Big Dig

Philipstown farm hosts sweet-potato harvest

When Stacey Farley put out a call online in July for volunteers to harvest a crop of sweet potatoes for food pantries, she hoped to recruit, at best, 120 people.  

Instead, she had to close the sign-up form almost immediately. “We could have gotten 500 volunteers,” said Farley, who runs Davoren Farm on Route 9D in Philipstown with her husband, Peter Davoren. 

On Saturday (Oct. 5), a full contingent of 120 volunteers showed up to dig potatoes from a town-owned plot across Route 403 from the Desmond-Fish Public Library in Garrison. The harvest weighed 20,008 pounds, or 10 tons, the equivalent of four Dodge Ram pickups.

The 6-acre Davoren Farm operates on land leased from Boscobel Gardens and Museum. It yields an abundance of organic vegetables, including corn, potatoes, kale, eggplant, okra and leeks, as well as tomatoes, peppers, arugula, cantaloupe, watermelon and peppers. 

The produce is distributed to food pantries that serve residents in Philipstown, Beacon, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, Fishkill, Wappinger, Peekskill and Verplanck. 

“We also grow sunflowers for the pantries because we believe in the power of beauty,” Farley said.

Farley said Davoren Farm has a second mission to “grow and train” farmers. Three to six young farmers-in-training work there, depending on the season. “At the end of last season, we realized we could do so much more if we had more land,” she said.

In April, the couple asked Philipstown Supervisor John Van Tassel if the municipality had surplus land they could farm. The Town Board quickly approved the use of a parcel on Route 403, which Farley said had not been farmed in at least 60 years. The town acquired the 10.8-acre property in 2017 as a gift from the Scenic Hudson Land Trust and the Open Space Institute.

Ten thousand organic “slips,” or stem cuttings, from Sprout Mountain Farm in Georgia were planted over an acre in June. About 120 days later, it was time to harvest the four varieties.  

“We decided on sweet potatoes because they’re so nutritious and delicious,” said Davoren. “If you produce 20,000 pounds and each person consumes a pound, you’ve helped to feed 20,000 people.”  

Sweet potatoes are marketed as a “superfood” because they provide vitamins A, C and B6, minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium, and fiber and antioxidants.

Photos by Ross Corsair

Food insecurity is part of life in every county in the country. According to the United Way, about 1 in 3 residents of the Highlands live paycheck-to-paycheck, one hardship away from no longer being able to cover necessities such as food, perhaps in the short-term, perhaps longer.

“Food insecurity is a national crisis — there’s no reason for kids to go to school without breakfast,” Farley said. “We want people to know about the incredible work food pantries do.”

In addition to the local pantries that Davoren Farm regularly supports, the Oct. 5 harvest will be shared with a dozen more, including the Hudson Valley Regional Food Bank and outlets in Rockland County, Highland Falls, Brewster, Larchmont and Mamaroneck. 

Cynthia Knox, the CEO of Caring for the Hungry and Homeless of Peekskill, helped at the dig. “Most of us aren’t impacted by food insecurity; it’s not visible until you drive past a food pantry line,” she said. “But people are using food pantries so they can use their wages to keep their family housed.”

Facts About Sweet Potatoes

There are more than 400 varieties of Ipomoea batatas, including those with orange, red, yellow and purple skin.

They are not yams, which have white skin that is difficult to peel.

They’re part of the morning glory family; regular potatoes belong to the nightshade family.

They originated in what is now Ecuador at least 10,000 years ago.

They can be fermented to make vodka or beer.

According to Guinness World Records, the heaviest sweet potato, grown in Spain in 2004, weighed 81 pounds and 9 ounces.

Their starch is used in biodegradable plastics.

They require less water and fertilizer than rice, wheat or corn.

They are used as ground cover in orchards and vineyards to control erosion and improve soil health.

China produces 46.6 million tonsannually, or 80 percent of world output; U.S. production is 1.2 million tons.

The small army of harvest volunteers included recruits from New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York City. Nine people with a Philipstown connection flew in from Kentucky. 

There was enough digging, collecting, transporting, weighing, bagging and tagging to keep the crew busy for about five hours. The volunteers took a break midway through the day to watch Garrison resident Dean Anderson demonstrate his restored 1948 John Deere potato digger. But the bulk of the work was done on hands and knees.

Many volunteers had connections to Davoren and Farley. Imani Cruz, who lives in Brooklyn, volunteered in part because “Stacey is my friend’s roommate’s mom.” Don Sonnenborn, 80, from Scarsdale, has known the family for years. “I haven’t been going to the gym recently,” he said. “I hope it’s good exercise.”

“Everyone worked hard, right to the end,” Farley said. “The day was completely joyful; it was all about community and what can be done when we work together. We hope to be a model and see this all around the country, and we’d surely help other communities figure out how to grow food on public land.”

Ivy Chio, a resident of New York City, won the informal contest for digging up the biggest spud, which weighed 5 pounds and 12 ounces. “She was very proud,” Farley said.

For more on food insecurity, see The Current’s series, Hunger in the Highlands. Stacey Farley is a member of the advisory board of Highlands Current Inc., which publishes this paper.