Spud revival in the Roaring Fork Valley

Potato-growing is under way on a scale that hasn’t been seen for more than 50 years in the upper Roaring Fork Valley. Woody Creek Distillers owners Pat and Mary Scanlan have planted about 55,000 pounds of spuds this spring on their ranch in Little Woody Creek and on land leased at the adjacent Chaparral Ranch. Most of the potatoes they plant are the Rio Grande variety. “That’s the workhorse” that makes most of Woody Creek Distillers’ vodka, he said. They also grow Stobrawa potatoes, a Polish variety that has higher starch content than most other potatoes and creates special vodka. They will harvest roughly 600,000 pounds of potatoes in the fall, clean them and ship them to the distillery in Basalt to be converted into vodka. The Chaparral Ranch was once the property of the Vagneur Ranch Co. and one of five ranches owned and operated in the Woody Creek area by the extended Vagneur family. Tony Vagneur, of El Jebel, said the ranchers would rotate crops regularly by digging up a portion of a hay field one year and planting potatoes. After a few years of growing spuds, the field would be dedicated to oats and then back to hay. A huge, dilapidated potato cellar from several decades ago remains an eye-catching relic on the ranch...more