Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1342666
18 POTATO GROWER | MARCH 2021 Mark Coombs Mark Coombs grew up the four th and youngest son of Dean Coombs, who, as Mark puts it , " took this farm out of the brush" in 1950. One by one, each of his brothers grew up and left the farm, but the farm in Middleton, Idaho, was Mark 's home, and he wanted in. After college, he returned in 1978 to help his father run the farm. " It 's always been one of my dreams to be on the farm," Coombs says . " I often wonder what it would' ve been like if I'd done something diff erent. You always wonder what the future would' ve held, but this is what I wanted." If he had done something diff erent , the Coombs proper t y may never have had a potato grown on it. Beef cattle had been the back bone of the operation since Dean had settle in the area in 1950. Around the time of Dean's death in 1984, the decision was made to transition to row crops, primarily wheat and corn. In 1989, Mark began growing Russet Burbank potatoes, even ser ving a stint as a commissioner on the Idaho Potato Commission (IPC). While a potato crop hasn' t been a par t of his farming operation for a few years, he remains closely connected with the Idaho potato industr y. Coombs is perhaps best known as the face of Idaho potato growers in the Idaho Potato Commission's series of commercials that have run on national television the past 10 years . He says he's not sure how the IPC and its public- relations team decided he was the best choice to appear in the role of "Actual Potato Farmer," but says he's relished the oppor tunit y. " Mark has been a per fect representation of the wonder ful potato growers we have in Idaho," says Frank Muir, president and CEO of the IPC. " Folk s want to know who grows their food. Mark 's wholesome sense of humor provides comfor t to consumers that Idaho potatoes are in good hands ." Thank s to the ad campaign, Coombs has gained a little notoriet y. But the most impor tant par t of the agriculture industr y to Coombs remains what it always has been: the ground his father cleared and on which he grew up, and the family he has raised on that ground.