Open Door Policy With The Sidor Family's North Fork Potato Chips ~ Their Business Is A Chip Off The Old Block ~ Potatoes Are Finally In The Limelight

BY DANNY McCARTHY

The year 1955 will be written down in the century-old annals of commercial potato production on Long Island as one of distress and disturbance as well as headache and heartache. Production “outstripped” consumption. There are some growers that stood to take a loss of between $7,500,000 and $10,000,000 on one of the finest quality crops they have ever raised. Developments that year included a largely successful attempt to unionize the potato warehouses. There was an increased use of combines to cut potato harvest costs. There was also more extensive use of belt conveyors and other labor-saving machinery.

Long Island has no starch factories. No substantial dairying. No livestock industries. Size B and off-grade potatoes were virtually at a total loss in 1955. There were such agencies as the Farm Bureau and the L. I. Agricultural Marketing Association and they were to be thanked for their efforts. There had been less grower-dealer friction than in many past seasons (when everybody was making money).

According to the Potatoes of Southold Town entry on page 93 in Southold Town Suffolk County Long Island New York 1636-1939 The Oldest English Town in the State of New York, “Figures for potato production in Suffolk County {were] kept annually by the Suffolk County Farm Bureau; but there {were} no separate statistics for Southold Town. That Bureau estimates that Southold Town {grew} approximately 9,500 acres of potatoes annually. Conservative estimates {placed} the average crop at 250 bushels per acre, which {gave} Southold Town an average annual crop of about 2,375,000 bushels {of potatoes}.” {!!!}

Also from Southold Town Suffolk County Long Island New York 1636-1939 The Oldest English Town in the State of New York….

“In the year 1888, Daniel Y. Hallock of Hog Neck devised a crude potato digger. … It passing it is worthy of note that the old Hallock digger is still used by local farmers to harvest sweet potatoes.”

The Irish Cobbler “is an early potato and finds favor in the fact that a second crop may often be raised after the potatoes have been marketed in early July. The Green Mountain is a later type and has a wide use as a winter potato. The Chippewa, a new type which has been cultivated experimentally on Long Island … It promises to combine all of the benefits of the Cobbler with a wide range of new virtues, and will doubtless be an important factor within a few seasons.”

“Toward the middle of the 19th century, we note that more attention is paid to the shipment of farm fruits and vegetables to the Connecticut ports and to the New York market. Before the Long Island Rail Road accepted freight for carriage, there was, in season, a strawberry boat which carried fruit daily to the markets across the Sound. Fresh garden produce then began to assume importance as a source of farm income. … Many of our farmers contract with seed houses for cabbage seed and other seed crops which demand favorable conditions.”

KARL GROSSMAN had an article in The Suffolk Times titled "Is Temik Problem Just the Tip of the Iceberg?" I've re-formatted that article.

The tenth paragraph had it that "... In the 1960s, then Suffolk County Executive H. Lee Dennison said farming should be abandoned on the East End because the farmers were poisoning the underground water supply with chemicals. He fancied the East End developing residentially instead."

The sixth paragraph includes: "... the chemical industry bombards us with messages like Monsanto's 'Without chemicals, life itself is impossible.' Yeah, but there's a difference in what chemicals people can ingest and survive. Because some chemicals are OK doesn't mean all are, or that some aren't out-and-out poison."

The ninth paragraph includes: "The {Suffolk County} Department of Health Services {picked-up} traces of a{similar} pesticide, carbofuran, in well water. Many, many chemicals are used in agriculture here, including paraquat on potato vines. And Suffolk is a quick litmus of America's trip, from farming to waste disposal. Whatever poisons are put in or on the ground will get to the water supply and come up with our water. There's no washing it away. We here sow the chemical wind in every cup of coffee and glass of water."

The fourth paragraph had a subhead: "Profits Ahead of Human Costs" atop this: "Union Carbide spent $10 million developing Temik, figuring on an annual market of $800 million nationally. The company began selling Temik for the first time in 1970, for cotton." {Aha!}

The second paragraph reads and I quote: "Since 1975{,} Temik - which is Union Carbide's name for the super-toxic poison aldicarb - has been used here to curb the Colorado potato beetle and golden nematode. {Aha! again} Yields of potatoes have increased substantially with Temik. Meanwhile, Temik didn't decompose in Long Island's sandy soils and ended up leaching into its water supply, causing wells all over the East End to be ordered closed by the {Suffolk County} Department of Health Services as health risks. Widespread infiltration by the pesticide of the underground table - on which all of eastern Suffolk depends for its potable water - {was} suspected."

Within the eleventh {hour - just kidding -} then Suffolk Health Commissioner was quoted within the article that what's needed in "public water" as "potable water just {as a} matter of distribution, like electricity. - Whether it's from some place on the Island where the water remains unpolluted or piped in from elsewhere, like the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens {had} ended up after they contaminated their water, {that Suffolk Health Commissioner believed was via} a public water distribution system."

I CAUGHT THIS ONLINE:

"Bayer Agrees to Terminate All Uses of Temik insecticide (Aldicarb)

By Thomas Kuhar

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Bayer CropScience, the manufacturer, have reached an agreement to end use of the pesticide aldicarb in the United States."

YES this is days-in-our-past -BUT- we have to thank our Cutchogue family farmers Martin and Carol Sidor who have been keeping their eyes on potatoes -{&}- the result is North Fork Potato Chips. ~ North Fork Potato Chips are sold across Long Island -{&}- online PLUS shipped out-of-state.

https://northforkchips.com/