Makarewicz Seed Farm

Pumpkin Fact By Max Reilly

2009-10-26T10:56:00.002-04:00

Until 1981 the biggest pumpkin ever recorded was 460 pounds. By 1994 that record was over 1,000 pounds, and the present record is over 1,600 pounds. In that same time period the average weight of an NFL lineman has gone from 277 pounds to 318 pounds. This does not necessarily indicate (but does not rule out) that NFL linemen are eating more pumpkins than they used to.

Got Potatoes

2008-09-18T10:56:00.003-04:00

Beach Potato

2008-03-02T16:47:00.000-05:00

A Year on Makarewicz Seed Farm

2008-02-13T19:43:00.005-05:00

The year begins not in January, but in April, when it's time to plant. The field is disced in preparation for planting. It's not unlike opening a bottle of wine and letting it breath. When you're planting tens of thousands of potatoes, you don't cut each eye and plant them carefully in the ground. They all get chopped up at random and dumped into the planter. A tractor pulls the planter down the rows while someone rides on the back of it holding what we in the industry refer to as a stick. This person has the all important job of poking at the potatoes if they get clogged.

Before too long little potato plants pop up and sprout flowers. They need to be watered, fertilized and sprayed with one hundred dollar per gallon pesticides to protect the little guys from the evil potato bug.

Many farms have permanent irrigation systems that crawl around the field giving the thirsty little potatoes water. If the field isn't outfitted with one of those units, a contraption with a giant garden hose about 6 inches around is used to dispurse the liquid. It's pulled along the field by a cable attached to a tractor. One nice advantage to living on a farm is, while you city folk are in the back yard jumping through your cute little garden sprinkler, farm kids get to play in a sprinkler spitting out up to a million gallons of water a day.
Some time in the summer, workers walk up and down the rows spotting varieties of potato that aren't supposed to be there. This is known as rouging. Different varieties blossom different colored flowers. When a blue or yellow flower is found in a sea of white, it is yanked out by hand so the future buyers get what they paid for.

In September the potatoes are harvested. A couple weeks before harvesting, chemicals are sprayed on the field to kill the vines so they can easily separate from the potatoes. The harvester scoops potatoes up out of the ground and separates them from most of the vines and giant man-eating rocks. They are then carried by conveyor belt up to the workers who separate the rocks and rotten potatoes from the good ones. The deer come out in abundance at this time to graze on the tasty snack, seemingly unbothered by the noisy harvester and tractors.
The potatoes, and any rocks missed, are transported by wagon to the warehouse where workers pick out the leftover rocks. "Scabbied up ones" as I refer to the potatoes with scabs, are separated into crates for deer feed. This is also the part where a small family farmer will pick out the best of the best by hand to sell for your dinner table. If you've never had any potatoes bought right off the farm, you don't know what you're missing with those teeny supermarket variations. Or worse yet, potatoes from a box (full body shiver). Here in the warehouse, the potatoes will stay until March when they're sold. A proper temperature must be maintained in the building so they don't freeze if it gets too cold, or sweat if it gets too warm. Yes, potatoes can sweat. And since they're about 80% water, they shrink.

Many may think a farmer has nothing to do in winter and it must be so nice. Winter is actually the time when a potato farmer will repair and maintain the heavy equipment used. Also, in the case of our farm, my dad has a gi-normous snow blower attached to our John Deere tractor that he uses to clear the driveways of our helpless neighbors trapped at home after a Michigan blizzard. This is also the time when the seed potatoes are sold to buyers across the country and into Canada. We used to sell to Frito-Lay, and we would joke when we pulled a green or brown chip out of the bag and say it must be one of ours. But alas, Frito-Lay abandoned the family farmer several years ago, choosing to instead buy from large factory farms.
Come March, other farmers send their semi trucks to be filled with lovely Makarewicz Seed Farm potatoes. They pass one more inspection when workers filter out any more scabbed specimens. Then they're trucked off to be planted again. Of course, we keep a few to replant in our own fields in April. We also plant rotation crops that put valuable nutrients back in the ground so our little potatoes can grow big and strong. Well, that's about it. If you're interested in purchasing any of the aforementioned lovely potatoes, contact Sam at 1-877-546-3286 or slmarker55 at yahoo dot com. We're located in Elmira, MI.

