If you were with us last season, you might recall our catastrophic potato crop failure. We were distraught to find our crop completely failing, not even two months into the season. We performed an emergency harvest and also a crop autopsy, the process of which we shared with you all.
Some of you may also recall that upon deeper investigation, what we thought might have been disease quite possibly deepened into a murder mystery! We were never really truly sure what happened, but other growers in the area also reported the same kind of potato troubles, furthering the theory that it very well could have been an environmental issue.
Out of an abundance of caution, we’ve decided to replace our potato seed stock completely. One because we weren’t able to harvest enough potatoes to sustain our needs plus have enough for seed stock. But, more importantly, if it were a disease then we wanted to make sure we took precautions to not further it the following season.
So, for the first time in a long time, we got to go seed potato shopping! It was quite a joy to pick out four brand new (to us) varieties to grow this year. We picked up two red varieties and two white varieties, which will comprise our total harvest this year. We may opt to add some more varieties in future years, but for now, we’re excited to see how these ones do!
Potatoes do exceptionally well in our northern climate. There’s no “secret varieties” that will excel more than others, so pick out whatever is interesting to you. If you like red stripes and white flesh, get those. If you like purple colors, do that. If run of the mill reds and whites are your thing, go there! Diversity is a good thing when it comes to your potato crop, plus it’ll keep your culinary possibilities regularly exercised.
The one key, in Alaska at least, is that we grow “certified” seed varieties. Now, before you complain about “the man” getting up in your business and telling you what to do, we hope you realize that this is in the best interest of all potato growers. This process ensures that out of state diseases continue to stay out of state. Major famines have arisen due to potato crop failures and disease. In historic terms, many thousands have died due to famines directly tied to potato crop failure and disease, so this is a very serious matter. Pretty much any reputable vendor that sells potato seed stock follows these regulations, again because its in the interest of everyone!
We are excited to be trying out some new stuff this year. We haven’t grown a single one of those we chose before. It’s fun to mix things up and we’re really looking forward to seeing what comes of it this season!
