Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/591498
10 Potato Grower | IDAHO ANNUAL 2015 These days, the Coombses consistently harvests 300 acres of Russet Burbanks annually on a five- year rotation. The potato game has been good to Mark Coombs and his family, and he's been sure to pay back to the industry when and where he can. 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 three 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 commercials, but says he's relished the opportunity. "The first year I shot that commercial," Coombs says with a chuckle, "I just stood there in front of the camera, and it was really difficult. You know your lines, but you're speechless. But after the second or third year, you start knowing the production crew, and you get pretty comfortable. You become pretty good friends." Thanks to the commercial, Coombs has gained a little notoriety. But the most important part of the potato industry 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. His son Kyle has returned to the family operation, and other children may follow suit. Coombs's wife, Susan, still works each day by his side, personifying the family's do-whatever-it-takes attitude. "The only way I could have made this family farm work all these years," Mark says, "is with the help of a very supportive and incredibly capable wife. She has as much to do with our success as anyone. "We've never had a time where things were so bad we thought we might not pull through it," he continues. "We've been very, very blessed." PG