Tasty Tubers

If you had to pick the most popular vegetables in America, potatoes would certainly be on the list. Think about the millions of French fries we consume every day at fast food restaurants. But before those spuds can make it to the deep fryer, you've got to get them out of the ground.

Come late September, potato farmers take to these Colorado fields in a race against the weather. Kenny Behil, General Manager for Smokin' Spuds says,"You have to be done by the first part of October because then you have a killing freeze that comes in and you have a freeze of potatoes in the ground and then they're not really consumable."

Colorado's San Luis Valley is well known for growing barley used in some"famous name" beers and for potatoes that make their way to supermarkets, and onto dinner plates. The average person consumes more than a hundred pounds of potatoes each year.

Kenny explains about his land,"This is 60 acres and we can probably have it finished harvesting in approximately 8 hours."

Smokin' Spuds potatoes oversees some 35 hundred acres that are planted in May and harvested during a three week window in early autumn. Field machines drag a chain 12 to 14 inches below the soil surface, unearthing potatoes which are then scooped up and loaded onto trucks for the first step in packing. Kenny explains,"Right now we are harvesting the Yukon gold we are actually taking 12 rows at a time. We have 2 wind rowers that will pick up 4 rows on both sides and put them back into the middle and the harvester comes along and picks up 4, digs 4 and harvests 12 rows at a time."

Valley farmers harvest some 140 million pounds of potatoes. Some make their way to this large processing plant where they're washed, cooled, stored and separated. Kenny lists,"We raise several different varieties. We have a russet variety. We also raise yellow flesh potatoes and we also raise a lot of red yellow flesh potatoes.“

The workers here separate spuds by size and quality. Some fail to make the cut. Kenny explains,"Their process is to take out a cull, that's potato you're not able to eat, it can be rotten or misshape, those potatoes are sent to either our processing plant or to cattle feed."

Big shipments leave by truck or train. Each of these rail cars on the San Luis and Rio Grande Railroad will carry 130 thousand pounds of potatoes, destined for large scale packers and commercial accounts.

Jimmy Luna directs retail packing operations for Mountain King Potatoes in Monte Vista, Colorado. He says,"A good-looking potato should be uniform in size. Depending on what you want. When potatoes leave the field we load them up on bob tail trucks or indoor semis, bring them into our storage facility here."

One particular on potatoes, depending on when they're harvested, packing and shipping may be delayed till the spuds are cooled to just the right temperature. That allows them to be stored longer, once at an optimum temperature. Kenny explains,"They come up over the packing line and that's where we will wash them two, three times, bring them over the packing line, put them into packages and get them ready out for consumers."

The packing plants here can turn out thousands of sacks each day. And potatoes remain one of the most important non-cereal crops in the heartland. The export market for U.S. potatoes totals more than a billion dollars a year. Not bad for a lowly tuber that ends up mashed, baked or fried. Jimmy adds,"Its pretty amazing the feedback I get from friends, family that have no idea where a potato comes from, you know they just eat them. So when I give a tour through here its like, ‘Oh my goodness I had no idea so much work was involved to put a potato into a bag to get it to the consumers.'"