Potato farming might not have been the future Greg Lutovsky envisioned, growing up in a Georgia trailer park. But looking back, it all makes sense. Starting a landscaping business at the age of 19 led to buying two tractors and lifting and selling many acres of unwanted mature blueberry plants for a tidy profit—all while working (unpaid) for a garlic grower. Founding and managing a company that introduced gardeners to All Blue, Yellow Finn, and Yukon Gold potatoes was a process—and not an entirely planned one. “I always had an interest in seeds,” Greg recalls. It all began with spitting watermelon seeds as a kid. When a couple of them sprouted, Greg convinced his dad not to pull the seedlings out. The plants grew well along the base of their trailer, and began to flower. One day, to Greg’s amazement, a 40-pound watermelon appeared! It wasn’t until much later in life that his dad confessed to buying a ‘Carolina Cross’ and setting it there. But, too late. Greg was hooked. His mom fostered this interest, letting him buy seeds from the Wigwam General Store to start a garden in the sandbox. “I grew a single ear of corn, some sad looking tomatoes, and some pretty good radishes,” he remembers.

“My landscaping company maintained 350 properties,” Greg recalls. He had started the business after the family moved to Washington state, and sold it for a good sum a few years later. As he was looking around for his next project, his mom sent him an article about a garlic grower on the Olympic Peninsula. This led to a lifelong relationship with Ron Engeland, the owner of the garlic farm. He weeded and camped at Filaree Farm, and was intrigued by the many unique varieties of hardneck garlic. In 1989, Greg planted a 400 sq ft patch of garlic on his own property. He harvested 385 pounds, loaded up his truck, and called on his contacts at local garden centers. They took it all and sold it to customers as seed garlic. A couple weeks later they wanted more! So began the precursor to Irish Eyes Garden Seeds.

“I bought a 5-acre property, then later moved to 10 acres in Orting, Washington,” Greg relates. He put out a mail order catalog, made a video on growing garlic, and ended up on the Ed Hume Show. He sold flats of onions, leeks, and, of course, garlic to garden centers. One day, a customer asked “What do you know about potatoes?” Fast forward to the present…

Growing seed potatoes is a multi-step, multi-year process. “Every year we order 10,000 disease-free plantlets started from tissue culture,” Greg explains. From there, each plantlet goes into a 1-gallon pot and is grown out in a tightly screened greenhouse. The marble sized tubers harvested from the pots are planted out in the field the following year. The year after that, after rigorous testing, the harvested tubers of that planting are moved to a different property. Irish Eyes sells Generation 1 seeds and Generation 2 seeds, as well as the marble-sized “pre-nuclear” seeds. Rotation keeps the soil disease free, and regular testing ensures that the seed potatoes sold by Irish Eyes are the highest quality possible.

“Alexa and I own the business together now,” says Greg. “My plan is to slowly phase out over the next five years.” Alexa’s husband Jeremy, a welder and fabricator, is an essential member of the team and Greg’s older daughter, Sara, who is finishing up a degree in Agriculture and Physical Education, creates informative videos for social media. “We have two greenhouses, a 2-story dairy barn with offices and conference room, and an 8000 sq ft potato shed that can hold a half million pounds of potatoes!” And, Greg adds with pride, “We’ve been certified organic since 1996.” The large storage facility allows Irish Eyes to ship sprouted seed potatoes out in late summer, “a real service for southern gardeners.” Based in Ellensburg, the company also owns two very isolated parcels of land in the foothills of the mountains. Each year, garlic and potatoes are grown on about 35 acres, with the other 60+ acres given over to soil-building cover crops. Coming, as Greg says, “full circle”, Greg and Alexa now own Filaree Farm, which they operate as a retail business. They’ve acquired Garden City Seeds as well, and added heirloom corn and other vegetable seeds to their offerings.

Greg credits his mentors for helping him get where he is. “I’m proud that I’ve been able to run a successful business for 30 years,” he says. Ron Engeland and garlic growers network helped him get a foothold, and Renee Shepherd, of Renee’s Garden, was an early supporter. She introduced him to the Mail order Gardening Association many years ago, which helped put Irish Eyes on the map. And, of course, his daughters Alexa and Sara, have been involved from the start. They will carry Irish Eyes into the future, with their father’s help. “My grandkids have spent a lot of time in my office over the years,” he said, adding with a laugh, “and it shows!”