Penry Farms: From Their Hands to Your Table

BY JESSIE SHOOK

Penry Farms has been growing sweet potatoes in Baldwin County, Alabama since 1953. Over the years, many things have changed but sweet potatoes have stayed the same. Daniel Penry has been co-owner with his father Steve since 2003, but this farm didn’t just start with this father/son duo.

Penry Farms was founded by Daniel’s great-grandfather, W.E. Penry, and his grandfather, Bill Penry. “My grandfather, or ‘Big Bill’ as he was known to us, actively raised sweet potatoes in Baldwin County for 50 years,” Daniel said. “My dad, Steve, worked with him as a kid from the time he could walk behind a tractor. When he graduated from Fairhope High School in 1973, he chose to go into farming.”

Steve has been operating Penry Farms full time for 47 years. With Daniel eager to continue the Penry Farms name as a fourth-generation farmer, Steve plans for a well-deserved retirement by the end of 2021. “I have helped as a child from the time that I was 6 or 7,” Daniel added. “After graduating college, I decided to come back to the farm too.”

The farm has gone through many stages throughout the years. While sweet potatoes have always been a priority, Penry Farms has dabbled in other row crops and cattle. “We grew corn, soybeans, cotton and raised steers and mama cows,” Daniel said. “We started a dairy in 1960 and milked cows until 1975- 76 but in 1983 we tripled our sweet potato acres and started shipping sweet potatoes out of state.”

Penry Farms produces around 25-35 thousand pounds of sweet potatoes per acre and they are shipped all over the U.S. and Canada. (Photo Credit: Keyhole Photo)

Steve Penry has been farming sweet potatoes for 47 years. (Photo Credit: Keyhole Photo)

As of now, Penry Farms consists of 350 acres of sweet potatoes. “Sweet potatoes are all we do,” Daniel laughed. “It’s plenty of work – I promise.”

Penry Farms has been farming sweet potatoes for so many years because of how resilient the crop is. “They can handle if it’s dry or wet and they don’t care if the wind blows,” Daniel said. “We always have something to harvest, even with crazy weather – they are a tough crop.”

According to Daniel, another positive to growing sweet potatoes is the incredible yield potential. “We average 25-35 thousand pounds per acre,” Daniel said. “With other crops we’ve grown in the past, we’ve always been limited. We tried to have the big, fast equipment for cotton and peanuts just so we could finish and focus on sweet potatoes.”

Penry Farms ships sweet potatoes all over the U.S. and Canada. While their brand is known as Azalea Yams, you can find their sweet potatoes everywhere because of their partnerships with larger farms. “Farms that may have large accounts to supply, need our crop when they run out, so our sweet potatoes can be found under different brand names,” Daniel said.

The process starts in February when the plants are grown and then transplanted to the field in April. Harvest lasts for three months – August to October. “We are the first people in America to harvest because we are the southernmost sweet potato growers in the United States,” Daniel added. “We start early and finish early with the hopes of running out of sweet potatoes by Thanksgiving or Christmas.”

It takes about 25 people to harvest 4 rows at a time and complete 7 acres a day. (Photo Credit: Keyhole Photo)

Sweet potatoes are picked by hand to ensure no damage is done to the crop. (Photo Credit: Keyhole Photo)

Sweet potatoes are meticulously harvested by hand. “It takes a human hand to handle them easy enough to get them to market,” Daniel said. “Right now, we go in and mow the vines and them come in with a harvester loaded down with 20 people. They will pull the sweet potatoes off a chain and put them in a bucket to be dumped into a box.”

The process takes a lot of people and is very timeconsuming. “It takes about 25 people to harvest four rows at a time,” Daniel said. “We do about 7 acres a day.”

After harvest, Penry Farms inspects their sweet potatoes by hand to make sure the best product is ready to ship. “Shape and size determine the grade of the sweet potato,” Daniel added. “Also, a good quality skin is important to protect the potato and keep bacteria out.”

Daniel also always tries to stay on the cutting edge of technology. “We are very early adopters of new technology and a lot of times we are one of the first farms to try something new,” Daniel said. “We try different equipment from all over the world that hasn’t necessarily made it to the U.S. yet. Being the guinea pig can be fun but also hard sometimes.”

This technology also plays a role in clean pest control. “We use variable rate technology to use less pesticides and only put out what we need, where we need it,” Daniel added. “Not only does this save us money but it helps the environment.”

This year, sweet potatoes became the state vegetable of Alabama, and this was a great way to show appreciation to the hard work of sweet potato farmers. “We are a powerful industry that performs on a national level and international scale,” Daniel said. “And our local neighbors should be proud of how we listen, adapt and care about the success of the American crop.”

Penry Farms sweet potatoes are graded by hand to make sure the best product is being shipped. (Photo Credit: Keyhole Photo)