WWW.POTATOGROWER.COM 23
"I had zero experience in food or farming," he says. "Even now,
everything I do, I do for research and educational purposes."
Caravati grows his crops on just three acres off Highway 32 in
Kenosha, Wis., a short walk from the shores of Lake Michigan.
Among his crops are micro-plots of dozens of heirloom potato and
garlic varieties, as well as onions and fruit trees. He is a founding
member of the Kenosha HarborMarket, one of the biggest farmers'
markets in the country. Caravati believes farmers' market trends
are bellwethers of the direction the industry will take in the next
several years. What he foretells is continued growth of the specialty
potato market, and a boom in urban agriculture.
Caravati is a member of Seed Savers Exchange, a large non-profit
based in Iowa and dedicated to preserving seed from thousands
of heirloom varieties of dozens of food crops. He spearheads the
Peachblow
(released in 1865)
is a perfect example of
a strain once sick, healed by
the USDA, and now available
as healthy tuber seed from
Seed Savers Exchange.
Curzio
Caravati calls the
Garnet Chili variety the
great-grandmother of almost
all commercial potatoes in U.S.
It is a parent of Early Rose
and Beauty of Hebron.
Corazón
Rosado is a
South American
tuber with deep eyes
and a neo-native look
to it, is a favorite of
Caravati's.
