Blog - Thompson Potato Farm - Thompson Potato Farm

Potatoes Do What?!

3/17/2023

This is a photo of a coaster that I received as a Christmas gift this year. I immediately began thinking of all the possible uses for the humble potato.

We all know potatoes are turned into North American’s most beloved foods: fries and chips! We also know potatoes can be mashed, baked and boiled; they can be steamed, fried and turned into a salad; they can be cooked on the BBQ and on the campfire. But this coaster hints towards all the other uses of this most versatile vegetable.

Potatoes can be used to make vodka, create original craft stamps and generate power. You can use potatoes to reduce fogging on your glasses, remove rust from your household and garden tools and clean silverware. Potatoes are used in first aid to soothe burns, in beauty to help get rid of dark circles under your eyes and in personal hygiene when they are turned into soap.

So what are you waiting for?! Grab a bag of spuds from your local grocery store and start investigating the wonders of the potato. If you would like to see more fun and interesting facts about potatoes you can visit “Spud Smarts – About Potatoes.”

International Potato Day

8/19/2022

Today is International Potato Day! There are so many ways to cook this versatile vegetable. We love our potatoes mashed, baked, grilled, as a potato salad or turned into poutine. What’s your favourite potato dish?

You can visit “Spud Smarts – About Cooking Potatoes” to get the recipes for the dishes featured in this blog. There are many more unique potato recipes available at this link so why not get cooking? Bon Appétit!

Sweet Corn Begins

7/22/2022

And just like that it’s sweet corn season! This weekend we will be opening our sweet corn stand with Norfolk County corn while we wait for our own crop to be ready. We also have baskets of new potatoes ready and waiting for you. Enjoy our fresh and local produce while it’s in season. You can visit “At The Door” for more information about our hours and location.

Official Start of Summer

7/3/2022

School’s out, Canada Day has passed and cottages are open. This can only mean that summer has officially kicked off. And that leads to one thing here at the farm. The season for new potatoes is upon us!

RJ and myself dug these beauties last night. All they needed was a quick rinse and then they were dropped into the pot. We dotted them with butter and gobbled them up. Very soon we will dust off the harvester and you will be able to purchase them at the farm door. You can visit “Tater Tales Grilled New Potatoes” for further cooking inspirations for our new white potatoes.

Busy Busy Week!

3/28/2021

The packing shed is crammed 50lb bags of potatoes ready for delivery. This is one of three rows of potatoes that are being delivered on Monday. All week the grading line goes full tilt to keep up with orders from restaurants that are planning for one of their busiest days of the year this Friday. Where are you getting your fish & chips from?! You can visit “Chip Butty Recipe” for a fun and very different recipe involving fresh cut fries.

Potato Safehouse

2/28/2020

Winter has returned with a real vengeance here in Southern Ontario. The intense snowfall and howling winds cannot touch our potatoes that are safely housed in our potato storages. The photo above shows one of our potato storages that are usually filled to capacity after the fall harvest. Over the winter we carefully maintain and monitor temperature and humidity levels to preserve the potatoes until we are ready to pack them for our customers. To have a closer look at the inside of one of our storages you can visit “A Rare Occurrence.”

What’s Growing?

7/3/2019

The past month found us struggling with intense Internet and Wi-Fi issues here at the farm (which is something most of you can probably relate to!) Many frustrating issues have been completely resolved and I am back on track to keep you interested and informed about what’s going on here at the farm. This blog is simply called “What’s Growing.” This past weekend we had beautiful weather and all our crops benefited from it. The potatoes are just coming into flower which means tiny spuds are forming underground. The sweet corn seems to be recovering from a rather rocky start with the cold, wet spring we had. The pumpkins and squash have been planted and are forming some really nice looking seedlings. And the winter wheat is tall and beautiful. To have a look at what was growing at our farm two years ago you can visit “Tater Tales July 18th What’s Growing.”

East Gwillimbury Farm To Fork Tour

9/27/2018

With the East Gwillimbury Farm To Fork Tour just two days away I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight why this tour is different from just popping into our farm to purchase produce. First and foremost it’s your opportunity to meet me and put a face to a name! We have worked hard to create an event that everyone of all ages can walk away from feeling they had a great visit, learned something new and had a fun time at our farm.

When you purchase a wristband and join the tour we are offering you one 10lb bag of potatoes for just $2.00! You can visit our one day special “Select Your Own Vegetables” section to pick our vegetables that complement my brand new recipe “Roasted Root Vegetables.” We have created a new trivia game based on photos of animals taken around the farm called “Are You Smarter Than A Potato Farmer” that is guaranteed to delight you. New for children under 12 is a free craft where they can create their own Thanksgiving table centerpiece using a pumpkin. Back by popular demand we also have for the kids: a potato dig, free giant colouring posters and nature trivia boards.

And of course our farm fresh produce will be available for purchase for your perfect Thanksgiving dinner including our new line of pumpkins and squash. From local farmers we also have onions, turnips, field tomatoes, cabbages and much more. There are many other activities going on at our farm on Saturday beyond the items I have outlined above, but if I told you everything that would ruin the surprise! Hope to meet you this weekend! To learn more about the tour and to buy tickets you can visit http://experienceeg.ca/farm-to-fork/ For our location, hours of operation and directions to the farm you can visit "Contact Us."

Packing New Potatoes

8/28/2018

This video clip is of the tail end of our grading line. Today we are packing new white potatoes that have already been washed and graded. They are now sorted into two different packing lines. The line closest to the front holds our medium white potatoes that are mainly packed in 10lb bags for grocery stores and for sale at the farm door. The line at the far back shows our large white potatoes packed in 50lb bags for restaurant delivery and wholesale at the Ontario Food Terminal. To learn more about grading potatoes you can visit “What’s A #1 Potato Anyway?”

New Potatoes

7/6/2018

Early yesterday morning I headed out to the back field to dig up some new potatoes for dinner. The fields were gorgeous with the sun sparkling on the dewy plants. The potato plants are tall, healthy and very green. They are in full flower which means they are growing tubers that are maturing into potatoes. You can see all the new potatoes attached to the plant I pulled up, as well as the seed potato which is the dark brown potato in the middle of the cluster. For all kinds of interesting facts about potatoes you can visit “Spud Smarts – About Potatoes.”