water. He tends to forget that and start spraying without purging the sprayer. So the first 20 feet of crops get only water. “You can see the difference,” he concludes. “The beetles destroy those potatoes, eat them down to sticks!”

Leaf hoppers are a bigger problem than CPB for Maiewski. He finds Pyganic 5.0 is very effective, however. It contains Pyrethrum. On the downside, it’s expensive and you have to put it on a lot. “Some years are worse than others for the hoppers,” he says. “They don’t overwinter here. They live down south and come in with weather fronts and thunderstorms. The mechanism by which they feed is to inject a little bit of toxin, which causes the leaf to burn and curl. Once the leafhoppers are around, they don’t go anywhere, just keep breeding new generations. But I always scout before I spray. The material is expensive.”

Paul is very conscious that he grew up in a conventional farming paradigm and is adapting to an organic one. “That means sometimes I don’t think about things the right way,” he confesses. “If I had started as an organic grower I think I would have been more alert to various things – rotations, changing my cultivating systems. When you’re a conventional grower you always have a magic bullet. Throw it in the tank, go out and spray, and there goes your problem! I wouldn’t have hopper-burn at all. Hoppers are not a problem for conventional growers! The mildest of conventional insecticides will eliminate hoppers. Yet hoppers for me are a big concern.”

Paul’s worst weed problem is yellow nutsedge. It’s a perennial weed and propagates by making underground ‘nuts’. “I think it is really called a corm,” he says. “It’ll grow that nut right into a potato and it makes them less marketable. They’ll get as big as a small bean. It’s hard to cultivate out because you can pull out the plant but unless you pull out the nut it propagates again.”

Maiewski practices traditional culture -- plowing, harrowing, harrowing again, planting, then cultivating with spring weeders when the field is perfectly flat, before the crop is up. The planter has two disks and makes a little hill. But you don’t want much of a hill, he says. You only want the potato to be two or three inches deep in the ground. The deeper you go the longer it takes to emerge. And the quicker you can get the potato to emerge the better off you are with regard to resistance to diseases. He goes through with the weeders 4 or 5 times, until the plant is maybe 8 inches tall. Then he uses a Lilleston rolling cultivator which banks the soil up a little bit. Then finally he’ll go through with a hiller which has a set of plows that make the potato hill.

“I usually cultivate until the leaves spread over and fill the aisles,” he says. “You want to go through before you are ripping up too many vines. I’d say, depending on the variety, that you might go about one and a half or two months after planting. After that, you try to keep the plants going as well as you can. Yukon Golds size up quite fast, which is why I put them in last.”

Disease is also an issue with potatoes, so Paul uses a lot of copper-based products. He depends a lot on Serenade MAX, a biofungicide, which he tank mixes with copper, which is fungicidal itself. “A good thing and a bad thing is that I grew up on a conventional farm,” he muses. “The bad thing is that I think back on all the wonderful products we could use to solve problems. They worked!”

For fertility Maiewski likes Purdue’s Agri-Recycle. It’s processed poultry litter which Purdue makes from bedding and poultry manure. It’s a 4-3-3, slow acting fertilizer which they run through a steamer and pelletize. “The trouble is,” he says, “we need to spread it 120 days before harvest because according to OMRI it’s raw manure, not compost. They only have those two categories.

“We use one ton per acre,” he continues, “but I think next year I’ll go with two tons. It’s pretty cheap. This is the first year I’ve used it and I really like it. At planting we put in feather meal, and potassium sulfate blend. Then I spin on a top dressing of feather meal, potassium sulfate, gypsum for calcium, and some Chilean Nitrate. Also, every time I spray I put in some fish emulsion. I use 2 gallons per acre. It’s kind of a pain to use, but I see the difference.”


The booms in this spray rig extend 2� feet on each side, covering � rows to the left and � to the right of the tractor.

photo by Jack KittredgePaul regularly scouts for signs of insect problems.


Paul grows the varieties of potatoes for which there is significant demand – Dark Red Norlands, Yukon Golds, BellRus, Superior, Purple Vikings, All Blues – and which his equipment can handle. “The larger, standard potatoes work well with my equipment,” he stresses. “Fingerlings would fall through my chains and get all beat up. They just wouldn’t work here. I’m not looking for a niche market within a niche market!”

Maiewski wholesales everything through a growers cooperative – Happy Valley Organic. Its office is on Paul’s land, right behind his packing house. They pack everything almost exclusively in 5 pound bags and wholesale them to area supermarkets – Whole Foods, Stop and Shop, Big Y. The retailers get as high as $5 for a 5 pound bag, but Paul’s average price for that bag would be $1.70 to $2.00.

“A lot of conventional growers will sell 50 pound sacks for $6,” he asserts. “I sell them for $20. It’s like night and day! That’s what attracted me to organic farming. But now I really enjoy figuring out how to do a good job!”

Paul says he harvests to order. “If Stop and Shop calls up we’ll go and dig. We’re harvesting and grading most of the time, but not if we don’t have orders. Last year we had a very wet October and I lost a lot. But this year I’d like to do something new – dig and pack into one ton bulk bags in the storage building. That way if I get an order and can’t get out in the field because it’s too wet I can still ship. Last year we had one storm in October with 8 inches of rain and I couldn’t get out for a week! I finally harrowed up 3 or 4 acres of potatoes!”

Because of the scale of his production, equipment and labor issues are crucial in Maiewski’s operation. All his activities are highly mechanized. His 2-row planter can plant at a speed of two and a half miles an hour and covers 2 or 3 acres before it needs to be refilled.

“The fertilizer is supposed to drop from this bin into the hill,” he explains. “The planting shoe opens up the row and cups carry the potatoes from the hopper into the planting chutes. A marker arm sticking out the side marks the place where I should keep the nose on the next pass.


Paul examines Dark Red Norland potatoes at about the golf ball stage. They are forming up well.

“The big thing with planting any crops,” he continues, “is that you don’t want skips or doubles. You don’t want skips because you’re wasting space, fertilizer, and spray material. Big waste. But you don’t want doubles because they reduce your yield and cost you more for seed. If you have an operator sitting there when you’re planting you can be perfect.”

