A farm just outside Halbrite has seen one of its largest harvests in years, with grower Rhonda Emde pulling in more than 14,000 pounds of potatoes and donating hundreds of pounds across the region.
Emde planted more than 7,100 hills of potatoes in May, despite the dry ground. “It’s phenomenal, I guess, is what you would call it,” she said. “When we planted in May, it was super dry here. We’d gone through winter, and there wasn’t a lot of moisture. So I had no idea when we put over 7,000 hills in, what we would have for production.”
The results have been staggering. “I carried in 375 milk crates averaging 38 pounds each,” she said. “It put it over 14,000 pounds of potatoes just sitting in here right now.”
That abundance has meant not only steady sales, but also large donations. “I gave St. Peter’s Lutheran Church 75 pounds for their fall supper,” Emde said. “I donated to families that I knew needed some, and I’m donating 75 pounds to the Midale Oktoberfest.” Last year she supplied the Salvation Army in Weyburn, and she says she’ll be looking at food banks again this fall once orders are filled.
Her customers stretch across southern Saskatchewan. “I’ve had people come from Stoughton, Kennedy, Kisbey, Weyburn, Estevan, Frobisher, Oxbow, Gainsborough, Kennedy, Lampman, Radville, and even as far as Regina,” Emde said. “It’s just unreal how many new people I’ve met this year.”
And the work has been a family affair. “My grandchildren came out and helped harvest and clean, and I had friends come and give me a hand,” she explained. “It takes me 14 to 16 days to hand weed all the rows in the gardens because I weed between the plants. But I enjoy being out there and in the dirt.”
The harvest has not been limited to potatoes. “I had 1,800 cobs of corn, over 200 heads of cabbage, 1,100 pounds of tomatoes, and buckets and buckets of beans,” she said. Frost, however, wiped out her pumpkins, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, and popcorn, which she called a big disappointment.
Even with setbacks, she said the potatoes alone have been more than enough to keep her busy. “I’ve already filled 72 orders and I’m still getting calls every day,” Emde said. “The phone doesn’t stop.”
Looking ahead, she said next year will see fewer potato hills due to crop rotation. “I’m hoping I have enough room for at least 4,000 to 5,000 hills,” she said. “But I’ll do the same thing again next year and hope Mother Nature is good to me.”
This season, she also decided to cut her potato prices in half, offering them at just one dollar per pound. “Because I was blessed with all this, I cut my price in half this year to help people out because times are hard,” she said. “And they’re going like wildfire.”
Comments are closed.