PotatoFinger - Chips with attitude!

On Location

2006-05-01T07:41:00.000-05:00

The Twin Chip Girls went to South Carolina this weekend. We loaded up the Chip Mobile with our sassy Lightly Salted Chips and drove to Greenville to join in the Whole Foods celebration. http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com

It was their grand opening. And it was a big deal. They hired local bluegrass and jamaican bands to play while customers poured into the store. They came from all over South Carolina, some having driven over two hours to experience this unique grocery shop.

We set up our display and felt like movie stars as people clamoured around to taste our crunchy, healthy chip. Whole Foods customers are educated. They want to know about ingredients and fertilizers and such. Naturally, we were a huge hit. "What makes your chips so special?" They asked. "It starts with the potato." We tell them. "We use natural pesticides to fight that pesky flea beatle." Some of the customers were cynical. "Natural Pesticides?" They sneered. "That sounds like an oxymoron." And I suppose it does. But we really do use a natural one. Our good-looking farmers grind up gravel and spread it over the crop to kill the flea beetle. Apparently the beetles aren't all that intelligent and they eat the gravel and anyone who's anyone knows that stones in your stomach can't be good for you.

"Oh." The customers ooh and awe. "Wow." My twin and I glance at each other with that knowing warm glow that we get when people become impressed with our company. "We also use less dye in our packaging." This puts the Whole Foods Customers over the top. Suddenly there is a chip frenzy with bags flying from our display into people's carts. Its' a happy time.

Each customer comes with a different list of criteria. Moms want to know how many chemicals are in the chip. "Let's see," We muse. "There's the potato, the salt and the oil." And, again, the bag flies into the cart. "What about cholesterol?" An ederly couple wants to know. "None" We say together and gently place our bag into their cart next to their organic strawberries and fresh corn on the cob.

Whole Foods is more than a shop. It's an experience. With it's natural lighting, soothing music, and open cafe, it's a pleasant, life-giving place to be. We are proud to be on the shelves there and look forward to many more happy Whole Foods customers in the future. Abigail, Your Chip Girl

Potetochippu

2006-04-26T07:32:00.000-05:00

The Big Boss is back from Japan. He says it was a terrific time. They love our chips there. Potetochippu. That's how you say potato chip in Japanese. Our chips are so, dare I say 'sexy' that the Japanese can't get enough.

It's a little known fact that the Japanese are elegant, sexy people. Iroppoi. That means sexy in Japanese. Japan, after all, is composed of over 3,000 islands and everybody knows islands are for lovers. And think sushi and origami. And the way the Japanese eat close to the floor with their elegant chop sticks. It's a culture of refined, detailed, historic people.

And that is why they love our potetochippu. Because our chips match the personality and pulse of the country.

The Big Boss went to Osaka and Tokyo. Our new clients are AM/PM. This is a juicy Japanese account. So the Big Boss is happy and the Japanese AM/PM people are happy and this joy trickles down to the minions at the chip factory.

I wore my purple kimono yesterday in celebration. I originally bought it to help persuade the Big Boss to take me to the East with him but apparently he handled it on his own. He did take the New Guy with him so he wouldn't have to drink his sakki alone.

So that's the good news from the chip factory today. I think we can all sleep just a little bit sounder tonight knowing the Japanese will be munching on our iroppoi potetochippu very soon.
Abigail, Your Chip Girl

Atlantis

2006-04-04T07:30:00.001-05:00

Our potatoes have been in the earth for four days now. The seedlings are planted on the first of April, pending rain, and are tenderly cared for by our gentle farmers. The name of the potatoes we use is Atlantis which I think is fitting.

11,000 years ago, and that's quite a lot of years ago, Poseidon ruled the sea. I know what you're thinking. "Poseidon was a Greek God, making him a myth." Well, I like myths and choose to believe as many as possible including the one that states that men are intrinsically kind and selfless. While I've never met such a man, I choose to believe he may indeed exist. And so it is with Poseidon, who was a bit of a romantic. He defied Zeus, the scary thunderbolt wielding King of the Mythical Gods, by falling in love with a mortal. Her name was Cleito and apparently she was something special.

