Stockton Record agricultural writer Reid Fujii wrote an entertaining piece on 2008's designation as the International Year of the Potato. While acknowledging that San Joaquin County isn't generally thought of as a potato capital, county farmers cultivate 2,000 to 3,000 acres of potatoes a year, generating a harvest worth an estimated $22.7 million in 2006, according to the story.
"That would put potatoes at No. 3 in terms of vegetable crops in the county, behind tomatoes and asparagus," Fujii quoted Brenna Aegerter, UC Cooperative Extension vegetable crop farm advisor in San Joaquin County. "There's not a lot of acreage, but it's pretty valuable."
Aegerter said potatoes display purple blooms in the spring, but because they are grown away from major highways, remain mostly unseen.
"It's not too often you get to see potato fields," she is quoted. "They're beautiful when they bloom."
