Potato Grower

Potato Grower Annual 2017

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10 POTATO GROWER | IDAHO ANNUAL 2017 FEATURE - STEINMAN It's a bright, frosty morning in early October, the kind of morning you can tell is going to perfect for spud harvest. Unthreatening clouds float across the sky, occasionally obscuring the autumn sun, and the hills north of Ashton, Idaho, are aflame with fall foliage. Michael Steinmann and his crew are champing at the bit to get started harvesting their last 70 acres of seed potatoes, but they hold off, waiting for the frost to retreat a little farther in the face of the sun's advance. Conveyors are in place, ready to transfer the last few truckloads of seed potatoes from trucks into the cellar. Nearby, those trucks sit in a field of brown potato vines, lined up next to New Holland tractors attached to Spudnik windrowers and harvesters. Finally, the frost is deemed to have withdrawn far enough, and at some unspoken symbol, Steinmann's crew moves into action, almost in unison. The roar of diesel engines and the whir of moving machinery cuts through the crisp air, but somehow manages not to break the morning's peace. A proud, satisfied smile spreads across Steinmann's face. A good chunk of his harvest crew is family, and a good many more feel like kin. "I'll never ask any of them to do anything I won't work right alongside them on or haven't done myself," says Steinmann, a man who has done just about everything there is to do on his farm. Steinmann, Potato Grower's Idaho Seed Grower of the Year, is a third-generation grower born and raised on the farm in Ashton. His grandfather, Gus Steinmann, immigrated from Germany and bought the farm in 1918. The present-day Steinmann Farm shop Story and photos by Tyrell Marchant SEED GROWER OF THE YEAR

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