Poseidon was crazy about her and the seas remained turbulent and dark until she agreed to marry him. Big mistake for Cleito. While she did love Poseidon she became pregnant straight away and birthed the first set of five twins. Yes, poor mortal Cleito had ten children, all boys. Poseidon created a magnificent castle for her on the top of an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. They named their little cozy get-a-way Atlantis.

While Poseidon oversaw the building of a temple to house his bigger than life gold statue of himself in a shiny chariot pulled by giant winged horses (that century's equivalent to the big trucks we see so often crowding our highways while making silent statements about the driver's (blush) dimensions.) Cleito was busy raising a family and running a nation.

Her first-born twin son became the King of Atlantis. You've probably heard of him, Atlas. He's the big strong man who is always pictured holding the Earth on his ample shoulders. Knowing he had nine younger brothers at home it makes sense Atlas grew up to be a show-off over-achiever. Typical first-born.

Things went swell for the island. It became a commercial center of trade and attracted all the beautiful people. Well, Zeus, bless his heart, got jealous. You know how those Greek God's were. Anytime mortals started really enjoying themselves out came the thunderbolts. So after a big late night party on Olympus one morning, Zeus, a little hung over from too much nectar watched the happy islanders from his favorite brown recliner and it made him mad. He aimed his mighty thunderbolt and ZAP! KAPOWIE! Atlantis was crushed and fell to the bottom of the sea. The huge gold statue of Poseidon still rests there, under the water waiting to be discovered and enjoyed.

Lucky for our Atlantis potatoes that they remain under the earth for only sixty days or so before they are dug up and bathed for their trip to the factory where they are continuously cooked, then packaged and sent to your favorite shop, waiting to be discovered and enjoyed.

Happy discovery, Abigail, Your Potato Chip Girl

Some Clarification

2006-03-22T13:40:00.000-05:00

There has been some confusion among my readers recently. "What is a Potato Finger?" They ask. Well, technically it's a potato.

Firstly it is a cute little potato called a fingerling. There are loads of varieties, all of them small and finger-shaped. They are low in starch and make fabulous potato salads or general household decorations.

Some of the more fashionable homes in my area put these fingerling potatoes in clear glass bowls and place them around on end tables. It makes for interesting conversation. And if you get munchy you can just pick one up and eat it like an apple.

But the potato finger fingerling is not to be confused with the The Company: PotatoFinger. We earned that name the old fashioned way. Passion. The Big Boss loves potato chips. When he was a kid his nickname became "potato finger" because his hands were constantly in a potato chip bag. So when he grew up he decided he wanted to be the Big Boss of a potato chip company.

So thats what he did. And our Potato Chip Team and loads of potato chip lovers are grateful he decided to follow his heart.

The Chip Girls Go Glamour

2006-03-14T13:49:00.000-05:00

Today was a big day in PotatoFinger world. The Big Boss sent the twin chip girls over to the salon early this morning. There we were pampered and blow dryed and beautified. Next we drove over to Channel 11 to film a live spot on a local show there called Atlanta and Company.

The Big Boss was a afraid the chip girls may not capture the audience so he asked his neighbor to join us. It was a terrific idea because the neighbor is a hotty. His job was to shake martini's and look good. He was an over-achiever. In seven minutes he shook up four of the best vodka martini's on the planet. I tried not to look over at him so I wouldn't get distracted. You can watch all the fun yourself on: Atlanta and Company

As if it wasn't pressure enough to go LIVE on television with a hotty, the Big Boss was in the background coaching us and tossing out all sorts of tips. "Don't forget to talk about the book." He kept saying. So what was the one thing we forgot? The book. It's the one Allen Kurzweil wrote called Leon and the Champion Chip. The Big Boss loves this book. We sell it on our website. Finally, at the tippy last minute we saw him in the background behind all those bright lights and cameras frantically miming opening and closing a book.

But the big news is that it is National Potato Chip Day. The television studio was in a frenzy themselves as we threw bags out to the crew. Oh happy day. Oh happy chips. Abigail, Your Potato Chip Girl

The Big City

2006-03-13T14:25:00.000-05:00

You can consider New York City done, because the Chip Girls did it. And we feel we did it well. We started each day with a Dean and Dulca coffee. My twin has this thing for Katie Curick so we taxied there from our hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of the super-star. Well, the other chip girl, Chinique, and I went down for the beverage and scones, but Kerri stood out by the famous fence so hopeful, so eager. She never did see Katie but we learned the day we left they interviewed Mathew McConahay down there. What a near miss. Jeez.

