Kentdale Farms
If you shop at the Atlantic Superstore or Sobeys, you may have noticed Kentdale Farms Organic potatoes - one of the only local, certified organic potatoes available in Maritime grocery chain stores.
Kentdale Farms is a family farm, owned and operated by Fred Dollar and his son Kent in Winsloe, Prince Edward Island - just a short drive from Charlottetown.
In 1999, Fred decided to sell his dairy quota after managing a herd of Holsteins for 25 years. He considered various options, including raising Holstein heifers as replacement breeding stock; however, there seemed to be opportunities in the organic marketplace, and that was the direction he chose to take in the end. By 2001, the farm had received organic certification.
Kentdale Farms consists of 275 acres of cleared land, most of which is in a four-year potato rotation. PEI soils are very fragile, which makes it especially important to use a proper rotation when growing high nutrient-demanding row crops such as potatoes. Sometimes it can be a challenge to find other crops to grow in the rotation that also provide a satisfactory cash return. The Dollars have opted to grow milling wheat before and after the potato year, and hay in the last year of the rotation. Currently, the type of wheat grown is AC Helena, and it is marketed to Speerville Flour Mill in Speerville, New Brunswick.
The Dollars have had to confront many challenges in growing their organic potatoes. One of these has been potato variety selection. North American consumers have traditionally been accustomed to eating dry, white-fleshed potatoes, but there is a growing market for yellow fleshed and red skinned potatoes. Furthermore, many varieties of potatoes were developed within the conventional agriculture model and do not produce as well in an organic system.
Finding appropriate organic alternatives can be difficult. There are many choices of white-fleshed varieties, but fewer options for other types of potatoes. The Dollars have settled on Gold Rush, a russet-type potato that has a slightly shorter growing season than Russet Burbank, but still provides a dry tuber. Currently, Red Norland is the red-skinned potato grown, but this variety is not completely satisfactory due to disease susceptibility.
In North America, consumers have traditionally considered Yukon Gold to be the yellow-fleshed potato. Unfortunately, this variety is not the easiest variety to grow organically, being susceptible to several common potato diseases. A new, moist yellow-fleshed potato, Fabula, has made a splash in the organic potato marketplace. Although very different from Yukon Gold, it is starting to gain a following - growers like it for organic production and consumers are discovering that Fabulas are ideal for potato dishes that require a potato to remain moist, such as for roasting or in stews. As more potato varieties are adapted to organic production and become available, consumers will be treated to many more culinary treats
Finding organic certified seed has not been easy, as there is not currently enough available to supply the local demand. Some seed stock is produced on-farm for Gold Rush, but this year the rest of the seed will be purchased from the conventional market.
Fertility is always a challenge in an organic system, especially without the benefit of animal-based composts made on the farm. This is partially alleviated by the use of the fourth-year hay crop as a green manure that is cut two to three times during the summer and left lying in the field. The other fertility source currently in use is a granular poultry fertilizer certified for organic use by the Organic Crop Producers and Processors/ PRO-Cert Canada Inc. (OCPP).
The market has been strong for organic potatoes, especially in larger centres like the New England states. In the Maritimes, it has been a challenge to develop the local market in grocery stores. The chains will buy local if there is enough supply for all the stores in the region - so far the Dollars have been able to meet that demand. This is still a relatively small amount, less than anticipated, perhaps due to packaging and pricing issues. Stores tend to charge a larger mark-up on products that aren’t seen to move off shelves fast enough.
There is currently a huge discrepancy between organic and conventional table stock potato prices, in part due to the over supply of conventional potatoes driving down prices for the commodity. Organic potato prices have stayed relatively stable while conventional potato prices have taken a downward turn. Those fully committed to buying organic food are willing to pay the higher price but it is more difficult to draw in new consumers with such a gap in price. Consumers don’t necessarily understand that the price of a bag of organic potatoes is a better reflection of the true cost of production, and is still one of the cheapest foods people put on their plate.
The Dollars have also had to carefully consider what type of packaging to use. Potatoes are often sold in plastic bags now, rather than the traditional paper bags. Consumers like to see what they are buying and the small window in the paper bag does not allow as much viewing, so plastic bags tend to sell faster. The disadvantage to plastic bags is that the potatoes will become green in the clear plastic much more rapidly than in paper bags. Given that organic potatoes don’t tend to move off the shelf as fast as conventional potatoes, they are especially susceptible to greening. For that reason, the Dollars have resisted changing over to plastic. Last year they made a major investment in washing and paper bagging equipment, but there is still pressure to switch the packaging to plastic.
Although the potato market continues to be variable, the outlook for both the organic table stock and processing markets seems promising. There is a lot of potential for growth locally as well as a number of future market opportunities in larger centres of the eastern United States and Ontario. The Dollars have no plans to change what they are doing, just to keep striving to do it better.
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