Two companies in Maine offer unusual varieties of potatoes

A friend chided me for recently recommending an organically grown seed potato company in Idaho when there are two Maine companies offering many, though not as many, unusual tater varieties.

Before correcting the omission, let me encourage all readers of this column to criticize any error or oversight they detect — gently, if possible. I’m not as perfect as I expect to be in a year or two, and if I get another column out of the experience of being wrong, I can’t complain about that now, can I?

Moose Tubers (P.O. Box 520, Waterville 04903) is in its 14th year offering some 30 varieties of potatoes, common and uncommon. They also list onion, shallot and Jerusalem artichoke sets as well as a good selection of gladioli, dahlias and perennials (presumably bareroot).

Potatoes (note the “e,” that was an easy mistake for Mr. Quail to have made) are divided into early, mid-season, late and fingerling varieties. The last will be unfamiliar to many, but they are simply small, finger-shaped tubers produced in considerable abundance. If you hate peeling spuds as much as I do, then why grow fingerlings with their high skin-to-flesh ratio? Well, new fingerlings dug in mid- to late summer have such thin skins they don’t require peeling, and they make great potato salad.

Not all Moose tubers are organically grown; those that are are so indicated. All the seed offerings are Maine certified for disease freedom. Each variety is well described as to eating and keeping quality as well as disease resistance.

Woodprairie Farm (RR 1, Box 164, Bridgewater 04735-9989) is an organic potato outfit with a real flair for marketing. They grow 15 varieties of spuds and offer them as gift boxes and samplers, so you can actually taste a new variety before deciding whether to grow it. Of, if you’re not into gardening, you can join their potato sampler-of-the-month club and work your way through all the different varieties.

I have long felt that the lowly potato might be worth building a religion around (the temple would be a tubernacle, adherants might practice transcendental spuditation, and the holy trinity? Baked, French-fried and mashed, of course). At Woodprairie Farm, they seem to be on the same wavelength, offering a lot of potato accessories like potato baskets, barrels, burlap bags, recipe books and postcards.

So learn from my mistake. If you’re thinking of ordering seed potatoes through the mail, you can keep your business in Maine if that’s part of your personal religion.

Incidentally, another omission I am guilty of is not mentioning Fedco Seeds, which is sort of the umbrella company for Moose Tubers and shares its address. This co-op organization offers an extra-ordinary array of seeds and garden accessories in one list, trees and shrubs in another and fall bulbs in a third. Their stated aim is to provide the best new and old varieties at the best price with the best service. And speaking of service, Fedco has a March 4 deadline for spring orders (Moose Tubers shares this deadline), so don’t put off sending for a catalog.

Michael Zuck of Bangor is a horticulturist and the NEWS garden columnist. Send inquiries to him at 2106 Essex St., Bangor, Maine 04401.