Behind the Scenes: Getting Potatoes to your Plate Takes Time!

This is a wonderful time of year when winter grudgingly gives way to spring and our next growing season. From my third story office windows in Antigo I have the opportunity to see trucks hauling seed potatoes from our seed farms in northern Wisconsin to our commercial farms in the Central Sands and beyond. This flurry of activity lasts for several weeks as farms take in, cut, treat, suberize and warm the seed in preparation for planting.   Like many things in Wisconsin, potatoes can be very unique. We have a multitude of types and varieties to choose from. These types and varieties are very specific in their purpose. Certain types are better for certain uses. There are many russet varieties, some have cooking characteristics for home and restaurant use, we call fresh or table potatoes. While other russets, are best suited for frying (process / frozen).

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Farm Perspectives: Packing up the Season

Now that harvest is well under way, it’s time to start looking toward our packaging facilities. At Wysocki Produce Farm, that means working side-by-side with our sister company and packaging facility, Paragon Potato Farms (Paragon). However, moving our focus to packaging doesn’t mean we don’t need to keep thinking about our impact on the environment.

Farm Perspectives: Reason for Every Season

Agriculture has a certain seasonality to it that is comforting.  It gives us something to look forward to, an expectation of timing that you can rely upon.  There is a rhythm that that is reassuring and usually calming.

We are currently getting to the end of the growing season for potatoes. While out road scouting last weekend you can faintly see the beginning of the end of many of the living potato plants.  You can see the slight discoloration, the fading of green into subtle yellows and browns.  The plants start to droop and show signs of wilting.  This is what some of the old-timers mean when they say the potatoes are starting to “come home”.

Farm Perspectives: Tracking our Tractors with GPS Guidance

A recent blog post mentioned how important technology has become in the potato farming industry, and one of the biggest technological helpers is guidance. By using guidance systems on our machinery that use Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, farms like ours, Wysocki Produce Farm, can make field operations much more efficient and sustainable. We added guidance systems to our farm about eight years ago, and it’s made a huge difference for our crops, our environmental impact and our staff.

Farm Perspectives: Handling your Food with Care

As summer wears on and the potatoes continue to develop below the soil, the farmers in the central sands area of Wisconsin are already starting to think about when they will be able to dig their potatoes. With another harvesting season fast approaching, a topic that should always be at the forefront of the minds of growers and packers alike is safe product handling.