WWW.POTATOGROWER.COM 11
hundredweight of potatoes each day.
For the first several months, things ran
fairly smoothly. Then disaster struck.
Eight months in, a fire started
somewhere in the new Rigby Produce,
enveloping the whole shed in savage
flames.
"That fire completely destroyed the
plant," Mickelsen says. Then, for
emphasis: "Completely destroyed. It
was just incredible.
"That was a pretty dark time," he
continues. "We had this shell of a
facility, all these potatoes left to run,
no facility to work out of."