As in any organic operation, Paul has to be aggressive with weeds. When it comes time to harvest, a clean field makes all the difference in bringing the potatoes up smoothly. He has various cultivators, all set for working four rows at a time. One takes out small weeds with banks of tines that are adjustable for the angle at which they enter the ground. “This is the only thing that will take out nutgrass,” Maiewski explains. “You run this right over the field after planting and it takes out the weeds but doesn’t take out the sprouted potatoes. You have to go several times with it, but it does a marvelous job. Of course it is $5000 of steel!”

Another has spider gangs which break the crust and can also throw soil up onto the hills, depending on how you adjust them. A third makes hills. The shape of the hill is important, Paul cautions. A good hill is wide and not very tall. That way you will get less potatoes turning green from exposure to the sun.

Maiewski has a boom sprayer which can cover 50 feet, or 16 rows at a time. “I used to hate spraying,” he grins. “But this makes spraying quite pleasant. Everything works on it. I spray 4 miles an hour and put 50 gallons of solution on an acre, running at 125 pounds pressure. It has two shock absorbers on each side and an air bag suspension. It rides great!”

Paul’s potato harvester is a wonder of agricultural engineering design. It is a $50,000 machine new, but he picked it up used for $25,000. “The cutting head is controlled hydraulically,” he demonstrates, “you can lower it as far as you want. The cutting disks on the side cut any vines so you don’t wrap the nose. The hills are dug up and brought onto chains that shake off most of the dirt, then onto a de-viner chain where the large vines and weeds are separated and the potatoes fall down onto a third chain. This harvester has a giant fan which blows the vines and weeds out the back. I love it! Then the potatoes go up a big elevator and over a cleaning table that takes out some lumps and weeds, then onto a boom chain. We have a big ten-wheeler truck with a V bottom ride alongside us. One truck holds 8 tons, the other 10 tons. The boom drops the potatoes into the truck and when full it goes to our storage where we have the packing line. It takes about 125 horsepower to run the harvester. You can run this with two people if your fields are clean. It’s a good machine, but if something goes wrong that’s it. You can’t do anything else. If you have a good yield and clean field you can harvest an acre in an hour.

“The truck has a conveyor belt in it,” he continues, “so the potatoes come out of the truck and up a chain sizer which has wires which let the small potatoes fall through the chain. US #1 is an inch and 7/8, so that’s the size of the holes. Anything bigger than the holes is a number one and gets carried to the washer and past a picking table where we pull

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Maiewski’s planter opens up a furrow, drops in fertilizer, plants a potato, and covers it up automatically.


This two-row harvester digs the potatoes up, shakes the dirt loose, blows any vines out the back, and conveys the potatoes to a waiting truck for transport to the storage building.

out the green ones and cut ones or whatever. Then they go to an automatic five-pound bagger. You put in bales of poly bags, it weighs the potatoes, opens the bag, fills it and seals it. A guy throws those into a master bag.”

To help with the harvest Maiewski hires 3 or 4 Mexicans. He also needs some help planting, to fill the planter and ride on it. But that is only part-time for maybe 5 or 6 days altogether. “As far as fitting the land,” he says, “I can do that all myself. I cultivate it, I spray it. That’s the advantage of the mechanized crop. I used to cultivate with a two-row cultivator and I’d spend two months doing that. Now we have a four-row one and it takes half the time!

But Maiewski sometimes regrets having gotten so capital intensive on his farm. “There is just so much stuff and if one thing goes wrong you’re done,” he cautions. “I bought that tractor brand new to run my harvester. I needed more horsepower. But it shut down after 25 hours. The brand new tractor had a bad injection pump. I was down for a week! That’s what you buy new equipment for – so you won’t be down for a week! Once you get on the escalator it’s hard to get off. We’ve built up the markets and now we have to supply so much that we can’t go back.”

Paul figures he needs to grow close to 50 acres of potatoes each year to pay for his equipment. He has enough land to grow 100 acres, but then he would have no land to rotate to the next year. So he feels kind of locked in. But he says he has a dream of doing things differently.

“What I’d like to do is become more diverse,” he muses. “It’s actually too hot down here for potatoes. That’s why they like it in Maine. They have those 50 or 60 degree nights. I could grow a few crops. Maybe cucumbers, tomatoes, whatever. And I’d have a crew year round, for the whole season. I could put up an organic farm stand. I have a building right on the road. I’d offer truck crops, organic eggs, buy in a few things. But I don’t ever want to grow greens. I can’t tell the difference between one lettuce and another.

“I could convert a section of my land to pasture,” he continues. “It was that way in my grandfather’s day. Massachusetts is 80% woodland. A hundred years ago it was pasture -- it could be that way again. The way beef is raised on feedlots out west is unsustainable. It uses hundreds of gallons of fuel. But it could be done differently. Here we have the grass to pasture beef. There would be more jobs; it could be intensively managed.”

“You can’t grow this kind of acreage and go in at 5:00 every day for a good night’s sleep,” he sighs. “There’s too much to take care of and worry about.”

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P O Box 2285P O Box 2285P O Box 2285P O Box 2285P O Box 2285Manchester Center, VT05255Manchester Center, VT05255Manchester Center, VT05255Manchester Center, VT05255Manchester Center, VT05255NOFA Video Project, 411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005

NOFA Videos2006 Pre-Conference on:

Agriculture & EducationIntro with Panel;

Farming, Food & Care of the Earth with Bill Duesing❏ Please send me this video, #0611, for $15.

Learning by Growing, UVM’s Food Farm & Nutri-tion Program with Sara Coblyn Porth

❏ Please send me this video, #0612, for $15.

Farms, Schools & Adult Ed with Abbie Nelson, and We Can Do this with Mikey Azzara

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I enclose a check to “NOFA Video Project”. For each video I return in 30 days, rewound and in good shape, you’ll refund me $10.

