Potato Grower

18 POTATO GROWER | MARCH 2018 In the late part of the 19th century, Fred Gumz left his native Germany to seek his fortune in America. He eventually made his way to Indiana, where he set to chasing the American dream in the most American of ways: starting a family farm. In the late 1920s and early '30s, his son Richard began growing mint, which proved to be a profitable move, one that kept the farm in the family through the Great Depression. The farm grew, and in the years following World War II, Richard bought another farm near Endeavor, Wis., about 50 miles due north of Madison. For the next 40 years or so, Richard, and then his son Jerome operated both farms. Eventually, however, it simply became too cumbersome to manage two operations hundreds of miles apart. Through careful estate planning, Jerome's sons Roderick and Richard—the fourth Gumz generation to farm in the Midwest—took over the Wisconsin farm and dubbed it Gumz Muck Farms, LLC. By Tyrell Marchant | Photos courtesy Gumz Farms GROWER OF THE MONTH The "Muck" in the name comes from the region's fertile muck soils— high-organic matter peat. That muck is a big reason the Gumzes believe they've had such success in central Wisconsin. "Our red potatoes get really good color on the muck," says Roderick Gumz. "We feel that's an advantage of ours, that we can raise a high- quality, attractive-looking red potato." Indeed, farming "on the muck," as Gumz says, has led to Gumz Farms being perhaps Wisconsin premier grower of red potatoes and onions. The farm raises some 15 to 20 percent of the state's reds and nearly 40 percent of its onions. Today, the farm encompasses 6,500 acres. Of that, 850 are dedicated to potato production, 650 to onions, 350 to carrots, and 1,500 to mint, which has been a staple crop for the family for nearly a century. The balance of the acreage produces field corn and soybeans. Gumz Farms also has a fresh-pack

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