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What's New at Moose Tubers |
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This listing is beginning to grow back after a hard culling of slimeball varieties and ones you just didn’t like anymore. While we still don’t have reliable sources for a few of our favorites, like Caribe and Red Cloud, we’ve developed a selection that could fill all your potato desires if you let it. We’ve thrown in a few new lucky wild cards to boost the potato craze for another year. It was a difficult year for growing seed spud this year, and the persistently variable weather patterns have challenged our growers. Rain, mostly drought, et cetera. Crop quality was good, but there just weren’t many potatoes out there for some. Those who could irrigate did fine, and the drier summer should eliminate much of the rot in storage that many growers, processors, and distributors face. We’ve expanded our inventory from organic Maine growers and hope you’ll be pleased with the results of such well-crafted seed. Some daring agricultural projects have budded up this year. At home, our vegetable and livestock operation teamed up with a cheesemaker who built a creamery in our packing shed. This collaboration made it possible to lower our overhead and expand the vegetable operation as well as manage it more intensively. Fields slathered in brassicas and unending rows of cherry tomatoes teamed well with mozzarella, gouda, and smoked pork shoulder from whey-fed pigs. The abundant collaboration of foods developed fanatic eaters and a satisfied crew. Our Waldo County has become a kaleidoscope of intricately orchestrated healthy soil systems, somewhat recovering from the days of flop chicken barns and burnt-out farms. Certified or not, these farmer-innovators are working with this erratic economy and boom-and-bust weather patterns, as well as generally enjoying the scramble and gratitude of the season. The beauty of our cooperative model and our relationship with you is that we have the buying power to support these small-scale intelligent farmers with nice varieties, who might otherwise be subject to the price fixes of corporate potato processors. Building these networks that are mutually beneficial can set us up for a secure future with food, health, and economics. Good luck growing. |
Welcome
to Moose 2013, our 27th listing of shallot and onion sets, sunchokes,
and certified potato seed. Our comprehensive potato selection includes
over 35 varieties of organic and conventional seed to sink your
teeth into. Your farmer’s market spud scene won’t go
stale with a different potato for each week of your summer and fall.
This year’s most diverse group of Common Ground Fair blue-ribbon
winners and your fierce and rugged dependables can put on quite
a show if your soil preparation and labor force allow for it. To
view an overall comparison of potato varieties, see the Potato Variety
Chart in the sidebar at left.
On
the Thorndike-Knox townline, 87-year-old Shirley Bessey calls her
forty-some Hereford cattle in with stale bread. In the interest
of protecting her prime farmland and hearty herd, Shirley developed
the Thor-Nox Agricultural Education Corporation. This well-rounded
group of cooperative extension agents, dairy farmers, middle-school
teachers, and dedicated neighbors are working on the vision to move
this farm into the next era. Rooted in the history of the land and
in the richness of its soils, this ag-ed corporation sees the spirit
of collaboration as the key to its success. Bordering Mount View
High School, Shirley’s vision of a cooperative farm-to-school
project is growing.
Fedco Seeds, PO Box 520, Waterville, ME 04903
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Copyright
Fedco Seeds Inc.
November 16, 2012
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