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Mary Zanoni of Farm for Life directly criticized the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture (MDAR) for handing over private farm data to the USDA for a program she said would fail to address disease problems and lacks proper authority. MDAR Com-missioner, Douglas Gillespie, who was one of the debaters, responded that the state was sharing data with USDA because it is the most “efficient” way to share data. Patty Lovera of Food and Water Watch criticized the NAIS proposal for failing to provide any useful information to consumers or any mean-ingful protections. “NAIS fails at disease prevention and only tries to deal with the problem after the fact,” she said. Ken Kelly, staff attorney for Center for Science in the Public Interest argued in support of the general idea of animal tracking but said that USDA’s specific approach was deeply flawed. While it never heated beyond an angry simmer as polite-ness was maintained by moderator and Hampshire College Farm Manager Leslie Cox, plenty of strong feelings were vented and everyone went home with a lot to ponder.

Each evening’s entertainment sparkled, from Ben Grosscup’s stellar guitar picking inside the Red Barn Thursday night and the Rhubarb Pie String Band’s Contra Dance inside the Robert Crown Cen-ter Friday night, to the storytelling magic of Steve Leicach and the infectious zydeco beat of Dirty Rice Saturday night. Thanks to The People’s Pint Brewpub of Greenfield, those who imbibed enjoyed the light and refreshing flavor of the NOFA Summer Conference Ale, brewed specially by Alden Booth as a NOFA/Mass fund-raiser.

The Saturday Old-Fashioned Country Fair drew large crowds, who converged around the farmers’ market as well as the pie eating contest stage where three heats of pie lovers competed – with chop-sticks, partners and the “most deliciously enjoyed” raspberry-strawberry experience. Dale Perkins’ Horse Show was a huge hit as always, and the chil-dren’s parade was much-loved by all in attendance.

Thought-provoking films, singing and drumming by the campfire, relaxing on the barn deck and swimming were among the additional recreational activities enjoyed by all during this year’s not-soon-forgotten event.

The NOFA Summer Conference Committee has already begun planning next year’s big event, and we’d love you to get involved! The Summer Con-ference Committee is also always looking for new members and is presently also looking for a publica-tions coordinator. This person, with desktop publish-ing experience, designs the program book, registra-tion forms, posters and other publications, leading up to the conference. The helping hands position is also available. This person coordinates volunteer activities at the conference. If you are interested in learning more about these positions or in joining the Summer Conference committee, please contact Julie Rawson at 978-355-2853 or email [email protected]. The first meeting of the year will be October 15, 2006. There are six meetings annually. Members receive free conference registration, two free meals, a T-shirt, and housing during the conference for the year they serve. Each staff job includes a financial stipend as well.

Share Your Ideas! Do you have a topic you’d like to see explored at a workshop during the NOFA Summer Conference or the Pre-Conference, or one you’d like to present, or the name of a speaker/presenter you find inspiring and think others would also enjoy? We are always on the lookout for new and exciting people to bring into the circle of the Summer Conference. Please send the person’s name, address, telephone number, email address and the workshop topic by December 31, 2006 to Adrienne Shelton, Red Gate Farm, PO Box 300, Buckland, MA 01338.

Likewise, if you have topics you’d like to see debat-ed at the Summer Conference during the Saturday evening slot slated for discussion and the always eye-opening exchange of ideas, please contact Jack Kittredge at the above address or call him at 978-355-2853.

Summer Conference a Success(continued from page 1)


Kids learn about carding wool at 2006 NOFA Summer Children’s Conference


The auditorium was full for the debate on the National Animal Identification System.

photo byJonathan von Ransom

Stephanie Kelleher trying to eat pie “delicately” as per rules


Logo/Theme Contest Each year the NOFA Summer Conference Commit-tee solicits logo designs and theme ideas from the general public for next year’s Summer Conference. Send your logo/theme ideas (designed in color and/or black and white please) by October 14, 2006 to: Julie Rawson, 411 Sheldon Road, Barre, MA 01005 or send email to [email protected]. Questions? Call 978-355-2853. Summer Conference Committee members will select the winner of the logo/theme contest on October 15, 2006. The winner will re-ceive $150.

Special thanks go to the NOFA Summer Conference’s Work Exchange crew, whose hard work and assistance in so many aspects of the four-day event were greatly appreciated by all involved. This first-time offering in creative financing was a wonderful success, thanks to everyone’s dedication to helping those in need!

NOFA Videos0601 Climate Change, Ag & Energy Vern Grubinger0602 My Weedless Garden Lee Reich0603 Keynote Talk Sr. Miriam MacGillis0604 Farm Pond Aquaculture Craig Hollingsworth0605 Drip Irrigation for Gardens Lee Reich0605 Growing Fall Brassicas Nancy Hanson0607 NationalAnimalIdentification Debate0608 Cover Cropping David Fisher0609 Organic Veggie Farm Systems Ryan Voiland0610 Vegetable & Flower Diseases Bess Dicklow

$15 each❏ Please send me the circled videos. I enclose $15 for each in the form of a check to “NOFA Video Project

NOFA Video Project, 411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005

New from the 2006 NOFA Summer Conference:

for a full list of the 146 videos available, visitwww.nofa.org/conference/video/index.php


The kids in the rabbit workshop couldn’t wait to get their turn handling and petting the furry creatures.


The sack race at the Country Fair is always a popular one, but especially so with this group of kids from the Gardening the Community Program in Springfiled.


Much fin was had Fricay night when the band started up after the keynote speech.

photo by Jack Kittredfge

Maya Zelkin of West Marlboro, VT and Maya Zelkin Pottery


lacking a corpse. Blinded by dazzling sales figures, they failed to see that the robustly healthy grassroots organic movement is thriving with values intact at the local level everywhere, right under their noses.

The NOAP meeting series was convened by a committee led by Michael Sligh of the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) from North Carolina; Elizabeth Henderson of NOFA-NY and Liana Hoodes from the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture Organic Committee with some financial backing from Farm Aid. The widely diverse participants included board members from all seven NOFA state chapters and MOFGA in Maine, dairy representatives, Co-op grocers officials, nutritionists; economists, organic farmers and gardeners, social justice and food sovereignty advocates, political activists, consumers and even a sociologist looking to document the phenomenal persistence of the organic movement.

The Thursday afternoon agenda covered: What is Working Well in Organic?, What Are the Current Problems?, an overview of the Farm Bill and other federal proposals, and strengthening farmer and consumer voices. The Friday morning session covered how to address the changing organic marketplace, developing a National Organic Action Plan and the next steps and time-line for discussions as well as a summary of the meeting with participant feedback. As a counter to corporate domination in one session, for example, participants evolved a definition of the success and growth of organic that should be defined not only by national sales figures and the number of acres, which are in the province of the bigger industry, but also by the increase in the number of farms and farmers.

