Seed potato farming in the Flathead started in the early 1920s. It thrived for decades, led by some of the area’s most well-known farm families — the Smalls, Koenigs, Logans, Van Akens and others — but one by one the farms disappeared. Some farmers retired with no family members available or willing to carry on the operation.

Land developers made offers to other seed potato farmers that were simply too good to pass up. It’s well-known in the Flathead that it’s much more lucrative to grow houses than crops.

The Streich family came to that same crossroad about a decade ago when the tough choice was upon them: either quit farming or relocate their entire operation. The land where Home Depot and other commercial development now is located was once prime land where the Streichs grew seed potatoes.

The family bet on the future and moved the operation from the West Valley to the rich Creston farmland on the east side of the valley.

Harvest is now underway on 300 acres and the new warehouses are being filled to the brim with seed potatoes that will be stored until they’re shipped out next spring to farmers in Washington. Seed potatoes are tubers grown for their buds, which are used to start new plants.

Steve Streich estimated this year’s harvest at about 100,000 hundred weight (potatoes are measured by the hundred weight) or 10 million pounds.

“They’re nice quality compared to last year,” Steve said.

Since potatoes can be grown on acreage only once every three years, other crops such as canola, wheat and barley are brought into the crop rotation, but potatoes are grown on 300 rotating acres annually.

Expanding the farm really isn’t feasible.

“Land is expensive here,” he said. “You can’t expand because the ground won’t pay for itself.”

That means the Streichs have to maximize their production. To that end there are many procedures to ensure a disease-free crop, such as specialized testing and roguing the fields.

The warehouses provide climate-controlled storage that keeps the potatoes at 37 degrees.

“They’re 55 degrees now, so it takes a long time to get them to 37,” Steve said.

Humidity controls and an aeration system assure the 18-foot-deep piles of potatoes are kept in premium condition.

As with any farming operation, the weather can be either friend or foe. Frost is helpful because it kills the vines prior to harvest. But if the temperature drops below 20 degrees for too long it freezes the tubers, creating a perilous condition for the crop.

“That happens every once in a while,” Steve said.

Hail can be bad, too, depending on the time of year. If it comes early enough the potato plants can recover.

Seed potato farming has been a part of the Streich family for three generations. Steve’s father, Orrin Streich, grew potatoes south of Fargo, North Dakota, after World War II and kept it up with smaller acreage when he moved to the Kalispell area in 1975. The idea was for Orrin to retire in the Flathead, but his hobby farm here gradually expanded.

Steve joined his father full time in 1987 after he graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, with an accounting degree.

Steve and his wife Jill bought the farm from Orrin in the early 1990s. They have three children, and son Paul is now working alongside his father. “He’s helping us get into the modern world,” Steve said.

While certified seed potato production is still part of the farm economy in neighboring Lake County, the Streichs’ lone operation in the Flathead has drawn attention from two national potato magazines. Last November Potato Grower featured the father-son operation in an article called “The Isolationist” that talked about the Streichs’ status as the last seed potato grower.

Potato Country magazine featured the Streichs in 2008 not long after they relocated their farm to the Creston area.

It was a good move, Steve reflected, and one that will secure the family’s livelihood for years to come.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.