{"id":330226,"date":"2026-08-26T15:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330226\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T15:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:30:18","slug":"meet-the-farmer-supplying-the-state-fair-with-n-y-potatoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330226\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the farmer supplying the State Fair with N.Y. potatoes"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time, the New York State Fair will feature potatoes grown in Wayne County in the staple potato booth. The potatoes are produced by 26-year-old Garrett Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up on a potato farm, so that\u2019s what I\u2019ve known,\u201d Williams said. \u201cMy first memories were growing a vegetable in a garden.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite growing up in the business, Williams began his own production in 2022 on 300 acres of land outside of Cato. He will provide about 40,000 pounds of potatoes for the booth this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little nerve-wracking, but it feels good. It\u2019s exciting,\u201d Williams said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Williams in one of his fields. (Emily Kenny\/Spectrum News 1)<\/p>\n

New York Commissioner of Agriculture Richard Ball said it is a chance to show fairgoers where their food comes from. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York grows about 200,000 acres of potatoes and if we\u2019re going to connect the dots between fairgoers, New Yorkers and our farmers, let\u2019s start with New York potatoes,\u201d Ball said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got 30,000 farmers to connect with the next generations and let them see that [agriculture] is a viable way of making a living in New York state.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

The cost of the potatoes will remain at $1 each and the state has partnered with Tully\u2019s Good Times to operate the booth. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Williams began his harvest last week, but the processing of growing the potato is fairly straight forward, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of Williams’ potatoes from the booth in the horticulture building. (Emily Kenny\/Spectrum News 1)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll actually plant a potato and then this will grow the plant, and it\u2019ll shoot more tubers off. We call a potato a tuber of the plant and then it will grow another set, so we buy seed from other potato growers because they\u2019re a lower generation, then we\u2019ll plant their potatoes to grow our potatoes. And that\u2019s all there is to it,\u201d Williams said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said the key with potatoes is to make sure the soil has good drainage, particularly in New York state because of the amount of rainfall. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe better drainage you have, the better because they need moisture. But they do not like excessive moisture,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He grows 12 varieties of potatoes and will supply Russett potatoes to the New York State Fair. But like many farmers, Williams is no stranger to the challenges that come with raising crops. One of his fields of Russet potatoes flooded this year, forcing him to replant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Salt potatoes being harvested on Friday which are now being served at the State Fair. (Emily Kenny\/Spectrum News 1)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou fight different battles. You think you got it figured out, but then something dies on you. You get some disease and it goes backwards and you think you aren\u2019t going to get a good crop and then you come out and see something you did, you tried to fight it, and you saw it worked and it\u2019s like \u2018whoa, I do know what I\u2019m doing,\u2019\u201d Williams said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The average age of a New York farmer is about 56 years old, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Census of Agriculture from 2022 said that of the approximately 57,500 producers in New York, only about 1,300 are under the age of 25.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A later planting of Russet potatoes on Williams’ farm. (Emily Kenny\/Spectrum News 1)<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 26 years old, for him to have his own farm and to be at a point where he can supply the New York State Fair with potatoes this early in the season, is really amazing. So hats off to him. He\u2019s doing a great job,\u201d Ball said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Williams is the youngest of three brothers that all work in agriculture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything else that we could do or would want to do you know, as tough as it gets, we keep doing it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time, the New York State Fair will feature potatoes grown in Wayne County in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8253,3478,288,257,8255,9,11,10,49,48507,51,50,12,115,200],"class_list":["post-330226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-app-agriculture","tag-app-local-business","tag-business","tag-central-ny","tag-emily-kenny","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-fair","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-rochester","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}