After our coffee we went to the Javits center for the trade show. We were a smashing success. Our booth had so many visitors they spilled out into the aisle. It was a wild trade show anyway because so many booths were sampling speciality vodkas and Eurpean Wines. It gave the show a toasty, warm glow. My twin and I met an Italiano named Paulo. He sold truffles, not the chocolate kind but we forgave him for that because he was Italiano. Here is a picture of Paulo with us by his truffles.

The show closed at five o'clock everyday and the Chip Girls have our booth closing down to a science. We were only New York for five days so we had to act with grace and speed if we wanted to shop the required amount of time to leave us exhausted, broke and very, very happy.

We covered up our precious chips lest a late night stroller become overtaken by the PotatoFinger Urge and crunch up all our inventory. Getting back to our hotel was tricky. Five O'Clock is shift change for the cabbies and apparently a full day of cab driving makes the drivers a little bit cranky. Hordes of people streamed out of the Javits all waving and whistling frantically to hail a cab. Very few had any luck. The first day or so we were sweet, demure and unsucceful. We cleverly changed our tactics and literally walked up streets center aisle knocking on cabbies windows and smiling energetically. I recommend this technique to anyone struggling to get a cab at shift change. We got a cab everytime.

At the hotel we quickly changed out of our costumes into our funky monkey wardrobe. Oh wait, I'm the only one with a funky monkey wardrobe. My twin is more an Anne Klein girl and Chinique is an avid H&M fan. Once appropriately garbed we practically ran into the streets to begin our night out. Now New York City is huge. Thousands of shop, maybe hundreds of thousands. I feel that in our five day spree we hit, and this is a modest estimate, 300 shops.

We know the trip to New York was successful because we all came back giddy and exhausted. And all our new clients are calling up for chip orders that we happily fill while wearing our stylish New York wardrobe. Life is good and it's even better with chips.
Your Potato Chip Girl, Abigail

Let's Talk Chips

2006-02-08T08:23:00.000-05:00

Well, believe it or not potato chips were created before the civil war. In 1853 George Crum, a chef at a posh restaurant in New York made them to get even with a customer who was complaining that his French-cut potatoes were too thick. George cut the potato paper thin and browned it in oil. It was an instant smash hit.

George evenutally opend up his own restaurant that featured the chips. He had to peel and cut all those potatoes by hand because the mechanical potato peeler wasn't invented until the 1920's.

The chips remained popular mostly in the North. Back then the country was so divided that there was little sharing back and forth of recipes and such. But a travelling salesman from Tennessee changed the fate of the potato chip. He was travelling up North and tasted a potato chip and fell in love right there on the spot. He was so enthusiastic about the chips that he packaged them up and sold them from the trunk of his car all the way back down to Tennessee. Soon most of the country was crunching on this thin salty snack because of him. His name was Herman. Herman Lay.

Americans eat more potato chips than any other nation in the world. It wasn't always this way. Way back in Colonial England they used to grow potatoes strictly to feed their pigs. They thought the potato held a special secret formula that, once consumed by humans, became a powerful aphrodisiac. And you know how those New Englander's felt about that kind of thing back then. A big no-no kind of activity.

I think that myth might hold some truth, considering the amount of passion our customers exhibit while enjoying our PotatoFinger potato chips.

Feeling Frisky,

Abigail, Potato Chip Girl

Some Spud Stuff I Know

2006-02-06T08:57:00.000-05:00

I'm becoming somewhat of a spud expert. It's happened gradually during my tenure here at PotatoFinger. At first I made myself busy eating the chips and enjoying all those flavors. Sour Cream and Onion is my personal favorite but sometimes, in the late afternoon after a nice cup of tea, I'll open a Lightly Salted and it just hits the spot.

Once I mastered the full eating enjoyment of the four flavors I began to get interested in the potato itself. These chips are so authentic, so, well, potatoey, that I wanted to know more.