As the first of a series, the organizers were also concerned with developing a meeting structure and process that allowed for the free exchange of ideas while maintaining momentum in developing the integral concepts. After raising their hands, participants were placed in a queue and called upon by Elizabeth when it came their turn to comment on the matters at hand, or to respond to previous comments. This approach helped to keep the participants from getting sidetracked by mini debates, while allowing everyone’s ideas to be expressed thoroughly. With his mild southern drawl Michael smoothly kept the meeting on track and on time while Liana provided insight into legislative matters and recorded the meeting’s pertinent points on a flip pad and posted the pages on the meeting room walls. Feedback at the end of the meeting positively underscored the successful implementation of the approach.

In a meaningful contribution to the project, the NOFA Summer Conference organizers hosted the gathering for free as part of their pre conference proceedings at Hampshire College. The NOFA Interstate Council also facilitated the gathering. The results of this and the future meetings around the country will be compiled and forged into an Action Plan with plenty of additional opportunity for grassroots input throughout the process.

Grassroots Organics Alive at NOAP(continued from page 1)


The conferees at the National Organic Action Plan meeting felt their time was well spent.

photo by Jonathan von Ranson

Terry Gips of Minneapolis, three-workshop presenter, in the using-chopsticks event of the pie-eating contest

photo by Jonathan von Ranson

Unidentified young people checking the program book


The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western Worldby Larry Zuckermanpublished by North Point Press, 1998320 pages with index and bibliography$14.00 US$22.95 CAN

reviewed by Jack Kittredge

This enlightening book traces the poor tuber’s long, slow struggle to rise in the esteem of Europeans and cast off its image as at worst poisonous, at best homely and undeserving. Yet, as Zuckerman makes abundantly clear, the potato has changed western daily existence in fundamental ways.

He starts with the origin of the potato as a crop in the Andean Bolivian altiplano at least 7000 years ago. The Spanish first encountered spuds in the 1530s, but didn’t bring them to Europe until the 1570s. They were so blinded by their avarice for gold and silver they failed to ask the obvious question: How can a large and complex civilization, perched on mountain slopes where arable land is scarce and lacking draft animals or metal tools, support itself? The answer, of course, is this remarkable plant which supplies all vital human nutrients except calcium and vitamins A and D (all of which can be supplied by milk or other dairy products), and with a yield surpassing corn, wheat, rice or soy so that one acre of potatoes can supply more than ten people with their annual energy and protein needs.

Since a spade was the only tool necessary for potato culture, and since it yielded a huge amount of food on small scraps of thin soil, it became a boon to land-hungry peasants – first in Spain, then in Italy, Austria, Belgium, Holland, France, Switzerland, England, Germany, Poland and Ireland. But it continued to be seen as the food of the poor, below the status of the more noble grains.

Book Reviews

The Irish were the first Europeans to accept the potato as more than sustenance raised in the worker’s cottage garden. (Reportedly Sir Walter Raleigh brought it in the 1590s to his estate in county Cork.) There, partly because it suited the soil and climate, it gradually was accorded the status of a field crop. All classes accepted it as an enjoyable food. But the social transformation that it made among the poor was more striking. Previously, the Irish survived the winter on buried butter and oat porridge. If the oat harvest was thin, life was difficult. With another food - potatoes - in the larder, life was more secure. This led to stronger, healthier adults. They, in turn, bore more surviving children. The 4 million Irish of 1780 became 8 million in 1841.

Zuckerman traces the development of the potato in England, France, and America, telling entertaining stories and coming up with interesting facts from each culture. But his retelling of the Irish potato famine of 1845 to 1849 is the most vivid. There had been occasional localized potato harvest failures

in previous years, but they were limited to single years. The next year, the harvest was robust again. In 1845 the plague was not limited to the Emerald Isle. It reached England, Belgium, France, Germany and Poland. In those countries they had alternate crops to fall back on. Its effect in Ireland – where for 40% of the population the potato was the sole food crop -- was by far the worst.

By mid-October 1845 the infection had spread throughout the island, and something like 40% of the harvest failed. But, following the pattern of previous years, families slaughtered their pigs, gaining extra nutrients and decreasing the competition for spuds (the pigs normally ate a third of them). But then the blight returned with a vengeance in 1846, killing an unbelievable 90% of the crop. By late autumn and into 1847 deaths soared from starvation and disease. Emigration jumped in 1847, and the blight receded, but the harvest was still low because so little land had been planted. In 1848 the crop failed as badly as in 1846, and then cholera invaded.

Perhaps even more significant than the death of so many was the collapse of the Irish social structure. The potato had been capital, wages, subsistence, rent, and social currency. With its collapse came social upheaval. Tenants with no food nor any means to pay their rent were hit hardest. Next, smallholders who raised cattle or grain for sale had to choose between eating the crop and getting evicted, or selling it, paying the rent, and then starving. Servants and laborers lost their jobs as the employing class laid them off for lack of income from rents and sales. Public works were pitifully lacking. Food prices soared as people sold what little they had to buy food. Finally, when people had eaten what food and livestock they had, sold their belongings, and come to the end of their ropes, they left their cottages to seek work in the cities or emigrate. Once off the land, landlords frequently destroyed their dwellings to prevent their return. Travelers in 1850 report passing over miles of Irish country without meeting a single person, or animal, either.

Today, world potato production runs to almost 300 million tons, coming close to wheat, corn, and rice in importance. If you would like to know more about this fascinating tuber, I highly recommend paging through Zuckerman’s “The Potato”.

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The Omnivore’s Dilemma, A Natural History of Four Mealsby Michael Pollan, Penguin Press, 2006ISBN 1-59420-082-3450 pages, with index and bibliography$26.95 US$38.00 CAN

reviewed by Dave Petrovick

For the vast bulk of NOFA devotees, this witty piece is much like preaching to the choir. What to have for dinner?, Michael Pollan asks himself. There is no question for the congregation of natural, organic and locally based eaters, but alas even I found this treatise on the journey of four meals to be thoroughly documented and critically investigated. I’ve personally been in industrial production agriculture and in certified organic agriculture both and found Pollan’s accounts to be accurate and surprisingly unbiased. Pollan was certainly corrupted early on in his investigation, but he kept a critical eye peeled for his reader.

