BOUCHEY FARM TOUR

Author: Dan Theriault, Earl’s Potato Buyer

I flew up to Pasco WA with Kurt Jacobs of Bridges Produce to visit Bouchey Farms in Wapato, Washington. We landed in the early afternoon and drove for about an hour to Bouchey. There we met up with Ryan from Cal-Ore Produce to tour the farm and packing house with Ben Hayter who is the head of growing for Bouchey. First, we checked out the packing house which during the potato season runs for 18 hours a day cleaning, sorting, and packing. The potatoes come in from the field in bins and totes where they are washed once then pre-sorted. After that they are washed again and put through the final sort for quality and size. From there they are packed into 50lb cases and 5lb bags.

Harvest Time

After that we went out to see the fields.  When we arrived the harvest of red and yellow potatoes had been going on for three weeks and russets were about a week away. Three weeks before actual harvesting begins the farmer stops watering goes through the fields and chops down all the greens to kill off the plant. During the next three weeks the potatoes stop growing and their skins harden up. One day before harvest they go back through the field and water the mounds to make harvesting easier on the machinery which pulls a blade through the soil underneath the potatoes and pulls them up to a conveyor belt to shake off dirt and move them to the bin of a truck driving next to the harvester.

Dan, Earl’s Organic Buyer and Ben, Bouchey Farms Grower

Potatoes are planted in April, and it can take anywhere from 80 to 110 days to grow, with russet potatoes taking the longest. Bouchey grows potatoes for only one season, from the middle of July to the end of September and they do not keep any storage crop. The Boucheys grow reds, golds and russets and Russian Banana, Amarosa, Purple Pelisse and French fingerlings.

Ben from Bouchey harvests fresh crop red potatoes in Wapato, Washington

I was very impressed by the entire operation and especially Ben. He has a high level of integrity and is very knowledgeable about growing potatoes. The farm desires to treat their people and the land with respect. They work with other farmers to ensure a mutually beneficial transition from their growing region to another by aligning harvests times and pricing.

The Bouchey and St. Hilaire families started farming the lower Yakima Valley 3 generations ago. Some of the early stories share how fields in our area were left to go fallow with sagebrush and weeds before they began working the land. The families helped the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers trench out some of the water system of canals with teams of horses. Sugar beets became widely farmed in the valley at that time, however, families started branching out into numerous other crops as subsidies for the sugar beets came to a close. There was production in mint, alfalfa, wheat, corn, juice-grapes, hops, as well as livestock operations. A neighboring family close-by to the Boucheys had already been farming Yukon Gold potatoes for several seasons in the lower valley and helped the Boucheys get started in spud production. Over the course of the next 10-12 seasons the family honed its knowledge and expertise in the potato crop while still maintaining operations in mint, grapes, alfalfa, and wheat. In the mid-1990's Jody Bouchey pioneered growing the family's first organic potatoes in the valley and the potato operation began to focus much more specialty wise from there.

Machine harvesting potatoes. Ben digs up new crop reds and golds. Kurt from Bridges shows off new crop gold potatoes.

Ben came over to join the family farm after 10 years of working on the westside of Washington state with Costco Wholesale, where he worked his way up to a department manager at the warehouse level. Working hard to put himself through college in southern Michigan, he was able to graduate with a bachelor’s degree from Hillsdale College in 2011. He lives in Harrah, WA with his wife Anna and their three kids, and enjoys spending time in the great outdoors while honing the process of growing quality Northwest potatoes.

“Looking at a little over 700 acres of spuds this year on a 1 in 4 spud rotation, meaning only once in 4 years will we plant spuds on any given field. So, it's about a 3,000 acre rotation total for the 700 acres of spuds,  with 75% of the crop being organic. Our season normally runs from the first week of July through September, or whenever we are sold out,” said Ben.

When Bouchey wraps up the season the potato growing region will seamlessly transition down to Tulelake on the border of California and Oregon. Cal-Ore will start harvesting October first and their season will go through the middle of May.