Potato Loves You Too

2007-12-19T19:22:00.000-05:00

History of the Potato

2007-10-06T12:20:00.001-04:00

The history of the potato has its roots in the windswept Andes Mountains of South America. It is a harsh region plagued by fluctuating temperatures and poor soil conditions. Yet the tough and durable potato evolved in its thin air (elevations up to 15,000 feet), climbing ever higher like the people who first settled the region.

The tough pre-Columbian farmers first discovered and cultivated the potato some 7,000 years ago. They were impressed by its ruggedness, storage quality and its nutritional value. Western man did not come in contact with the potato until as late as 1537 when the Conquistadors tramped through Peru. And it was even later, about 1570, that the first potato made its way across the Atlantic to make a start on the continent of Europe. Though the tuber was productive and hardy, the Spanish put it to very limited use. In the Spanish Colonies potatoes were considered food for the underclasses; when brought to the Old World they would be used primarily to feed hospital inmates.

About 1780 the people of Ireland adopted the rugged food crop. Unlike any other major crop, potatoes contain most of the vitamins needed for sustenance. Perhaps more importantly, potatoes can provide this sustenance to nearly 10 people on an acre of land. This would be one of the prime factors causing a population explosion in the early 1800s. Of course, by the mid-1800's the Irish would become so dependent upon this crop that its failure would provoke a famine.

While in Ireland the potato gained acceptance from the bottom up, in France the potato was imposed upon society by an intellectual. Antoine Augustine Parmentier saw that the nutritional benefits of the crop combined with its productive capacity could be a boon to the French farmer. After failing by conventional means to convince Frenchmen of its advantages, he determined upon a surreptitious means of making his point.

Parmentier acquired a miserable and unproductive spot of ground on the outskirts of Paris. There, he planted 50 acres of potatoes. During the day, he set a guard over it. This drew considerable attention in the neighborhood. In the evening the guard was relaxed and the locals came to see what all the fuss was about. Believing this plant must be valuable, many peasants "acquired" some of the potatoes from the plot, and soon were growing the root in their own garden plots. Their resistance was overcome by their curiosity and desire to better their lot with the obviously valuable new produce.

Soon the potato would gain wide acceptance across Europe and eventually make its way back over the Atlantic to North America. As time passed, the potato would become one of the major food stuffs of the world. Today, the potato is so common, plentiful and pervasive in the Western diet that it is taken for granted. We forget that it has only been with us for a few hundred years. (Excerpts from indepthinfo.com)

Find Good Food Near You

2007-05-04T23:27:00.001-04:00

Want fresh, locally grown food, but don't know where to find it? The LocalHarvest community level map makes it easy to find sustainable farmers, farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture projects (CSAs) in your area.

Save Family Farms, Save America

2007-02-21T18:24:00.001-05:00

By Willie Nelson
"It's time to abandon the failed model of industrial agriculture and join the Good Food movement: embrace healthy, delicious food that makes the entire country stronger.

"As one of the founders of Farm Aid, I have watched with admiration and a good amount of satisfaction the growth of what many now call the "Good Food Movement" -- the growing interest in and demand for organic, humanely-raised and family farm-identified food that is transforming the way America grows its food and how our food gets to our tables.

"While it might seem obvious to many, good food comes from farms with healthy soil and clean water. I've always believed that the most important people on the planet are the ones who plant the seeds and care for the soil where they grow. As the stewards of the land, family farmers are the foundation of this movement, as well as its guarantor.

"No one can say they planted the original seed that gave rise to this movement, but many can claim they have helped nurture and cultivate its growth. Farm Aid's vision for America is to have many family farmers on the land -- a vision born out of our strong conviction that who grows our food and who cares for the land and water is of vital national importance; that farmers and their fields are the fabric that holds our country together..."

Read the rest of the article

Potato Facts

2007-02-21T03:33:00.001-05:00

- The potato is about 80% water and 20% solids.

- An 8-ounce baked or boiled potato has only about 100 calories.

- The average American eats 137.9 pounds of potatoes each year. Based on 2000 census population data, that's 38,808,080,837 (thirty-eight billion, eight hundred eight million, eighty thousand, eight hundred thirty-seven) pounds of potatoes in a year.

- The world's largest potato chip was produced by the Pringle's Company in Jackson, TN in 1990. It measures 23" x 14.5".

- In 1974, an Englishman named Eric Jenkins grew 370 pounds of potatoes from one plant.