Mario Bessette, your local organic potato grower

Potato, vegetable of the hut and the castle.
- Louis Cussy

Local organic potatoes all year round
Mario Bessette, who obtained his certification from Écocert 13 years ago, has grown organic potatoes since the beginning of the 80s. He and his wife Danielle cultivate more than 10 acres of potatoes (and even more for cereals) on their family farm in the Laurentians. They also have a cold-storage warehouse to keep their products 52 weeks a year. Thanks to Mario, we have amazing local organic potatoes all year round! What would we do without him?

Meet Mario

Why organic?
Mario explained why he's chosen to grow organically for more than three decades: "It was more or less a matter of logic, after reading so much about it–how to feed the soil. I prefer to play with the living things rather than chemical things."

Mario loved large outdoor spaces. As a kid, he witnessed his mother growing potatoes with relative ease. "It's a bit more complicated on a large scale!" he explained, but "conventional potatoes contain so many chemical fertilizers–it's about one bag of fertilizer for one bag of potatoes, which doesn't even include herbicides and fungicides." Mario thought it was important to go the organic route. "It is not a religion but it is important for our health."

Mario and Lufa Farms cross paths
At the beginning of our adventure, a little over two years ago, Mohamed met with Mario's sister in Labelle, who had been involved with organic CSAs for a while. Following this meeting, Mohamed and Kurt (a Lufa Farms co-founder) visited Mario's farm and introduced his potatoes to the baskets.

A unique distribution channel
Mario likes to have conversations with Mohamed and Pascal, who's in charge of working with our partner farms. "We discuss different things and ways we can improve. We get along well, and talk about which varieties customers like." In 2012, we began selling more than 50% of Mario's annual potato prooduction. In the coming year, 100% of Mario's potatoes will be sold through our baskets.

Cherishing diversity: red, blue, white, yellow, pink
We're working with Mario on introducing a dozen varieties of potatoes in the coming year: different varieties you'll discover through the seasons. Mario loves trying new varieties, and this fall we hope to see the first batch of smooth pink potatos–an early variety with a pink skin that is often associated with November's celebration of the fight against cancer. He was hoping to grow potatoes with red flesh, but that will have to wait another year. That said, we're incredibly excited about some blue potatoes that he's growing. "This is a fancy potato," Mario told us, "but its special flavor and color blend very well with Chieftains in a potato salad."

What's the potato expert's favorite potato?
Mario loves the Yukon Gold for its taste. He makes and exception for potato salad, though, in which case it's the Chieftain because it keeps its shape.



Did you know? A potato contains...

  • more protein than a glass of milk
  • more iron than a bowl of fresh spinach
  • 28% of your daily value of vitamin C
  • fewer calories than a serving of white rice
  • more fiber than a bowl of oatmeal

Storing your potatoes
Dos:

  • Keep them in darkness: a paper bag works quite well
  • Add an apple: lodging an apple in the middle of your potatoes prevents them from sprouting due to the apple's ethylene content

Don'ts:

  • Storing in plastic bag
  • Storing alongside onions: though they're often cooked together, storing onions and potatoes side by side often causes both of them to sprout fastor

Cooking

  • Don't delay after peeling them.
  • Keep the skins on if possible, since they're a great source of vitamins and minerals.
  • Chop larger potatoes up and cook potatoes of the same size to ensure consistnet doneness.
  • Oven-baking with the skin on is the healthiest option by far, and even more so if you swap our butter for plain yogurt and fresh herbs.

A few of Mario's potatoes...

Red Chieftan potatoes
Ideal for BBQ and fries

White Potatoes
Ideal when boiled, baked, or fried

Yellow Potato
Ideal for purees

Source: The official website of Quebec potatoes

...and one recipe for the road.

Source: Épatante patate

Source: Recipe and photo from A Thought for Food

Ferme Danielle Pilon et Mario Bessette
2846, route 117
Laurentians, Quebec
J0T 1M0