STRATHMORE, Alta. — Harvest in the vegetable business is five grueling months of picking and packaging.
For Cam Beard of Carseland, Alta., work starts in July with the cutting of tender beet tops and continues until the beginning of November when he pulls the last of the parsnips.
Working with Rosemary Wotske at Poplar Bluff Organics near Strathmore, the two farms supply a variety of root vegetables and potatoes to Calgary area organic grocers and restaurants.
Beard, a professional trucker, was hauling potatoes for Wotske when he was convinced five years ago to set aside 40 acres of land on his family’s farm for root vegetables.
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Wotske has been in the business for 27 years, and had the packing and storage facilities as well as the customer contacts.
Poplar Bluff grows a variety of potatoes including fingerlings, french fry types, yellow potatoes, heritage and fresh table market spuds.
The restaurant trade has been good for the partners. They have sold at farmers’ markets but found many customers were reluctant to try new or unusual vegetables. Chefs are willing to try new things and more are following the trend of buying and serving local food.
Wotske originally met some Calgary chefs at a sustainable agriculture conference. They were looking for farm fresh produce and she was looking for buyers to take her dozens of varieties that could be used for fries, mashed potatoes or salads.
“When you go into a restaurant and meet a chef, he doesn’t go, ‘I don’t know how to cook that.’ He says, yes.’ ”
She farms on 140 irrigated acres and grows potatoes on 30 to 40 acres a year so that she can rotate the fields. She is looking to rent more land so she can expand her rotation.
Potatoes should be rotated every four years to prevent disease. The resting fields are planted to peas, fall rye or wheat, which are plowed back into the soil before they bloom.
Poplar Bluff uses commercial sized digging equipment and most recently built a large atmosphere controlled storage facility. The farm employs three full-time and four seasonal staff.
Organic production was considered an anomaly when Wotske started farming in 1985, and there were few customers.
She did not like using sprays be-cause some made her feel ill. She has had few disease or insect problems because the farm is isolated from other vegetable operations. While she prefers organic, her clients are less discerning.
“Among my restaurant clients, being organic isn’t even in the top five reasons they are buying from me. They are buying from me because it tastes better and they haven’t made the connection between organics and better flavour,” she said.
“When you don’t push the plant with nitrogen and water, you allow them to achieve their genetic potential and they are able to scrounge up the minerals at their pace and it goes into the plant.”
Wotske has a master’s degree in biochemistry and genetics.
Finding seed is a challenge, so she often saves her own, especially for heritage varieties.
Some commercial farmers abandoned certain varieties years ago because they did not process or store well. Some are expensive to grow.
“Because I charge more, I can afford to grow ones that have terrific flavour and are wonderful to eat,” she said.
Similar experiments are conducted at Carrots by Cam with parsnips, carrots and beets of different shapes and colours.
Carrots come in purple, red, white, yellow or orange, while the beets are striped, orange and red.
Beard doesn’t use chemicals, which forces him to pull weeds by hand. Fertility comes from applications of fish meal, molasses and dead plant material.
“When I went organic I thought I would get rid of the sprayer and I wouldn’t have to calibrate it anymore. Now we use the sprayer to put nutrients on the soil and on the plants,” Beard said.
“If you have healthy soil, you’ll have healthy plants.”
Wotske takes orders on Tuesday once harvest starts and digs vegetables as needed.
The potatoes are dug and stored dirty in an atmosphere controlled warehouse, while the carrots are picked over and washed. Carrots must be washed to prevent staining.
