It’s common for farmers to study climatological patterns for planting and harvesting. But as one of the only mail-order seed potato shippers in the country that ships 10 months a year, Wood Prairie Family Farm in Maine has to plot the weather to stay in business, as Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli reports for Bangor Daily News.
“By far the biggest portion of our shipments go out during the coldest months of the year. If we weren’t paying attention to the weather, the consequences would be catastrophic and would swallow up most of our annual farm income,” Gerritsen said.
The farm ships from September to July, but January and the first half of February are the toughest months, he said. Whether it’s a small sampler box for beginning gardeners or hundreds of pounds to a farmer’s market grower, the seed potatoes have to arrive undamaged.
The direct mail order farm ships about 150,000 to 200,000 pounds of certified organic seed potatoes per year.
Source: Bangor Daily News. Read the full story here
Photo: Wood Prairie Family Farm founder Jim Gerritsen
