A BETTER WAY
Ours is a small farm, just my wife and I, with a few acres, a greenhouse, no machinery larger than a two-wheel tractor, great passion and a lot of hard work. Our passion is for healthier soil, local production, nutritious food and a simpler way of life. We try to keep things simple by focusing on producing one quality product - specialty seed potatoes. It seems middlemen including industrial ag giants, bankers and multinational food processers are taking more than their share from farmers and consumers and causing more than their share of harm to our environment. Growing quality specialty seed potatoes in a better way, for sale direct to gardener-consumers is our one small act of defiance.
ORGANIC & REGENERATIVE
The labels Organic and Regenerative are a modern invention and easily used in advertising products. For consumers, certification provides a degree of confidence in the advertiser's claim, with the caveat that industrial agriculture seeks to own these labels.
The best advice to the consumer is know your grower/supplier. Many growers aspire to the principals of organic and regenerative and some have practiced these principles since before they were defined in the modern era.
FY1 SEED
You will understand why FY1 seed is better once you've reviewed our page PRODUCING SEED POTATOES...
...The concept of limited generation seed potatoes describes the number of generational cycle potatoes have been grown naturally in soil, harvested, stored and progeny seed planted again the following year. This provides a mechanism to help ensure seed quality. Idaho limits the number of field generations to FY7, which means generation FY8 cannot be certified as seed, however FY7 seed has been exposed to the environment and pathogen build-up far longer than the FY1 seed. FY1 seed potatoes is simply the first generation grown and produced naturally, in the field, in soil. FY1 seed is far more likely to be free of pathogens and provide rigorous growth when planted. Many seed providers are simply resellers of seed grown elsewhere and may not have direct knowledge of the grower's operation or practices. Your seed provider should be able to tell you who the grower is, what seed jurisdiction is responsible for certification and what the field year is.
SINGLE DROP SEED
Single drop is simply the term used for planting the whole tuber without cutting into pieces.
Our FY1 seed is provided in several different tuber sizes from which to choose (smaller tuber size = more tubers/lb).
From my experience, well chitted, small tubers will sprout and emerge as well as larger tubers...
...of course, the seed potatoes most growers provide are full sized tubers, 6-8 oz which are normally cut into 3-4 pieces. Conventional growers insist each seed piece should be about 2-3 oz in size, while they treat cut seed pieces with a "healthy" dose of fungicide and other pesticides.