Genesis 1:11 Farms and Produce: Growing Spuds

"Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so." GENESIS 1:11

Genesis 1:11 Farms and Produce was a cooperative effort that began in 2018. We found that in our own little garden one of the best crops we could grow was potatoes. A friend mentioned that they desired to try and grow potatoes for the local farmer's market. We saw this as an opportunity to jump into a new adventure. We originally planned on starting small; something like a half-acre or so in size. Unfortunately, small was not in our vocabulary that year. We bought more than enough seed and before long we had a half-acre of potatoes and 2.5 acres of sweet corn. Twenty-eighteen was a dry year, and the sweet corn did not grow very well. We had an excellent crop of potatoes; everything from reds to Yukon gold. We learned that the fresh vegetable market was a very labor-intensive market and required a lot of extra care to take care of weeds and meet the needs of the plants. Once we finally made it to market, our product was one of the most popular products on a Saturday morning. We sat through eight weeks of sales and managed to sell almost all of the potatoes we had harvested along with the sweet corn we were able to grow.

In 2019, we had to make some changes and as a result we ended up with a far smaller area of potatoes and produce planted. We attempted sweet corn once again but were unable to harvest any ears. We had a decent potato crop, but we only had enough crop for four weeks of sales. We built a produce wagon, so we were becoming a local name for fresh potatoes. We tried our hand in various avenues of marketing and found several that were successful and other less successful means.

Twenty-twenty ended up being the last year that we sold at the local market. We had an average crop of four different potato varieties: now including russets, golds, and reds. We were also able to sell some garlic for the first year along with other produce like green beans and cherry tomatoes.

We have officially decided to retire the Genesis 1:11 Farms and Produce name as we grow the rest of our farming operation. While we may not have made our millions in growing potatoes, we did learn a lot from the experience. We learned the importance of priorities and figuring out where ours truly lay. We were able to open some avenues into direct marketing that may be available in the future for marketing of other agricultural crops. Direct marketing and farm-to-market sales is tough work!