Family Goertz

Growing information

The sweet potato plants are planted with a plastic cover. This is needed to protect them from the cold and from weeds. It’s a manual process and therefore very labour-intensive. The plants are then constantly monitored to ensure they get enough water and weeds don’t get a chance to grow. Weed control is done without any pesticides. The seasonal workers who are already on the farm during the asparagus season also help with weeding.

The busiest time is in August, when the sweet potatoes are harvested. They can be stored all year round thanks to a process called curing. This means that after washing, the sweet potatoes are stored for one week at 30°C so that small harvest wounds can heal naturally. After that, they are stored for another week at 13°C.

Franc gets help from his family and 15 seasonal workers to harvest, sort and pack the sweet potatoes. They are packed in recyclable packaging.

Why choose sweet potatoes?

Franc has been specialising in growing asparagus for several years. After ten years, an asparagus field is ‘worn out’. If you keep growing asparagus there, the quality will never be top-notch again. Sweet potatoes, however, can be grown on these ‘old’ fields.

In 2019, the family visited some sweet potato farmers in the USA. They were instantly enthusiastic.

Anecdote

When the family was planting their sweet potato plants, the neighbours came over to have a look. They didn’t believe it was sweet potatoes, but thought it was strawberries. A ‘regular’ potato plant looks completely different, without plastic cover and so on. The way regular potatoes and sweet potatoes are harvested is very different too.

Looking ahead

Franc is very ambitious and wants to conquer the market with sweet potatoes. He’s noticed that typical sweet potato fans tend to be younger. His goal is to get people of all generations to discover the product in the near future.