National Potato Month is the Perfect Time to Celebrate Harvest and Threemile’s Farmers Ending Hunger Partnership

People often wonder why National Potato Month takes place every September. There’s a good reason! For many farmers, especially those of us in the Pacific Northwest, this is peak harvest season. With its volcanic sandy-loam soil, long and warm sunny days and cool nights with low humidity, and the ability to irrigate from the abundant Columbia River, this makes the Columbia Basin one of the highest-yielding potato growing regions in the world. Combined with the precision agriculture and the technology we use here at Threemile, we can harvest incredible high-quality potatoes that are used for foods like French fries, potato chips, and other processed potato products.  

Though harvest season can start as early as July and last well into the fall months, September is almost always guaranteed to be full swing. Our team works to dig a range of different potato varieties that can exceed well over 300,000 tons. Across nearly 9,000 acres, we grow varieties like Clearwater and Ranger, among others. Harvesting these potatoes is a coordinated dance using a range of different equipment that is executed by our team members.

In order to grow the highest quality potatoes possible, our team has long emphasized the 4Rs of nutrient management – right source, right rate, right time, and right place – as keys to doing more with less. We also use another 4R model – reduce, reuse, recycle and recover – to keep our potato production sustainable. This includes working with our processing partners to make sure “peels and culls” are returned to the farm and recycled as feed for our cows.

While we take immense pride in how we grow our potatoes, we also take pride in being able to set many of them aside to feed Oregonians in need. For roughly a decade we have partnered with Farmers Ending Hunger, an organization dedicated to eliminating hunger in Oregon by increasing the amount of high-quality food available to hungry local communities through a partnership of farmers, food processors, Oregon Food Bank and the public. Working closely with the Farmers Ending Hunger and Oregon Food Bank teams, Threemile donates 40 tons of fresh potatoes every month. These potatoes are distributed through the Oregon Food Bank network across the state to feed hungry Oregonians. Threemile has been community-minded since day one and we are proud to continue our partnership with Farmers Ending Hunger.

As we celebrate another National Potato Month and work through this year’s harvest, we are grateful that we are able to farm in such a beautiful area of the country and that we are able to grow food that feeds the world.