If you’re planning on growing potatoes in your garden this year, please don’t forget we live in a seed potato control area.
Which means you need to take the time and make the effort to buy only Certified Pemberton Seed Potatoes.
No random potatoes allowed. For fear of introducing a virus and potatoes are particularly prone to virus, and decimating an entire economy. Forever. So, stakes are high. Please take it seriously.
Like seriously. You don’t want to be the guy who brings on the next Irish Potato Famine.
The geographic isolation of the Pemberton Valley, one hour north of Whistler, has made it a world-wide source of virus-free seed potatoes that will protect future generations from potato famines such as the Irish Hunger Famine of the 1840s. The blight that destroyed crops overnight and caused at least one million people to starve to death (and another two million to leave Ireland) was spread by a virus.
https://bcfoodhistory.ca/virus-free-potatoes/
Good places to source your Pemberton Seed potatoes are IN PEMBERTON. Start here. Don’t bring potatoes from outside the Valley here to plant. That’s what the sign you drive past is all about.
Seek out support from the Women’s Institute Plant Sale, the Home Hardware, the local nurseries, including Dandelion and Clover who currently have many varieties of Certified Pemberton Seed Potatoes in 1.5 and 3 pound packages and are happy to point you in the right direction, if you require larger amounts.
Ideally, you won’t even plant your own potatoes from last year, because they too can become susceptible to virus.
The Wellness Almanac 