Pollan dissects the origin, paths, costs and benefits of four meals; first a fast food break of chicken McNuggets and Big Macs bought at the drive-through and consumed in 10 minutes at 60 m.p.h. Pollan discovers the truly gargantuan industrial complex of unsustainable and supremely wasteful systems that supplies the vast majority of food to “industrial” eaters via astounding quantities of corn (fed to confined cattle and chickens) and oceans of petroleum. Pollan, disillusioned, trots off to his local Whole Foods market for organic ingredients for a home prepared meal, which he rightly ascertains to be much more like conventional/industrial food than he originally anticipated (though he concedes it is a step in the right direction).

Next, Pollan spends a week at Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm to find out why Salatin won’t ship him a pastured broiler via FEDEX to Berkeley, California. The close connections of all of Salatin’s pastured animals to the wider natural world show how the sum is greater than the parts involved, not lop-sided the other way in industrial agriculture. Pasture is the centerpiece of Salatin’s operation. Beef cattle graze nature’s bounty in the form of grass and his broilers and layers follow up the cattle to forage for grubs and tender fresh blades of grass and clover. Pollan discovers the beauty of this system in the food that is produced. Eggs with bright orange yolks that “jump at you” from the pan, chicken that both tastes like chicken and yet nothing like he’s ever had before. Pigs turn the winter cattle paddocks into black gold compost for the return of nutrients into the pastures. All the pieces of this puzzle burgeon with vitality and demonstrate an elegant symbiosis. Pollan then participates in the processing of Polyface’s broilers. While Pollan found this to be unpleasant at times, he quickly

discovered the value of this link of the natural food chain.

In Pollan’s ceaseless pursuit for a deeper connection to his food, he summons up the time, skills and chutzpa to hunt and gather for an entirely “natural” meal of feral pig, wild mushrooms, home-grown garden vegetables and locally foraged fruit. This large feat, he discerns by meal’s end, was a necessarily cooperative effort, not easily brought to fruition entirely by his own knowledge, effort and skills. This is a fitting conclusion that boldly illustrates the connections with each other and our food; a suitable reconciliation of the omnivore’s dilemma. Pollan also spends a good deal of time and thought on the ethics of eating animals. Highlighting the works of prominent thinkers, he discovers some interesting inconsistencies in both the realms of vegetarianism and being omnivorous. Personal values are dissected and the issues of equality, suffering and “humane” treatment are discussed with great clarity. Whatever your take is on the issue, Pollan seems to make a strong case that being omnivorous can lead to a more sustainable cycle of nutrients and conservative use of energy. “The pleasures of eating are deepened by knowing”….and asking the question……what really is for dinner couldn’t be more apt in these modern industrial times. A truly must read for all, and pass it along to your industrial eating neighbors. Salatin for president, as Allan Nation would have it, then I’d have to say Pollan for VP!!

The Campaign for Caretaker Farm, Standing on Common Ground26 page Pamphlet, 27 pictures

reviewed by Dan Kittredge

The pamphlet “Campaign for Caretaker Farm” is an educational piece on strategies for transferring agricultural lands as well as a request for assistance in the individual case of Caretaker Farm.

Sam and Elizabeth Smith are denizens of the first NOFA certified organic farm in Massachusetts, Caretaker Farm. In the northwest corner of the state they have a 225 member CSA, are the center of a bustling sustainable community, and have trained over 120 apprentices over the past 36 years. They are reaching an age at which they do not want to continue to actively run the farm, want to keep the land farmed, but also need money for their retirement. As they have invested most of their lives, energies and capital in the farm, this brings a not untypical dilemma.

This pamphlet outlines the creative manner in which they have begun solving the problem, as well as asking for assistance in finishing it. The strategy that they lay out is as follows. The development rights to the land have been sold to the state for roughly $250,000. The Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation, a local land trust purchased the land of the farm for $50,000. The new farmers Don Zasada and Bridget Spann paid roughly $175,000 for the farm buildings, implements and a 99-year lease for the use of the land. Equity Trust a non-profit based in Turners Falls MA, has signed a promissory note for roughly $240,000 to the Smiths. This brings the total received by the Smiths to $720,000, much less than the $1.1 million that the farm is appraised at. That is their donation.

The $240,000 promissory note signed by Equity trust, the organization that facilitated the process is the unfinished piece of the puzzle.

The Pamphlet “Campaign for Caretaker Farm,” while being a very attractive and well put together introduction to the farm, its history and those involved in it, is at the end a request for monetary assistance in the process of shifting prime farming and development land to a permanent agricultural status.

The pictures are beautiful and show the community that many of us know evolves at an organic farm. The format of the pamphlet is elegant and simple. If you have the available funds consider making a small tax-deductible donation to the future of one of the premier community centered organic farms in the region. It’s address is:

Campaign for Caretaker FarmC/o Equity TrustBox 746, Turners Falls, Ma 01376

NOFA Videos Raising and Slaughtering Homestead Hogs

with John Stein0600, 28 minutes - Watch an on-farm butcher in Gill, Massachusetts kill and clean a pig while discussing why and how he is performing each step. (Contains

graphic images of livestock slaughter and butchering.)

$15 each❏ Please send me this video. I enclose $15 in the form of a

check to “NOFA Video Project

NOFA Video Project, 411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005

New addition to our video library:

for a full list of the 146 videos available, visitwww.nofa.org/conference/video/index.php


It’s a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life

by Keith Stewartwith Illustrations by Flavia Bacarella; published by Marlowe & Company, New York, NY; 2006. 276 pages, $16.95

reviewed by Ron Maribett

When we speak about the farming life, those of us who are immersed in it, we often have to make an effort to separate those romanticized notions about the ‘good life’ from the steady rigors of the job itself. Keith Stewart has successfully concluded such an effort in this work. With ample wit and wisdom, from the tale of his dog Kuri wearing a dead rooster around his neck for five days to describing in detail the where-with-all to grow 50,000 garlic plants-from the history of the plant itself to the

Irrigated potatoes in bloom

last bulb sold in December in “A Garlic Affair;” from a discussion of knives and butchery to the “Marriage of Body and Mind,” (wherein he extols the many virtues of farm life a la Whitman and Frost), Keith Stewart walks with us on a real-life journey through the heart and soul of organic farming today.