I thought it odd we didn't get our potatoes from Idaho. "But that's the potato capital of the world." I protested to the Big Boss. Apparently I had been misinformed. Idaho is the Baking Potato Capital of the World. We don't use baking potatoes for chips. Baking potatoes are those long, football shaped potatoes you buy from the produce section at the market. Chipper potatoes are the cute little round ones and they thrive in the East Coast growing conditions.

We follow the chipper potato growing season (I didn't even know there was a growing season, but it starts on April Fool's Day, which I think is fabulous because it's my family's favorite holiday), from Florida up through the Carolina's to Ohio. We get loads of potatoes from Ohio (see previous blog for details and a picture of those good looking farmers). By late Fall we get our potatoes all the way from Minnesota and through the Winter, while the fields lay dormant, we get our spuds from a controlled growing enviroment (kind of like a greenhouse) in Michigan.

There are a couple of bad things that can happen to a potato while it's growing. Two of the biggest bad boys are worms and sweating. Worms cause what's called a hollow heart in the potato and sweating is when the sun makes the potato too hot and it sweats off its weight. And let's be honest here, nobody wants a skinny potato. Our farmers use a natural pesticide of ground up stones to combat the worm problem. No one has figured out a way to boss the sun around.

Once the potatoes are harvested, sorted and cleaned they are gently placed in a truck and taken to the chip factory where they are sorted and cleaned again. You can bet you get a good clean chip by the time you open your bag. It takes about three pounds of potatoes to make one pound of chips. There are approximately five potatoes in a pound. So if you're good at math you figured out that there are about fifteen potatoes in a pound of chips. Don't get all fat-frantic about that though. In our 2.5 ounce bag of chips you are eating about, well, I'm not all that good at math but if you figure it out, post it for the number challenged rest of us. I'm certain I'm not eating fifteen potatoes when I eat my daily bag of chips because I'm skinny, and skinny people don't eat fifteen potatoes a day.

So this is some spud stuff I know.
Abigail, The Potato Chip Girl

Oh My Gosh

2006-02-03T08:40:00.000-05:00

You aren't going to believe what happened. A man named Allen Kurzweil wrote a book about a potato chip. (See picture at left for visual). We are all excited about it because It's called Leon and the Champion Chip. Well, the Big Boss is named Leon. We all felt very strongly that this was destiny.

So the Big Boss contacted Allen and they chatted about potato chips and all manner of things and then something really exciting happened.

Here's what the Big Boss and Allen discovered:

Leon's (Big Boss) dad's name is Napoleon: a character in Allen's book

Napoleon's mom's name was Emma: a character in in Allen's book

Big Boss's last name is Stoltz, a character in Allen's previous book: The Grand Complication, was Stolz

oh my gosh...creepy.

So they both got chill bumps and felt they were twins seperated at birth and all that. Then Allen was invited to an interview with Neal Conan on Talk of the Nation on NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO. This was big. This was gigantic. Allen not only talked about his love and interest in potato chips, but HE ATE A BAG OF OUR CHIPS ON THE AIR. You can hear him yourself at www.npr.org. So now we spend our days listening to Allen enjoy our potato chips and this makes us feel warm and good inside.

And now we're offerring Allen's cool book, Leon and the Champion Chip on our website. Just click 'home' and you'll find out all about it. The world feels small and cozy now. Cheers to PotatoFinger Potato Chips and to Leon. Both of them.

Abigail, Potato Chip Girl

Sunny, Stunning San Francisco

2006-01-27T09:18:00.000-05:00

The Potato Chip Girls (and the Big Boss) flew out to San Francisco for The Fancy Foods Trade Show. What a blast.

The trade show was held in the Moscone Convention Center near Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. It was filled with thousands of booths of delicious specialty foods. All of the booths were decorated individually and they held tasty sample plates to lure in the buyers and other vendors. It was a food paradise. Meatballs, chocolates, chai teas, shortbreads. Savories and sweets mingled together for one fantastic weekend.

Booth number 513, of course, was the highlight. Our PotatoFinger Potato Chips booth was so popular I was afraid we were making our neighbor booths jealous. I'm going to suggest to the organizers that next year they award a prize for Most Exciting Booth. But until they do, I will self proclaim us the winners.

