Bethel farmer expands with potatoes

Published on February 17th, 2010

By ALEX DEMARBAN

What might be the only commercial farm in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta will expand this summer, despite early worries that the new potato field near the airport would increase the threat of bird strikes.

To prepare the field for farming, Bethel resident Tim Meyers scraped away two acres of frozen tundra near the airport on state-owned land last summer, tilling the earth underneath.

His handiwork lies prominently near the airport, visible from the main road into town as undulating rows beneath snow.

With a combination of fish-based fertilizer (the local jail donated mounds of salmon guts last summer), and a handmade potato planter and harvester, Meyers hopes to churn out 20,000 pounds of organic spuds this summer.

That's just the beginning for the big dreamer.

"I'm hoping that within two or three years I'm going to be able to produce a large percentage of the food that's consumed out here," he said.

Over time, Meyers wants to plant potatoes on eight acres of the state-owned land.

He's applying for wetlands permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state's Coastal Management Program.

They'll be approved, he said.

Mary Romero, a Corps project manager who often handles permitting requests in the region, said Meyers Farm is likely the only commercial farm in the Western Alaska's wetlands-rich delta.

It's perfect for the remote area. Store vegetables are expensive and unreliable, and residents pay some of the nation's highest gasoline and heating oil prices.

The tall, chatty Meyers is a man on a mission: His inventions aim to make life affordable in the heavily dependent region.

"We can't count on the federal government taking care of us forever," he said. "If they do start tightening up, we're going to be one of the first ones cut off the fat list."

A former homebuilder, he's welded together giant furnaces to heat warehouses with discarded cardboard. He and his family live in the house he built partially underground to ward off winter chills, with heat diverted from an attached greenhouse.

And you'll rarely find store products in his pantry. The vegetables he grows are supplemented with wild-caught moose and salmon.

"My family decided several years ago, if it has an ingredients label, don't eat it," he said. "Not with all these chemicals and toxins they put in our food."

Recent planting

In recent weeks, despite frigid temperatures above ground, he's planted celery, artichokes, leeks, onions and other slow-growers in an underground growing facility.

Two years ago, he began selling the organic bounty on his 3.5-acre farm at $1 per pound, offering better prices than the stores' shipped-in produce.

He says his is tastier and healthier -- pesticide-free because bugs aren't a problem and blessed with extra sugar to protect against chilly nights.

Last fall, he launched a Web site -- www.meyersfarm.net -- to bring in business from outside the city of 5,600.

These days, spuds hog much of his enormous energy.

"They're nutritious, good for you and easy to grow and store," he said. "Ireland lived on it for generations."

Last summer, Meyers said he had to scale back his plans after the state Department of Transportation worried that the farm -- within 1,000 feet of the runways -- might attract birds that threatened planes, he said.

A state official who's worked on the project could not be reached.

For now, he's planning to operate on just two acres, producing such potatoes as Yukon Golds, French Fingerlings and Russets.

With an old steel wagon wheel he found at a friend's house, he's created a large green planter towable by tractor. It pokes holes in the earth and spreads fish fertilizer, allowing for fast planting.

He intends to put 20,000 seeds in the ground this May.

Then, it will only be a matter of time before the delta's rich soil does its work.

"If you put seeds and plants in ground around here, stuff really grows," he said.