About Sweet Potatoes


Clay Strickland Farms
NC SweetPotato Grower Profile:
Clay Strickland Farms – Spring Acres Sales Co. – Spring Hope, NC

 

Back in 1965, Clay and Dianne Strickland started farming in Nash County, NC. Clay started growing sweet potatoes in 1969, increasing his acreage along with the years. Thirty years later, he is growing about 700 acres of the Beauregard variety. “We’ll grow whatever our customers demand,” he says. From a modest beginning, Clay Strickland Farms now includes 2,000 acres of sweet potatoes, soybeans, and tobacco.

Not only do the Stricklands farm, but early in their farming career, Clay saw an opportunity to expand the business. In 1973, Clay started his distribution business, Spring Acres Sales Company. Now, all of his sweet potatoes and those of several other area farmers are marketed through Clay’s company, located south of Spring Hope, NC.

Of his marketplace, Clay says, “Some of our first customers were in the Chicago market, but it now has shifted almost exclusively to the Northeast corridor.” Spring Acres Sales’ sweet potato brands include Spring Acres, Spring Harvest, Market Fresh, Tar Heel, French Quarter, and Mardi Gras.
 

From the start, Spring Acres Sales supplied sweet potatoes to produce buyers almost exclusively, but with the increase in popularity of sweet potatoes, they’ve also been serving the foodservice market. “We’re pleased that the number of restaurants now serving sweet potatoes has grown significantly. Most steak houses are now selling them on their menu,” say Clay.

Spring Acres Sales Company offers sweet potatoes in five different pack sizes, with most going in a 50-55 or 60-65 count pack. Says Clay, “In a year’s time, we’ll move over a half-million bushels of sweet potatoes.”

“The SweetPotato Commission’s marketing program has helped increase awareness and consumption quite a bit. It’s taken seven to eight years of steady pushing, but it’s paying off in dividends now,” says Clay.

Today, Clay’s youngest daughter, Cindy Joyner, has joined the Spring Acres Sales Co.’s office and sweet potato packing house. His long-time sales pro, Norman Brown, has been with the company for 23 years.