Here comes the sun

The days are longer and the ground is starting to awaken. The soil seems to swell with fertile anticipation for the spring rains and growing warmth. Yep, it’s time to get to work.

It’s planting time, and that entails everything to get your crops in the ground. These are the days you try to squeeze 30 hours out of a normal 24, and somehow, someway, you find the means to defy natural law and make time slow down.

This month’s feature profile is on Kevin Searle, the general manager of GPOD, a fresh-pack operation in Shelley, Idaho. For more than 20 years, Searle has been shipping Idaho potatoes to retail and foodservice businesses on the East Coast. Searle is a firm believer in not only the nutritional value of potatoes but in their economical value in delivering that nutrition. His is a positive message for the industry.

This month, we also focus on irrigation companies in our ongoing salute to industry pioneers during Spudman’s 50-year anniversary celebration. The strides that have been made in irrigation systems in the United States over the past 75 years are phenomenal. So many of these companies started with a simple way to bring water to plants more easily; now, they have grown into multinational business conglomerations exporting the green revolution and trying to alleviate hunger in the world.

As part of our 50th celebration, we’re giving away $50 Cabela’s gift cards each month. And we have our first winner: Doug Gunnels of Center, Colo. Doug stopped by the Spudman booth during the Potato Expo in Orlando and shared his story with us.

You, too, can be a winner. All you have to do is go online and share your story with us to be eligible for the monthly drawing of a $50 Cabela’s gift card. You can’t win if you don’t play.

Visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/Happy50th.