2006 Most Exciting Booth Award

There were people sampling from all over the globe. Hot deals were being made right there on the showroom floor. The Potato Chips Girls wore darling little black dresses with fishnets and knee boots. Sexy Chic. The Big Boss was very happy. Our booth received over 340 visitors. People just went crazy over our sassy, kosher, all around good time potato chips. We were sad for the trade show to end, but solaced ourselves knowing we left so many people munching happily.

Cheers,

Abigail, Potato Chip Girl

Playing with the Big Boys

2006-01-20T15:28:00.000-05:00

Ever since our sassy chips made it into Kroger, our Publix customers have become a little cranky. "When will we have access to your delicious chips?" Well, we like to make our customers happy.

So we started flirting with Publix and they were so impressed with the samples we sent that they invited us down for get-together. This is a Big Deal in our industry.

Our potato chip king and I were excited to fly down to Florida to meet with the buyer for Publix. We arrived to their lobby with big dreams and high hopes. Apparently we weren't the only ones invited down. The lobby was crawling with grim looking business men with charts and computers. We found ourselves a little space to sit down and I began doubting my funky monkey outfit.

Now readers, you know our chip is spectacular and Chipponie, our memorable spokesmodel is, well, memorable. Our little company is unusual, a little unorthodox, and a tiny bit zany. Sitting in that large, glassed in lobby with all those suits and girls with high cheekbones and higher heels I started to panic. But then I looked over to my beloved potato chip king. He was looking at the huge mural on their lobby wall. It showed George (W. Jenkins, founder of Publix in 1930) packing people's groceries and chatting with customers. He looked so happy in his white shirt and apron. No tie, no fancy stuff, just old fashioned service.

So when we were finally called into the inner sactum of Publix to meet the buyer I kept George in mind. And the meeting was a smashing success because our company believes in old fashioned service as well. Publix hasn't made a formal commitment to us yet, but we feel confident our Publix customers are going to be munching happily in the near future.

Cheers,

Abigail
The Potato Chip Girl

A Date With the Farm Boys

2006-01-17T08:17:00.000-05:00

Our office anticipated the farm trip all week. "I hear those Ohio farmers are cute," my colleagues teased. The whole flight up I went wild with speculation. I was briefly distracted with all that gorgeous shiny white snow lying in the ridges of the empty fields. "Wow." I thought. "What an adventure." The plane was the tiny kind where they don't bother with jetways. You just walk down the airplane steps the old fashioned way. I was wearing my farm outfit with a long scarf with black ostrich feathers thrown on for a touch of the city.

I drove out to MooMaw Farms and took a deep breath of that Ohio farm air. Big mistake. It was so cold I think I froze one of my lungs. It remained impaired through-out my entire farm visit. And those farmers are full of vigor. I'm not certain but I think I lost four pounds just following them around and climbing up on those massive tractors. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I felt I was the city ambassador coming to bring good tidings to our country potato farmers. Without those boys, we couldn't make our delicious sassy, savory chips.

The farm itself was huge. Two big old farmhouses, and I mean big, sat in front a million acres of potato farmland. Later they told me it was only 600 acres, but to the untrained eye, the fields sprawled out endlessly. And okay, the farmers were cute. The brothers are continuing in the family tradition. This farm belonged to their parents, who still come by and help sort the potatoes at harvest.

The brothers are proud of their operation. They took me on a tour, following the journey their potatoes take from earth to harvest. There are all sorts of huge machinery lined up neatly in their organized barn. They talked tenderly about the equipment, using words like "scooper" and "belt fans". There was some stroking of the big machines. They were sparkling clean, and looked like family pets.

Our potato chip factory is very picky. This can make the farmers cranky. Sometimes they take their truck loads to the factory only to have the factory turn them away. The standards are very high for chipper potatoes. Once the truck gets to the factory, about a twenty minute drive from the farm, the intake person fills a random bucket from the truck. Those potatoes are then judged for size (the tiny ones are given to the local dairy farmers to fatten up their cows), green potatoes (caused by too much sun), and water content.

