For the Love of Taters

Today’s GOOD NEWS FRIDAY story comes to you on a windy spring day, when your friends here at Cultivate KC are celebrating potatoes, in all their magnificent forms. Over the last week, potatoes have been planted in the soil all over town, and we’re tickled to have a small role in that collective act of hope.

Every year, our Metro Farms & Food Systems team organizes a cooperative bulk seed potato order. By consolidating orders, we can help local farmers take advantage of bulk pricing breaks and share freight costs. This year 73 area farmers ordered close to 9,000 lbs. of seed potatoes, 3,000 more lbs. than last year!

This year’s order was delivered on March 11th, and that day a group of young women from Notre Dame de Sion happened to be volunteering at Juniper Gardens Training Farm. With their help, staff made quick work of the unloading and stacking. Incidentally, these young women signed up for a weeklong course on food systems, and every single one of them thought they’d be eating out and learning about the restaurant industry. Much to their surprise, they spent the week visiting and volunteering at local farms around town, and they were pleasantly surprised at how much they learned and enjoyed it. Thanks, ladies, for visiting us, and for helping with the heavy lifting!

Distribution of the seed potatoes began a few days later as growers descended on Juniper Gardens to pay for and retrieve their orders and then head back to their farms and gardens to plant. Depending on variety and growing conditions, these seed potatoes could equate to over 75,000 lbs. of potatoes later this summer. Wow! So, if you purchase a potato at a farmers market later in the year, chances are pretty darn good that it originated from this bulk order. 

As a culminating celebration of all things potato, our team potluck today was spud themed and lovingly dubbed Starch Madness by Eric Hemphill, our resident King of Puns. He led us through a championCHIP bracket activity, with a not-so-surprising winner.

What a great buffet, on this spring day. At the end of a long winter, and particularly in this uneasy season for many of us, KEEP GROWING FOOD. Plant those seed potatoes, cabbages, and onions – each one is a glorious act of rebellion, joy, and hope. And if you’re not a grower yourself, continue supporting the farmers around you. After our carb-induced naps, we’ll be right there next to you.