Here is a book from which a beginning farmer can draw not only inspiration, but volumes of practical knowledge and methods as well. Yet at the same time it is a book that us old hands can find virtue, honesty and validation through, for our years of walking a narrow, often unpopular path to synergy between people and the nature of life itself. And it is a book so carefully written and artistically illustrated that, I believe, anyone who picks it up will be drawn into its beauty and truth. There are farm maps and pick lists, harvest and sales schedules, budgets, insights on how to select, train, and maintain workers each summer, and a soul

searching essay on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In this series of essays written over 8 years Stewart has taken on the USDA, milk pricing, the decline of the family farm, the joys and rigors of trucking to the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhatttan, and a trove of other topics important to farmers and consumers alike. The diversity of thought and opinion coupled with facts and figures makes for an outstanding read, in whatever order you choose. Where else could you find a discussion of chickens in which you go from the role of the rooster in maintaining the flock to a suggestion that Martha Stewarts’ “Araucana Colors” line of towels was named after them? (Well, Martha, do tell…inquiring minds…you know, want to know).

What I like most about the book is that, from its substance, style and tone, I get to know how it feels for a particular person to make a choice of a life of purpose, without being talked down to. There is no “holier than thou” here, just a bunch of well told tales about a not so simple life, some hard truths, and the beauty that radiates among them in our troubled world. When he says of the barn swallows, “Every year, toward the end of April, the barn swallows return. It gladdens my heart to see them,” my heart gladdens right along with his.

Freshly dug potatoes


Wild potato diversity is obvious in this collection from the Andes


ConnecticutCT NOFA Office: P O Box 164, Stevenson, CT 06491, phone (203) 888-5146, FAX (203) 888-9280, Email: [email protected], website: www.ctnofa.orgPresident: James Roby , P.O Box 191, 1667 Orchard Road, Berlin, CT 06037, 860-828-5548, 860-881-8031 (C), [email protected] President: Dr, Kimberly A. Stoner, 498 Oak Ave. #27, Cheshire, CT 06410-3021, (203) 271-1732 (home), 203-974-8480 (w), Email: [email protected] (h), [email protected] (w)Treasurer: Ron Capozzi, 69R Meetinghouse Hill Rd., Durham, CT 06422-2808, (860) 349-1417, [email protected]: Chris Killheffer, 97 Linden Street, New Haven, CT 06511-2424, 203-787-0072, [email protected] Pledge and Guide Coordinator: Lynn Caley, 593 Old Post Rd, Tolland, CT 06084, 860-872-1755, [email protected] Editor: Erica Myers-Russo, 9 Stetson Road, Griswold, CT 06351-8931. [email protected], 860-237-0085Conference Coordinator and OLC Guide Editor: Jennifer Brown , 267A Spruce Dr., Great Barrington, MA 01230, 203-725-7502, [email protected] Coordinator: Bill Duesing, Box 164, Stevenson, CT 06491, 203-888-5146, 203 888-9280 (fax), [email protected] Manager: Janet Cunningham, 53 Pines Bridge RoadOxford, CT 06478-1414, 203-605-1750 (c), [email protected]

Massachusetts President: Frank Albani Jr., 17 Vinal Avenue, Plymouth, MA 02360, (508) 224-3088, email: [email protected] Vice President: Sharon Gensler, 87b Bullard Pasture Rd. Wendell, MA 01379, (978) 544-6347, email: [email protected] Secretary: Leslie Chaison, 204 Bardwell’s Ferry Rd., Conway, MA 01379, (413) 369-4020, email: [email protected] Treasurer and Executive Director: Julie Rawson, 411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005 (978) 355-2853, Fax: (978) 355-4046, Email: [email protected] Coordinator: Kathleen Geary, 411 Sheldon Rd, Barre, MA 01005 (Mondays & Thursdays, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm), email: [email protected] Webmaster: David Pontius: 68 Elm Street, Shelburne Falls, MA 01370 (413) 625-0118; Email: [email protected] Organic Certifiers Administrator: Don Franczyk, 683 River St., Winchendon, MA 01475, (978) 297- 4171, Email: [email protected] Extension Educator: Ed Stockman, 131 Summit St. Plainfield, MA 01070, (413) 634- 5024, [email protected] Newsletter Editor: Jonathan von Ranson, 6 Lockes Village Rd., Wendell, MA 01379, (978) 544-3758, Email: [email protected] Website: www.nofamass.org Email: [email protected]

NOFA Contact PeopleNew HampshireVice President: Dennis Eaton, Acworth Village Gardens, 22 Charlestown Road, Acworth, NH 03601, (603) 835-7986, [email protected] President: Joan O’Connor, PO Box 387, Henniker, NH 03242, (603) 428-3530, [email protected]: Paul Mercier, Jr., 39 Cambridge Drive, Canterbury, NH 03224, (603) 783-0036, [email protected], Barbara Sullivan, 72 Gilford Ave., Laconia, NH 03246, (603) 524-1285, [email protected] & Membership Coordinator: Elizabeth Obelenus, NOFA/NH Office, 4 Park St., Suite 208, Concord, NH 03301, (603) 224-5022, [email protected]: Maria Erb, 91 Old Wilton Rd., Mont Vernon, NH 03057, (603) 672-2936, [email protected] Certification: Vickie Smith, NHDA Bureau of Markets, Caller Box 2042, Concord, NH 03301 (603) 271-3685, [email protected]: www.nofanh.org,

