March 2010

• A Growing Tradition It’s a period of transition for the Morris brothers and their Columbian Basin farm, Morris Irrigated Farms, based in Quincy, Wash. As one brother retires from the farming operation, a son returns to join his father and uncle and continue the farming venture into a third generation.
• Organic Idaho At the Idaho Potato Conference’s organic potato production workshop University of Idaho researchers Amber Moore and Nora Olsen along with Jen Miller, sustainable agriculture coordinator for the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, gave individual presentations on fertilizing techniques utilizing dried distillers grains, promising varieties based on 2009 results and funding sources for current organic farmers and those in transition to organic production.
• Seeding Change Reports of the demise of the Russet Burbank may be a little premature, but there is a developing sense that the mighty variety is slowly being retired due to the rising demands for more sustainable varieties.
• Snowpack, Supply, Something Else
• Spudman 7 Jeanne Debons has been working with the non-profit organization the Potato Variety Management Institute (PVMI) since July 2006 when she returned to Oregon after working overseas for 14 years.