What is it about Farmer Doug’s Gourmet Potatoes?

I have a confession to make. If you asked me a week ago, I would have told you that a potato is a potato is a potato. Sure, I knew there are varieties better suited to baking and others to mashing, but overall, I never considered that just where you source your potato could make a drastic difference. Tomatoes? Sure. But Potatoes…

How wrong I was.

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Doug and Elizabeth Batt, the husband and wife team behind Farmer Doug’s Gourmet Potatoes. Regulars to the districts farmer’s markets will know them well, but with ongoing restrictions on social gatherings set to continue, Doug and Elizabeth have decided to open the gates of their Browns Creek farm in order to sell their plants and produce.

“I was 76 I think when I stopped work,” said Doug, now 84, who spent his career as an agronomist, advising famers from Victoria all the way to Charters Tower and the Atherton Tablelands.

“I had a contract for a company in Sydney to handle all their agricultural product, which was a snack food company and the base of it was potatoes. So, I used to contract growers, advise growers, ship their product to Sydney on order 12 months of a year. The trucks were not supposed to be late and the potatoes had to be to specification… that was essentially what I did.”

But, when he finally made the decision to retire from his consultancy business, a friend of Doug’s had something to say about it.

“I had a friend in Victoria who said, ‘you can't retire!’ He said, ‘I'm sending you some potatoes, you take them to the markets and see what happens. So I did,” said Doug.

“Elizabeth had an on-farm nursery and we used to go to the markets with her plants, I started at Bathurst and I was giving them away! I went back next month and they said, ‘Well, where are they? We're here to buy your potatoes. So, I had to then start growing myself… and instead of just doing two or three markets we wound up doing a total of eight per month and it developed from there. So now at the ripe old age of 84, I've still got to work!”

Not that the works seems to be doing Doug any harm.

“My doctor told me many years ago, she said to me, just keep on doing what you're doing and don't stop. I said that will do,” said Doug.

Doug has two 30 metre by 6.5 metre hot houses he’s built on his 80-acre farm in order to plant an early crop that he can dig up in time for Christmas. He then programs plants so that he is digging up fresh potatoes all the way through to April.

“Unfortunately or fortunately — I haven’t figured it out yet! — I don't get a holiday; my customers want their potatoes!” he said.

“We always declared we wouldn't open on the farm, but here we are! As of the weekend we will be open Saturday and Sunday 9 ‘til 4 or if they wish to ring through the week by appointment.”

As well as potatoes and other fresh produce grown in Doug’s hothouses, Elizabeth has a range of garden plants for sale – plants she propagates herself and are well suited to our local climate.

Now, the potato varieties Doug sells are not what you will find in your local supermarket, and I can personally attest that they are well worth travelling for.

“These potatoes are what's used in the top restaurants in Melbourne, because my friend is a plant breeder and he breeds most of these. So I buy my seed off him and grow them here,” said Doug, who also supplies local restaurants including Tonic, Charred and Sister Rock.

“The Jacklyn, that’s the one the restaurants like, it has a yellow flesh and that’s for roasting, baking, potato bake, chips, wedges and gnocchi,” said Doug.

“Then there’s the White Star. A lot of people still like their white potatoes, so this is an improved 13 Sebago; it has been bred to improve on the Sebago’s characteristics.

“Now we come to Otway Gold, that's a cream flesh and basically it is like a Dutch Cream although my customers tell me you don't eat Dutch Cream again after you've eaten Otway Gold! That is particularly good for mashing, but it is an all-rounder it will do the lot, in fact it makes beautiful chips as well!”

Doug also grows two visually striking Peruvian potato varieties: the purple-fleshed Midnight Pearl and pink Crimson Pearl.

“The Midnight Pearl; you can bake, boil it, mash it, chip it — do whatever! Frighten the devil out of people by putting it the plate. It's full of alkaloids it has more alkaloids than blueberries,” he said.

“We have limited supplies of Crimson Pearl. It is the same and goes extra well in salads or just to brighten up a plate.

You will find Farmer Doug’s delicious potatoes at 1008 Browns Creek Road, Browns Creek, about a 30-minute drive from Orange. Doug and Elizabeth will be open for business Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 4pm or other days by appointment. Call 0428234602