It’s a cold, gray, wet mid-October morning in upstate New York, but the dreary weather doesn’t dampen the mood a bit at Tucker Farms.
“It’s raining and about 37 degrees; they’re talking snow this weekend,” says Tom Tucker in a tone that suggests waiting on the weather is of no more consequence than waiting at the Wendy’s drive-through. “We still have a little bit of harvest left and it’s been miserable weather, but we’ll get it finished.”
That come-what-may attitude encapsulates what the Tucker family stands for, and it’s what has kept them on the same land for a century and a half.
Working Hard
“My father, Donald, always worked form sunup to sundown,” says Tom Tucker. “He’s 89 now, but he still rules the roost. I remember asking him in high school why he wanted to be a farmer, and he said it’s because you get to do what you want on the days you want, depending on Mother Nature.”
The Tuckers have been farming near the hamlet of Gabriels, N.Y., on the north slope of the Adirondack Mountains, since 1864. Brothers Tom, Steve and Dick Tucker represent the fifth generation on the 400-acre farm. For most of the farm’s existence, the Tuckers have grown potatoes on a three-year rotation with grains such as oats, rye and buckwheat. Different challenges have faced the farm and family throughout the decades, but the Tuckers have always managed to adapt and come out on top.
As an example, Steve Tucker identifies the 1997 closure of Frito-Lay’s chip plant in Florida as one hurdle. At the time, a good chunk of the Tuckers’ income came from selling seed potatoes to commercial growers in Florida. When the Frito-Lay plant closed, many of those Florida growers were forced to close their doors. Some 1,300 miles to the north, Tucker Farms felt the impact as well.
“We lost those farms as customers, and that was about half our crop,” says Steve. “We didn’t have any other chip farmers to sell to.”
Working Smart
So the Tuckers went back to the drawing board to come up with new ways to remain profitable. The decision was made to downsize the potato operation and get into the specialty market. “We’re making more money per acre now,” says Steve. “There were some doubts when our Florida customers went out of business, but we’re still here.”
Today, potatoes only grow on about 60 acres of Tucker ground, but that grounds yields 14 varieties. The Tuckers were even granted the privilege of naming the Adirondack Red and Adirondack Blue cultivars because of their cooperative work with plant breeders at Cornell University in developing the varieties.
With the diversification in product has come a diversification in Tucker Farms’ customer base. While they still supply seed for commercial growers (many of whom are indeed looking for new and exciting varieties), the Tuckers now sell seed from their website to home and market gardeners across the United States in packages ranging in size from 24 ounces to 50 pounds. The Tuckers have also cultivated solid relationships with chefs at about a dozen high-end restaurants in the nearby resort town of Lake Placid, as well as with chef instructors in the culinary arts program at neighboring Paul Smith’s College.
“We’ve been working with [plant breeder] Walter De Jong at Cornell,” says Steve. “When new varieties come out, we buy a small lot of them and test-market them with the restaurants and the college, and they tell us if they’re satisfactory or not.
“It helps a lot to meet the people who are actually cooking your product.”
Agritourism has also played a key role at Tucker Farms in recent years. They have you-pick strawberry and pumpkin patches, but the big draw is the Great Adirondack Corn Maze, which featured a Mr. Potato Head themed pattern for the 2015 season. The Tuckers see it as a chance to give folks a firsthand look at the merits of the ag-based lifestyle they enjoy.
“People will drive two hours to go through the maze,” says Tom. “This is actual involvement where families participate as a team to do something and work together, and there are very few things left in our society that provide that for families.”
It’s All Good
The weather man was right: It did snow that weekend in late October, further delaying the potato harvest at Tucker Farms. But all was eventually safely gathered in, and the Tucker family remains happy and thankful to be doing what they do.
“It’s a pretty enjoyable way of life,” says Tom. “It’s definitely a way of life, not just a job.”