Picabo provides Johnson and his crew a scenic backdrop during harvest.
Once upon a time, Silver Creek Seed grew primarily
Russet Burbanks and Rangers for generally local
shipment. Today, the company has diversified to
several other varieties and ships from California to
Wisconsin.
Johnson has served on the United
Seed Potato Board, the Potato Variety
Management Institute (PVMI) board, and
the PAC committee for the Idaho Crop
Improvement Association (ICIA).
It's for his contributions in those
realms, as well as the commercial success
of Silver Creek Seed, that ICIA has named
Johnson its seed grower of the year.
Johnson and his wife of 27 years, Jill,
make their living growing seed potatoes in
the foot of the mountains in Picabo, on the
northern edge of the Snake River Plain. It's
scenic country, and the Johnsons consider
themselves lucky to be doing what they
love in such a beautiful corner of the
world. But Johnson wasn't always sure he
would be able to stay in the farming game.
After Mark and Jill Johnson were
married in 1986, Mark began managing
for his new father-in-law, Alan Cummins,
a successful and established grower in
southern Idaho. But when Cummins
went out of production farming in 2005,
Johnson found himself unprepared.
Having grown up on a small farm and
pursued that career for nearly two
decades, he knew he didn't want to do
anything else.
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