Potatoes were NOT the bumper crop that they had been in the past at Morning Star Meadows!
In full disclosure we have to admit that we pretty much broke even in the white potato department.
We planted about 50 pounds of seed potatoes in the spring. The bag cost us about $25, up $8 from previous years! I was ok with that because potatoes in the stores seemed to take a leap in price as well. Our yield being so great from these potatoes in the past, I was convinced that we’d make out in the end.
But the weather did not cooperate in the spring and early summer.
Yesterday we harvested about 80 pounds of Kennebec potatoes.
If you do the math – we spent 50 cents a pound on the seed potatoes, invested hours of manual labor, and now potatoes in the store can be bought on sale for about 40 cents a pound effortlessly. We only increased our amount of potatoes from 50 to 80 pounds.
Will we stop growing potatoes?
Are we crazy to keep growing potatoes – even at the risk of a complete loss?
It all comes down to why we do what we do.
Firstly, if we’ve learned anything from seasoned farmers, it’s that you can’t win all the time. A crop loss of potatoes one year might be offset by a bumper crop of tomatoes! It’s kind of like playing the stock market – diversify your investments and invest for the long term. Last year we had a tremendous yield of potatoes that more than offset this year’s loss.
And as for “why we do what we do” – our farm is not a “preppers paradise” or anything like that. We grow as much of our food as we can so that we have safe, fresh, healthy food. What we can’t grow we try to obtain from local farmers where possible – especially our meats. We sometimes break even – sometimes have losses – but overall this adventure for our family is about lifestyle. We want to get everyone’s hands dirty. We want our children to know how to grow their food. We want them to know where their food comes from. We want to be occupied with wholesome activities, new learning experiences, fresh air, and productivity – vs. continuous indoor sources of passive entertainment with which so much of the world occupies themselves.
So, we keep planting potatoes…and we grow with them…
Morning Star Meadows Farm 