Potato farmers pull late night hours to beat Wednesday’s freeze

Local potato farmers and their families work late into the night to save their crop from an upcoming freeze.

This new urgency comes as forecasters predict Wednesday night into Thursday morning to drop below freezing and into the teens. Local farmer Stephanie Michelson tells us potatoes become unsellable if they are frostbitten.

Extra workers have been called into fields and are pulling long hours to get the potatoes out of the ground. The Idaho Potato Commission says farms have reported 10 to 15% of their crop is still unharvested.

Farmers pushed back harvest about 10 days to get some size on the spuds.

Farmers are to stop harvesting Wednesday night and if potatoes survive into Thursday, they can be stored in the cellars.

If not, farmers are told to leave them in the field.

KIFI 2019