A potato packing facility that had just closed last spring has been purchased and re-opened as a new growing-packing-shipping operation in Washington state’s Skagit Valley.
Three veteran potato growers in the Skagit Valley got together last spring and bought Sterling Hill LLC, Burlington, Wash. It has recently started shipping its first potatoes.
Leading the new enterprise are brothers Jim and Norm Nelson Jr. and Tony Wisdom. The Nelsons had run Sterling Hill Potatoes, a growing operation, for 12 years after having been growers with their father, Norm Sr., at Norm Nelson Inc., in Burlington.
Wisdom had managed Country Cousins Inc., a growing arm of Valley Pride Sales Inc. of Mount Vernon, Wash., for 10 years.
The three started the new company March 1, when Mark, Kent and Tim Knutzen closed Puget Sound Potato and sold them the company’s packing and equipment storage facilities and its 40-acre site for an undisclosed sum, Wisdom said Aug. 28.
Country Cousins had been packing the Nelsons’ potatoes before this year, so it was an easy transition, Wisdom said.
Sterling Hill LLC, which employs about 30 workers, grows, packs and ships red, yellow and white potatoes, plus specialty varieties at customer request.
Skagit Valley potatoes typically ship from late August through early June.