Potato Seed Project - Success!
Written by Rachel Swinney
Patryk and I partnered up on the seed potato project as an experiment in mutual aid.
Our area doesn't always grow the best seed potatoes, at least in quantity...due to high humidity in our region. This means high likelihood of disease. So disease free and organic can be quite expensive, unless ordered in bulk. Patryk and Rachel had experience with an all organic farm in Maine, and their quality was great.
So, we put the word out in various ways in western NC beginning in late January. We used Facebook homesteaders groups, mutual aid hub listservs, Organic Growers School, friends & family contacts, word of mouth, etc.
At that point, our farmer in Maine offered us some table stock root vegetables as well. We marketed these as March edibles, as a way to have fresh food on the table even when our pantries are running out of winter stored food. This added some new buyers to our already long list.
Once we were into our second pallet ordered, of both seed potatoes and March edibles, Cooperate WNC posted our success in its online newsletter.
Approximately 98 folks from ten (10) WNC counties ordered a total of 8800 lbs of seed potatoes and/or March edibles between late January and early March (but we got 9300 lbs).
8800 lbs is four pallets. It got bigger than we expected. We now believe it could have been bigger, had we gotten started in Nov or Dec. We ended up with some extras due to an unfortunate math error, and the farm sent some things we did not order. So, on both counts, we just distributed our last seed potatoes this very week.
Participants ordered from as small as 4 lbs to 2500 lbs each, depending on wheher they had small gardens, large farms, or were commercial resale entities (like the Hendersonville Food Co-op, for instance).
Customers got to choose from 18 varieties of high quality organic seed potatoes (and 7 varieties of March edibles) that were additionally Maine certified to be disease free and are now spread throughout the region. Even some conventional growers purchased with us, because the price was below what they would pay for some varieties even had they not been organic. Folks in various areas went together to order, or collaborated on pick up for and with each other. Folks stepped in to help weigh, bag, and label for some of the smaller orders. One volunteer, my partner, was invaluable in creating a spreadsheet for me on Excel, during the last week before the truck arrived. I could not have coordinated distribution without this. Locals donated: bags, use of scales, gas, and time.
All the work involved was volunteer. No one has been compensated in any way for gas/time/printing/coordinating, etc. This was a labor of love supported by the belief that we can, as a region, collaborate on projects that help us in our every day lives. This proof lays a foundation (along with other experiments that have been launched by CWNC, and by individuals over the last few years, as well) for future collaborative projects around the region.
The main goal was "what can this inspire?" beyond this project.
To this end, the seed potatoes were mostly sold at cost, no mark up except for shipping.
(And, it is possible that we have gained, in one of our participants, someone who could head up this whole project if it happens again next year.)
Below is a statement that was attached at the end of every communication with participants, as a reminder of what we were really doing here:
May our connections be lasting, and our efforts in mutual aid grow throughout the region.