Potatoes are versatile and delicious ingredients in many meals. Whether you prefer them mashed, baked, fried, or boiled, they are a staple in many households. However, have you ever heard of seed potatoes? What makes them different from ‘regular’ potatoes? In this post, we’ll explore the differences between the two.
Seed potatoes are cultivated specifically for planting and producing potato crops. They are generally smaller and undergo rigorous testing to ensure they are virus-free. Farmers use seed potatoes to grow potato crops and sell them to other farmers. Seed potatoes are the foundation of potato farming and are crucial in ensuring the crop is healthy and disease-free.
On the other hand, regular potatoes are those that farmers grow for consumption. They are the larger potatoes in your grocery store or farmer’s market. We often refer to them as ‘baker potatoes.’
So, what kind of potato does Stoddard Farms grow? Well, here in Grace, Idaho, our growing season tends to be much shorter than in other areas. This means we have the perfect length of time to grow an ideal size for seed potatoes. At harvest, we pack as many potatoes in our cellars as possible, and they stay there until spring, when they are shipped out for other farmers to plant. So why do we sell bagged potatoes? We have plenty of happy plants that produce extra large potatoes; rather than sell them to large processors for french fries, chips, and flakes, we bag them up and offer them at our annual farmers market for you to enjoy at home!
At Stoddard Farms, we take pride in producing high-quality seed potatoes for our fellow farmers, and we can’t wait to see you again this fall!
FAQ
Is it possible that the smaller potatoes in my bag were seed potatoes?
Depending on weather conditions each growing season, potatoes may be bigger or smaller than a traditional baker’s potato. For example, in the 2023 growing season, we were hit with a hail storm that destroyed our potato plants and halted their growth, resulting in smaller potatoes overall. A few years previously, we had almost perfect growing conditions that resulted in extra large potatoes. In farming, there are no absolutes! Whether the bagged potatoes are ‘seed’ size or regular, they both will taste great in any meal you decide to make!
