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VPR Cafe: Keeping Spuds Sexy

Peaslee's cubed, frozen, Vermont potatoes go from freezer to oven.
Melissa Pasanen, courtesy
Peaslee's cubed, frozen, Vermont potatoes go from freezer to oven.

The potato business has changed since 1928 when Karen Guile-Caron's grandparents started Peaslee's Vermont Potatoes in Guildhall. Now, Guile-Caron is trying to bring her 60-acre family business into the new local food economy.

"We're not as sexy as a lot of those other things, like cheese and beer," she says. Hospitals, schools and college campuses are interested, but storage and labor costs put local, whole potatoes at a disadvantage. To help, Peaslee's has been upgrading their storage barn and working with the nonprofit Vermont Food Venture Center in Hardwick to create more convenient, cost-effective, minimally processed potatoes, like cubes, that can go straight from freezer to oven after a quick toss in oil and seasonings.

-Reprinted with permission from Vermont Life magazine  

Watch a video below — courtesy of food writer Melissa Pasanen — which shows harvested potatoes being sorted for storage at Peaslee's:

Ric was a producer for Vermont Edition and host of the VPR Cafe.
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