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8 Potato Grower | IDAHO ANNUAL 2015 GROWER OF THE YEAR Story by Tyrell Marchant | Photos by Tyrell Marchant and Idaho Potato Commission I t's only 9:30 on a late September morning, but it's already shaping up to be another hot day in the Treasure Valley. The dust that always accompanies potato harvest has been floating in the air at Mark Coombs's farm west of Middleton for a couple hours now, and Coombs is bouncing around from field to transloading site to cellar with an energy and enthusiasm that belie his more than 30 years in the business. "I never ask anyone here to do anything I'm not able and willing to do, and that I haven't done a hundred times myself," says Coombs. He says it with the seriousness that is common to growers who have built their lives on gritted teeth, back pain and smashed fingers, yet with an almost youthful joy that lets you know there's nothing in the world he'd rather be doing. Mark Coombs grew up the fourth 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 was Mark's home, and he wanted in. After attending BYU, 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 different. You always wonder what the Not Just a Pretty Face WHEN THE DUST FLIES "We run with green tractors and Lockwood equipment," Coombs says. "They've been pretty good to us."