I asked the farmers if they felt compensated for the their work. They both looked surprised by the question. They were so happy to be farmers, so proud to carry on the tradition. They said it's hard, sometimes, to have to throw a whole truckload back into the field. They talked about irrigation systems on the bigger farms that helped regulate the water and produced a more consistant product. But at the end of the day, they love the farm and feel they are compensated well. They told me that although our factory is very picky, we also pay top dollar for the chippers.

The brothers were so happy. They graciously answered all my pesky questions and let me walk through the living room with my boots on.

Some things I learned:

Their farm dog Lilly doesn't bite.
The potatoes are cleaned twice before going to the factory.
One of the brothers is his church Music Director.
They use an all natural pesticide of ground of up stones to battle the flea beetle.
Their children (six between them) help sort potatoes at harvest time.
April 10th is planting day. (Unless it's raining).
They are very comfortable operating big equipment.
The farmers love potatoes.
The farmers love each other.

Abigail
The Potato Chip Girl

The Team Goes on a Field Trip

2006-01-05T11:10:00.000-05:00

The whole sales team flew up to Ohio yesterday to tour our potato chip factory. We wanted to join our chipmates at the plant to learn more about the chip-making process. Coming from Atlanta we were unprepared for that gray drizzle of a winter they endure up there. But you can' t beat the beauty of the farmlands and the occasional Amish farmer trotting by behind his shiny black horses.

I tried to take a photo of a horse and buggy but just when I was about to snap the picture, the owner and his wife appeared. They were dressed in all black and I wondered if they have to wear that color in the Summer. That could get uncomfortable. They were unhappy about my camera. I felt embarrassed and grew very hot, which was a nice change in that frigid temperature.

The factory was fascinating. I don't know what it is about watching warm salted chips come off a conveyor belt but we found ourselves mesmorized. And very hungry. Our tour guide let us taste chips out of a freshly packed bag. They were almost hot. It was like eating all the best bits of a savory potato.

Our factory is squeaky clean. I love that. Our chipmates actually stop at a de-lint station to remove any tiny thread or unpleasantry (like a stray hair) from their bodies. We are about to purchase a little vacuum room where our team will walk into a bubble type space that will suction off any unwanted strays. It will not work to remove unwanted boyfriends.

We watched the potatoes being unloaded from the farmer's trucks. They pack them in there loose, no boxes or containers or anything. Just loads and loads of potatoes. They scoop them out by weight and from the time a potato is scooped and dropped into the cleansing water to the cutter to the fryer to the bag eleven minutes had passed. ELEVEN MINUTES from the truck to the bag. Now that's a fresh potato chip.

We all left with bags of fresh chips to happily munch on the way home.

Cheers, Abigail, The Potato Chip Girl

Have Yourself a Merry Little Chipmas!

2005-12-22T13:27:00.001-05:00

Horray , we made it! Another year slipped by and the new one is standing at the ready. December is always the last minute chance we get to reflect on the joys and sorrows of the year. And then Father Time marches on as we all cheer and toast our hopes and promises for the new year.

And as time continues his steady pace, the promises of January fade and break by February. And so what? I say. I choose to live in the now. Our well made plans often give way to regrets anyway. I’ll just enjoy my potato chips one chip at a time and I imagine the rest will take care of itself.

Happy, Jolly Holidays. Stay warm and safe.

See you in 2006.

Leon Stoltz
Founder and CEO

PS: Please write to me at leon@potatofinger.com. We enjoy reading emails from our customers, and we'll make sure that your email gets to the right people in our company.

What are we thankful for this year?

2005-11-08T20:21:00.000-05:00

PotatoFinger potato chips in four delicious flavors and two sizes, all dressed up to look good for any occasion. In this high season of nonstop sweets, we think the sassy, fresh flavor of PotatoFinger potato chips stands out as a tasty change of pace. Our guests love sampling each flavor -- barbecue, sour cream & onion, vinegar & salt, and original lightly salted.
We love taking our good lookin' chips in the 8 oz. size to holiday parties and gatherings as hostess gifts. And who would not love to receive a snack basket full of PotatoFinger potato chips in the 2.5oz. bags as a holiday gift? Everybody loves the old school crunch of our chips, especially because they have zero grams of trans fats and are certified kosher.
www.potatofinger.com