Celebrate National Agriculture Day: Meet our Potato Growers at Pleasant Valley Potato
From farm-fresh produce to from-scratch menu items and bakery items hot out of the oven, we strive to always serve our guests the most wholesome and hearty dishes at Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes. We couldn’t deliver such delicious food without the dedicated growers and talented chefs we work with.
To celebrate March 25th being National Agriculture Day, we wanted to introduce you Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes’ potato growers – Pleasant Valley Potato. Owned by four family farms, Pleasant Valley Potato produces Idaho-grown Grade-A potatoes that we use in many of our dishes, like our Loaded Baked Potato with Bacon Soup, Split Pea & Potato Barley Soup, and of course, the baked potatoes you can style as you desire. To learn a little more, we reached out to Ryan Wahlen, Sales Manager, at Pleasant Valley Potato.
Q: What conditions do potatoes thrive in?
A: The volcanic ash in Idaho’s soil creates the perfect blend of nutrients potatoes need. In addition, the pure water from Idaho’s rivers and aquifer coupled with long summer days and cool nights create ideal conditions for potatoes.
Q: What do you love most about being in the agricultural industry?
A: I love the family atmosphere that encompasses everything we do. There truly is a “We’re all in this together” attitude that guides our collective efforts each day.
Q: What is the process for getting a potato from your farms to our table?
A: The process is a little more complicated than you might think, but the short version is that the plants are killed and the potatoes are harvested by machines that dig them out of the ground and load them into small trucks. They are then transported to a climate-controlled storage that typically holds 6 million lbs. of potatoes.
Q: What are some of the favorite recipes or ways to prepare potatoes at Pleasant Valley Potato?
A: There is no wrong way to prepare our potatoes!
Take a look at a few of the recommended recipes from Pleasant Valley Potato:
Q: What are some of Pleasant Valley Potato’s sustainability measures?
A: Each of our farms utilizes a minimum three-year crop rotation, which means that at least two other crops (wheat, sugar, beets, corn, peas, alfalfa, etc.) are planted over the span of two years before a particular field can be planted to potatoes again. This helps eliminate disease in the potato crop, maintains nutrient levels, and helps reduce soil erosion. The fields are our livelihood. We treat them with the utmost care.
Q: What else should we know about potatoes?
A: Potatoes are some of the healthiest, most nutrient-rich, produce available. One 8-oz. potato contains:
- More potassium per serving, than any other vegetable or fruit
- 50% of the daily recommended dose of Vitamin C
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
JA
X-NONE
African Idaho Potato and Cauliflower Stew