New JerseyPresident: Donna Drewes, 26 Samuel Dr., Flemington, NJ 08822, 908-782-2443, [email protected] President: Stephanie Harris, 163 Hopewell-Wertsville Rd., Hopewell, NJ 08525, (609) 466-0194, [email protected]: William D. Bridgers, c/o Zon Partners, 5 Vaughn Dr., Suite 104, Princeton, NJ 08540, (609) 452-1653, [email protected]: Emily Brown Rosen, 25 Independence Way, Titusville, NJ 08560, 609-737-8630Newsletter Editor: Mikey Azzara, PO Box 886, Pennington, NJ 08534-0886, (609) 737-6848, fax: (609) 737-2366, Email: [email protected] Director: Karen Anderson, 60 S. Main St., PO Box 886, Pennington, NJ 08534-0886, (609) 737-6848, fax: (609) 737-2366, Email: [email protected] Administrator: Erich V. Bremer, c/o NJ Dept. of Agriculture, PO Box 330, Trenton, NJ 08625, (609) 984-2225 [email protected]: www.nofanj.org

New YorkPresident: Scott Chaskey, Quail Hill Farm, PO Box 1268, Amagansett, NY 11930-1268, H (631) 725-9228 W (631) 267-8942, [email protected] President: Richard deGraff, Grindstone Farm, 780 County Rte 28, Pulaski, NY 13142, (315) 298-4139, [email protected]: Annette Hogan, 526 State Rte 91, Tully, NY 13159-3288, 315-696-0231, [email protected]: Alton Earnhart, 1408 Clove Valley Rd., Hopewell Junction, NY12533, (845) 724-4592, [email protected] Executive Director: Sarah Johnston, 591 Lansing Rd., Fultonville, NY 12072-2628,

(518) 922-7937, fax: (518) 922-7646, [email protected] Manager: Mayra Richter, PO Box 880, Cobleskill, NY 12043-0880, (607) 652-NOFA, fax: (607) 652-2290, [email protected] Certified Organic, LLC, 840 Front Street, Binghamton, NY 13905, (607) 724-9851, fax: (607) 724-9853, [email protected] Seed Partnership (OSP) Project Coordinator: Elizabeth Dyck, Crimson Farm, 1124 County Rd 38, Bainbridge, NY 13733-3360, (607) 895-6913, [email protected] Dairy Transitions Project Co-Project Manager: Kate Mendenhall, 14 Menlo Pl, Rochester, NY 14620-2718, (585) 271-1979, [email protected] Dairy Transitions Project Co-Project Manager: Bethany Russell, PO Box 874, Mexico, NY 13114-0874, (315) 806-1180, [email protected] Dairy Transitions Project Dairy Technician: Robert Perry, Maple Slope Farm, 5557 NYS 41, Homer, NY 13077, (607) 749-3884, [email protected] Editor: Aissa O’Neil, Betty Acres Organic Farm, 21529 State Highway 28, Delhi, NY 13753, (607) 746-9581, [email protected]: www.nofany.org

Rhode IslandPresident: Fritz Vohr, In the Woods Farm, 51 Edwards Lane, Charlestown, RI 02813 (401) 364-0050, [email protected]: Jeanne Chapman, 25 Yates Ave., Coventry, RI 02816 (401) 828-3229, [email protected]/Membership Coordinator: Peggy Conti, Brookside Apartments, Apt. #8, Charlestown, RI 02813, (401) 364-3426, [email protected]/RI : 51 Edwards Lane, Charlestown, RI 02813, (401) 364-0050, Fax (401) 364-7557, [email protected], website: www.nofari.org

VermontNOFA-VT Office, P. O. Box 697, Bridge St., Richmond, VT 05477 (802) 434-4122, Fax: (802) 434-4154, website: www.nofavt.org, [email protected] Director: Enid Wonnacott, [email protected] Financial Manager: Kirsten Novak Bower, [email protected] Conference & Summer Workshops Coordinator: Olga Boshart, [email protected] Administrator & Apprentice Program Coordinator: Nicole Dehne, [email protected] Order Coordinator & VOF Certification Assistant: Cheryl Bruce, [email protected] and Livestock Advisor: Willie Gibson, [email protected] Manager: Kim Cleary, [email protected] Education & VT FEED Coordinator: Abbie Nelson, [email protected]


September 11- September 24: Permaculture Design Course, Moose Pond Arts + Ecology of Otisfield, ME for more info: www.moosepondarts.com./permaculture.html or [email protected]

Friday, September 1�: Tastings Fundraising Dinner for MOFGA, Camden, ME Yacht Club for more info: www.mainefare.com or contact Eric Rector at [email protected] or 207-525-3104

Saturday, September 16 and Sunday, September 17: 8th Annual North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival, Forster’s Farm, Orange, MA, for more info: (978) 544-9023, [email protected], or www.garlicandarts.org

Monday September 1�: On Farm Poultry Processing workshop, Singing Cedars Farmstead, Orwell, VT, for more information contact: Kimberleigh Cleary, NOFA–VT, 802-434-4122, www.nofavt.org

Friday, September 22 – Sunday, September 24: Common Ground Country Fair, Unity, ME for more info: http://www.mofga.org.

Mon. September 2�: Training for Tractors & their Various Implements,Jubilee Farm, Huntington Center, VT, for more information contact: Kimberleigh Cleary, NOFA–VT, 802-434-4122, www.nofavt.org Tues. September 26: Tractor Maintenance & Repair Jobs workshop,Jubilee Farm, Huntington Center, VT, for more information contact: Kimberleigh Cleary, NOFA–VT, 802-434-4122, www.nofavt.org Fri. September 29: Root Cellaring workshop, Enosburg Falls, VT, for more information contact: Kimberleigh Cleary, NOFA–VT, 802-434-4122, www.nofavt.org

CalendarSat. September 30: Natural Dye Workshop, Peacham, VT, for more information contact: Kimberleigh Cleary, NOFA–VT, 802-434-4122, www.nofavt.org

Saturday, September 30: Preserving the Harvest workshop at Many Hands Organic Farm, Barre, MA, for more info: www.mhof.net, [email protected] or 978-355-2853

Saturday, September 30th - Sunday, October 1st: Harvest Days at the Canterbury Shaker Village, Canterbury, NH, for more information about ‘Harvest Days,” visit www.shakers.org, or email [email protected]

Saturday, October 2�: Workshop on Teaching for Change, Farming for Profit with Deb Habib and Ricky Baruc at Seeds of Solidarity Farm, Orange, MA, for more info: [email protected] or 781-894-4358

Sunday, October 29: Garlic workshop at Many Hands Organic Farm, Barre, MA, for more info: www.mhof.net, [email protected] or 978-355-2853

Thursday, December 7 – Saturday, December 9: 2006 Acres U.S.A. Conference: Reinventing Your Eco-Farm for more info visit www.acresusa.com or call 512-892-4400.

