North Fork Potato Chips. Long Island Rules!
I grew up in Suffolk County, Long Island, NY in one of those second generation Levit type homes built for the veterans of the Korean War (ours was built by Sid Farber) and just far enough from the city to still be a bit country but definitely suburburan. We had a tract house on about 1/4 acre of land. My parents landscaped with cherry, peach, apple and maple trees and there was always an attempt at some sort of vegetable garden.
I remember the remaining tracts of woods, the deer, foxes and the old steam locomotives. I remember the sounds of the Sister of St. Joseph’s bell towers at 6:00 am for the angelus and waking up to the aromas coming from the Entenmann family’s main bakery. On warm summer nights, I remember listening to the sounds of the stock cars from Islip Speedway about 10 miles away.
And I remember Long Island potatoes, ducks, clams, oysters, scallops and all the outstanding produce grown on the island before suburbia consumed almost the entire place. I remember talking with the old Nazi scientist farmer who lived in Bay Shore and sold vegetables and purple lilly of the valley he developed himself. It wasn’t uncommon to see people selling home grown vegetables and flowers in their front yard. Hell, i still say that I’m going to the farm stand when I go out to buy produce.
I miss those days, but yesterday I found that all is not lost. There’s still a little of the Long Island of my youth in existence out on the North Fork. I found North Fork Potato Chips in a local fish monger here in Brooklyn.
North Fork Potato Chips are made from potatoes grown on the Sidor family farm in Mattituck, Long Island. There used to be hundreds of potato farms on Long Island and this is one of the last remaining family farms.
With the help of their three children, the Sidors launched North Fork Potato Chips with a hearty chip kettle-cooked in healthy sunflower oil. Soon, their website was up and running and were selling chips by the case. They then introduced two new varieties - barbecue and sweet potato - and will soon roll-out both cheddar and onion and sour cream and onion.
These are some of the best chips I’ve tasted in a long long time, and I heartily recommend them. Help preserve what was so common 30 years ago, but now is all but lost; the family farm. Buy some North Fork Potato Chips!
