potato selections

[Alan]

Hey guys, I'm just looking for some advice on potatos to grow next year.

With the exception of Irish Cobbler and Red Pontiac I don't have any others on the list for next year.

I would like to grow some of the colored selections as well as some fingerlings, any advice.
-Alan

[bluelacedredhead]

Alan, You need a gold fleshed variety like Yukon Gold or Carola.

I've got my eyes (no pun intended ;D) on Red Gold because I love red skinned potatoes and Yukon Gold's fresh from the garden (don't buy them from the grocery store though). Red Gold's were developed here in Ontario at the same Ag research station that YG's came from. Gotta be worth a try. SSE sells them if you're interested.

[lavandulagirl]

We are quite partial to the All Blue variety at our house. It's a good producer, too. You can get them from woodprairie.com in pretty large quantities of seed potato.

[Alan]

Thanks so much for the advice guys, I really appreciate it.

I know that All Blue and All Red are definetly on my list.

Blue, I normally also grow Yukon Gold and Kennebec, I grew up with kennebec so it's an old time favorite, but I only grew Yukon Gold this year for my customers and Kennebec is always undersold at our market since people here prefer the Red Pontiac.

I know I'm kinda in the minority, but honestly, I can't stand Yukon Gold personally, I just don't like the flavor or the texture, but they do sell well and they are a favority of people everywhere, however I will definetly consider Red Gold though for trial, I may even like it!

On an interesting note, if your into plant genetics and you want to see something truly amazing, do a google search for Yukon gold and look for it's family tree (if I could find the link in my huge list of "favorites" I would post it) the tree is amazing and it took a lot of parents, selections and years to get what we now know as Yukon gold.

[Alan]

I also thought I would mention and interesting market statistic here in Southern Indiana at the farmers markets and farm stands.......Large Potatoes at full maturity do not sell! I'm not joking, price doesn't even matter, people will not buy them, they want baby potatoes and nothing else and if they are red pontiac or kennebec they will pay a premium for them, but after the stage of baby potatoes, they are a hard sell!
-alan

[plantsnobin]

Alan, I have contacted Ronniger's about buying wholesale potatos in the spring, take a look at what they have, and if you are interested in anything let me know. Karen

[Alan]

Karen, I will definetly let you know, theres a few things there I am interested in!

Next time I head your direction i'll bring your growing for market magazines back by to you, I can't thank you enough for allowing me to borrow those, there is a lot of really usefull info in there that has helped me out tremendously! I can't wait to do business with you next year, I think will definetly have something good going.

Heard any news on the co-op?

-p.s. guess who has yet to recieve a check from the co-op?

[plantsnobin]

I doubt if they have had any sales to make any money to pay anyone. I was at Jay C store Sunday, putting my stuff in the truck when someone asked me for directions to the co-op from out of town. I told her where it was, but I couldn't keep my mouth shut, so I told her not to expect much, and what I thought of the way they are shutting out the local producers. I couldn't help myself. Anyway, about the potatoes, what do you usually pay for a pound of seed potatoes? I don't remember what I paid for the last ones I bought, so I am not sure if the wholesale price they gave me is good or not. I am not as interested in making money on these kinds of things as I am getting people to the shop early in the year. I need to find a source for onions and such too. Alison has decided that if Billy won't let us use the cabin that she will build in her front yard. She says the more she thinks about it, the more she wants to be a farmer. I think that all of the things we want to do would work together very well, but how do you find the money to do all of them? That is the question.

[Alan]

Depending on what is what Karen I usually get about 50 lbs of seed potatoes from anywhere between 14 and 20 dollars, the cheapest being red pontiac and kennebec and the most expensive being Yukon gold, irish cobbler, and Red Norland.

That is here in the county though and not at buntons seed, so there is a little bit of markup on those, i'll check with Buntons in the next day or two and see what I can find out for sure.
-alan

[canadamike]

Alan, you should really try GERMAN BUTTERBALL. I had a trucking friend od mine pick some for me at SSE last year. MILK RANCH, in your country, probably has the largest selection of organic potatoes in the world. Just google them.

GERMAN BUTTERBALL is the tastiest potato I have had in 20 years or so, you cut one open and it SMELLS potatoes like they used to smell when I was young. It is an oblong potato, slightly russetted, you could easily take it for a Russet Burbank, but its shape is a bit more ''perfect'' and it is less russetted.

Next year I will also plant GOLD RUSH, a canadian new potato. Gardeners told me about its flavor, organic guys love them, and the litterature always talks about its flavour. The only organic potato supplier in my area raves about them.

Do you sell Fingerlings? In Montréal, at the Jean-Talon market ( THE legendary market in Canada) the sell for 3 to 5 dollars a pound, especially LA RATTE, the most sought after potato in the high -end restaurant trade.

This year I grew a couple of hundred pounds of Rose Finn Apple and Austrian Crescent, from SSE. I love them. Now, our supermaket sell them both at the economy price of $1.99 for 900 grams, a bit under two pounds.

Mine where much bigger than the supermarket ones though...

Michel

[Alan]

Thanks for the information Mike, exspecially about milk ranch. I'll definetly give German Butterball a go, how is it regarding storage?

I have grown just a few fingerlings and havent really tried to market them, however this year they are definetly on my list because I have had so many people ask about them from me because they know I do the specialy stuff, I'd like to grow about three or four different ones just to give them a good go, I know I'll grow the purple one that SSE offers just because it is different and will get people to my stand, other than that I'm not sure which ones I will go for yet, but will definetly do some further research on them.

-Alan

[canadamike]

Alan,

I was cut short in my lat message so here's the end of it.

The small potato craze is a wide spread phenomenon. They sell them all over the place. Only tonight, I was at a friend's and his wife asked me for small potatoes for her Christmas dinner. She will slice them into cubes for a recipe, but she still wants them small. As if anybody wil ever notice... The interesting part, though, is that they sell the small ones by the pound, up to $2 around here, while you can get a 10 pounds bag for $1.99

Here, the very large ones sell at premium, albeit far less so than the nuggets, and the average ones take the rap.

As for the ALL RED, they are very good, but believe me, there is much more color poetry in the raw form than the cooked one, which tend to be grayish with a slight overtone of pink. Cook them without the peel, and they look like dirty potatoes.

But everybody wants to try them...so I guess they would sell...

[Alan]

Yeah, people specifically seek me out early in the year for baby potatoes because they know I'm the only one willing to dig them that way, and then other market gardeners come in with large ones and are like "why aren't they selling?" and I have to tell them because 2 reasons.

1. People want them small
2. If you wait to dig them untill they are mature, people with home gardens have already harvested a crop and don't need anymore.

Yeah, the fact that the all-red and all-blues sell out of curiosity and bring people to the table is my reason for growing them. Oh, and the idea of having baby red, white, and blue potatoes for the 4'th of July.

[bluelacedredhead]

I spoke to someone recently who had good things to say about Green Mountain. Might try them in 2008

[bunkie]

i was just checking out Milk Ranch Specialty Potatoes and found out they're now doing business as Potato Garden..

www.potatogarden.com/

we grew the Ozette Fingerling this year and loved it! the Austrian Crescent is a good one too like someone mentioned.

i totally agree about the German Butterball. plant it every year!