January 9, 10, 11, 16 & 17, 2007: 6th annual NOFA Course in Organic Land Care, Leominster, MA, for more info: Kathy Litchfield at (978) 724-0108 or [email protected] or www.organiclandcare.net

Saturday, January 20, 2007: NOFA/Mass winter conference, Worcester for more info: [email protected] or 978-928-5646

January 31, Feb. 1, 2, � & 6, 2007: 6th annual NOFA Course in Organic Land Care, New Haven, CT, for more info: Bill Duesing (203) 888-5146 or [email protected] or www.organiclandcare.net

You may join NOFA by joining one of the seven state chapters. Contact the person listed below for your state. Dues, which help pay for the important work of the organization, vary from chapter to chapter. Unless noted, membership includes a subscription to The Natural Farmer.

Give a NOFA Membership! Send dues for a friend or relative to his or her state chapter and give a membership in one of the most active grassroots organizations in the state.

Connecticut: Individual $35, Family $50, Business/Institution $100, Supporting $150, Student/Senior $25Contact: CT NOFA, Box 164, Stevenson, CT 06491, (203)- 888-5146, or email: [email protected] or join on the web at www.ctnofa.org

Massachusetts: Individual $30, Family $40. Supporting $100, Low-Income $20Contact: Membership, 411 Sheldon Road, Barre, MA 01005, (978) 355-2853, or email: [email protected]

New Hampshire: Individual: $30, Student: $23, Family: $40, Sponsor: $100, Basic $20*Contact: Elizabeth Obelenus, 4 Park St., Suite 208, Concord, NH 03301, (603) 224-5022, [email protected]

New Jersey: Individual $35, Family/Organizational $50, Business/Organization $100, Low Income: $15* Contact: P O Box 886, Pennington, NJ 08534-0886, (609) 737-6848 or join at www.nofanj.org

New York*: Student/Senior/Limited Income $15, Individual $30, Family/Farm/Nonprofit Organization $40, Business/Patron $100. Add $10 to above membership rates to include subscription to The Natural Farmer. Contact: Mayra Richter, NOFA-NY, P O Box 880, Cobleskill, NY 12043, Voice (607) 652-6632, Fax: (607) 652-2290, email: [email protected] www.nofany.org

Rhode Island: Student/Senior: $20, Individual: $25, Family $35, Business $50 Contact: Membership, NOFA RI, 51 Edwards Lane, Charlestown, RI 02813 (401) 7557, [email protected]

Vermont: Individual $30, Farm/Family $40, Business $50, Sponsor $100, Sustainer $250, Basic $15-25* Contact: NOFA-VT, PO Box 697, Richmond, VT 05477, (802) 434-4122, [email protected]

*does not include a subscription to The Natural Farmer

NOFAMembership

NOFA Interstate Council

* indicates voting representative* Bill Duesing, Staff, Box 135, Stevenson, CT, 06491, (203) 888-5146, fax, (203) 888- 9280, [email protected] A. Stoner, 498 Oak Ave. #27, Cheshire, CT 06410-3021, (203) 271-1732 (home), Email: [email protected]* Mary Blake, Secretary, P O Box 52 Charlton Depot, MA 01509 (508)-248-5496 email: [email protected] * Ron Maribett, 269 Elm St., Kingston, MA 02364, (781) 585-9670, [email protected]* Barbara Sullivan, 72 Gilford Ave., Laconia, NH 03246, (603) 524-1285, [email protected] Obelenus, 22 Keyser Road, Meredith. NH 03253, (603) 279-6146, [email protected]* Karen Anderson, PO Box 886, Pennington, NJ 08534, (609) 737-6848, [email protected]* Steve Gilman, Ruckytucks Farm, 130 Ruckytucks Road, Stillwater, NY 12170 (518) 583-4613, [email protected]* Vince Cirasole, Sunshine Farm, 745 Great Neck Rd, Copiague, NY 11726, (631) 789-8231, [email protected] Johnston, 591 Lansing Rd. #A, Fultonville, NY 12072-2630, (518) 922-7937, fax: (518) 922-7646, [email protected] Henderson, 2218 Welcher Rd., Newark, NY 14513 (315) 331-9029 [email protected]* Fritz Vohr, In the Woods Farm, 51 Edwards Lane, Charlestown,RI 02813 (401) 364-0050, [email protected]* Abbie Barber, 1411 Shannock Rd., Charlestown, RI 02813-3726 (401) 364-7140 [email protected]* Enid Wonnacott, 478 Salvas Rd., Huntington, VT 05462 (802) 434-4435 [email protected] Novak Bower, 65 Wortheim Ln., Richmond, VT 05477 (802) 434-5420, [email protected] Magilavy, Virtual Rep, 212 18th St., Union City, NJ 07087, (201) 863-1741 Brian Schroeher, Webmaster, 21 Tamarack Court, Newtown, PA 18940, (215) 825-2140, cell (908) 268-7059, Email: [email protected] Kittredge and Julie Rawson, The Natural Farmer, NOFA Summer Conference, 411 Sheldon Rd., Barre, MA 01005 (978) 355-2853, [email protected], [email protected] Reade, Treasurer, Credit Card Support, 723 Hammersville-Canton Rd., Salem, NJ 08079, 856-935-3612, [email protected]

Interstate Certification

ContactsNicole Dehne, [email protected] King & Lisa Engelbert, 840 Front Street, Binghamton, NY 13905, (607) 724-9851, fax: (607)724-9853, [email protected] V. Bremer, c/o NJ Dept. of Agriculture, PO Box 330, Trenton, NJ 08625, (609) 984-2225 [email protected]

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Fall 2006 Natural Farmer

Documents

nofa preconference

annual nofa summer conference

nofa exchange

nofa person

conference pictures

conference exhibitors

nofa contact people

nofa membership information