Southeast Missouri farmers discuss how they grow potatoes

Eat a Frito-Lay potato chip around the Fourth of July, and the odds are high the potato was grown in Southeast Missouri.

It’s part of the Fourth of July Push, the two to three weeks before Independence Day, and the Southeast Missouri region is ideal for growing potatoes because the sandy soil makes them easier to dig. There are three potato chip farms in the region, and potato farmer Hodge Hayes says Southeast Missouri potatoes go from field to fryer in approximately 24 hours due to the fact they don’t store well in the heat, making for a fresher and better-tasting chip.

Farmer Hodge Hayes holds a potato he grew on his farm in Benton, Mo. Hodge holds bachelor's and master's degrees in agriculture engineering technology from Mississippi State University. Aaron Eisenhauer

For Hodge, co-owner of Sandy Bottom Farms in Benton, Missouri, though, growing potatoes commercially is not the way he farms; he says growing for farmers markets is where the enjoyment is at. He and his father, Lawrence Hayes, own 10 acres in which they grow an acre of four varieties of potatoes — red Pontiac, Yukon gold, Kennebec and purple majesty — and an acre of two varieties of sweet potatoes, bonita and beauregard. They farm chemical-free and sell their produce at the Cape Girardeau Riverfront Market, to Spanish Street Farmacy’s market and to restaurants in the area.

“We’re just trying to scratch out a living on the sand,” Hodge says.

Potatoes sit in a basket as Sandy Bottom Farms employee Bayleigh Wilson picks each potato up by hand. The potatoes will then be stored at 60 degrees and 75 to 80% humidity before they are sold at market. Aaron Eisenhauer

Originally grain, cotton and commercial catfish farmers in Mississippi, Lawrence, his wife Cynthia and Hodge moved to Missouri in 2007, where Lawrence and Hodge worked at Black Gold Farm in Charleston, Mo. Hodge and Lawrence founded Sandy Bottom Farms and began growing potatoes in 2015 because Hodge was working as an ag teacher with the summers off and decided to give it a go. Approximately three years ago, Hodge says they were growing 20 different types of produce, including onions, green beans and squashes, and selling at five or six farmers markets throughout the region each week. When he had a spinal surgery, in addition to their other full-time jobs, they decided to focus on potatoes and the Cape Girardeau Riverfront Market.

The father-son duo comes from generations of farmers and have spent significant amounts of time studying and teaching farming methods. Hodge holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agriculture engineering technology from Mississippi State University and says he enjoys building and modifying equipment to help make potato farming easier. He’s refitted commercial equipment for planting on a smaller scale and likes tweaking the process each year to continually improve how they are farming.

Potatoes lay on top of the soil after being dug by farmer Hodge Hayes at Sandy Bottom Farms in Benton, Mo. Hodge says the acre of land usually yields approximately 17,000 pounds of Irish potatoes in a season.Aaron Eisenhauer

During graduate school, Hodge researched methods to toughen the skin on sweet potatoes, building a plow that ran under the beds to cut the tap root of the plant without hurting the edible storage roots, so the vines would wither and die and the potatoes could be dug instead of mown, saving commercial farmers time. Despite being interested in precision ag and GPS technology, he says he still has the most fun farming potatoes the way they did 30 or 40 years ago, mixing new methods with the old.

Lawrence, too, has an impressive resume: He spent three years in China, growing Russet Burbank potatoes for Conagra Brands, Inc. for McDonalds, who was expanding their market. He says it was interesting to see the integration of modern and traditional technology, such as someone plowing with a mule in a field while holding a cell phone, or using American farming machinery while women picked up potatoes by hand.

At Sandy Bottom Farms, their process for growing potatoes goes like this: In the fall, they sometimes plant a cover crop to help with soil health. Around the first week of February, they begin tilling and buy the seed. By the end of February or early March when it’s approximately 40 to 50 degrees outside, they plant the seeds, cutting a potato into approximately 2.2-ounce seed pieces so each piece has an eye on it that can sprout. The flesh of the potato subarizes, healing over and forming a rubbery texture that keeps diseases from getting in. They plant each piece seven to eight inches apart, with rows that are 38 inches apart; one seed piece will make approximately eight potatoes, Lawrence says.

Aaron Eisenhauer

They have come a long way with their planting methods: The first year they planted potatoes, Lawrence poked holes into the soil with a baseball bat, and Hodge followed, dropping seeds in. Now, they fill the hopper on their tractor with 100 pounds of seed. Each time the carousel spins around, the rider of the tractor drops a seed in, and it plants it. Approximately 45 days later, they reshape the beds, putting more soil on them so the potatoes aren’t exposed to the sunlight. Sometimes, they reshape the beds a second time a couple of weeks after that.

When they are ready to harvest in June, they use a Middle Buster plow to dig the potatoes. In the sandy soil, the potatoes “roll right out,” Hodge says, and they pick up the potatoes by hand; Hodge’s nephew Hunter Criswell and employees Bayleigh and Brooke Wilson help with this and the other parts of the process. They begin digging potatoes around the first week of June through the Fourth of July and store the potatoes at 60 degrees and 75 to 80% humidity.

Aaron Eisenhauer

The process is similar for sweet potatoes: A modified tobacco setter is pulled behind a tractor, and the rider sits a bare-root transplant sweet potato slip in the pockets of the setter, which then plants each plant. In Southeast Missouri, sweet potatoes are planted beginning the last week of May to early June and harvested in September and October. When they are ready to be harvested, they mow the vines, clipping the potato from the plant, which helps the skin toughen, before using a plow to dig them. To see if they are ready to be dug, Hodge and Lawrence do test digs using pitchforks. Sweet potatoes are stored at 60 degrees with 55% humidity.

A potato is a storage stem, and a sweet potato is a storage root. Lawrence says potatoes are a high-yielding crop, and they typically produce approximately 27,000 pounds of sweet potatoes from one acre and 17,000 pounds of Irish potatoes from one acre, which he describes as “a lot of carbs.”

It’s not always easy to grow potatoes without chemicals; Hodge says the larvae of Colorado potato beetles found in this region can strip a potato crop. Once the crop makes it through the challenges and has been harvested, though, it’s ready for market.

This is Lawrence’s favorite part of the process.

“I like the agronomy side, but I really enjoy the marketing side most,” Lawrence says. “I like going to market and seeing people once a week, especially when they’re repeat customers. … It’s fun.”

Having something that is his that he is able to do with his dad is the most meaningful part of the farm to Hodge. He and his fiancée Jenna have a baby on the way, and he says farming is something he hopes he and his children will do together someday, too.

“It just keeps you from forgetting where you came from or what it takes to make all this happen,” Hodge says. “It is worth growing just for occasionally you get a kid involved down here that just didn’t [know how food is grown, and they say], ‘Wow, this is what it takes to do this.’”