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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