Governor

    PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – The seed has been planted – literally – to rejuvenate the Governor’s Potato Plot project in Presque Isle, which will help showcase Maine potatoes coast to coast. According to City Manager Tom Stevens, Councilor Don Gardner was doing some housecleaning two years ago when he came across a centennial booklet from 1959 that featured a story and photo about the Governor’s Potato Plot that was located on the Merle Duncan Farm, about two-and-a-half miles south of Presque Isle on the Houlton Road.
As part of the city’s centennial celebration, the Presque Isle Centennial Celebration Committee planted “a special crop of potatoes which upon harvest will be shipped to the 50 governors of the United States. These special potatoes will be handpicked, washed, packaged and mailed by the Centennial Committee.”
“Don and I thought it was a very interesting project … maybe we should do that again,” said Stevens. “I approached the Maine Potato Board and they thought it was a good idea, too, but they felt we should get another group involved.
“I approached Sharon Campbell, who was the president of the Rotary Club at the time, and she, too, thought it was a neat idea,” he said. “While it took a couple years to get the wheels in motion, we’ve reinstituted the Governor’s Potato Plot project.”
Timothy Hobbs, director of development/grower relations for the Maine Potato Board, said the Board helped put the right people in touch with one another and facilitated the project early on.
“Then we stepped back out of the way, and let the Rotary Club and grower Danny Stewart of Stewart Farms take over,” said Hobbs. “It’s good PR for Maine potatoes and that’s why we wanted to get involved with it. It’s a positive thing for Maine potatoes and a way to create goodwill.
“It was a no-brainer for us,” he said. “They came to us and wanted to know how to make it work, we had some ideas how to make it work, we said we’d help underwrite some of the costs, they’re happy, we’re happy. I think it will attract a lot of attention on Route 1.”
This spring, Stewart planted the potatoes next to the “Welcome to Presque Isle” sign, and later this fall, the Rotarians will make a day of picking and packaging the spuds.
“I planted about an acre of Superiors,” said Stewart, “which is the kind of potato the Maine Potato Board uses at their baked potato booth at the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, Mass. A Superior is a good, all-around purpose potato.”
Stewart said he was honored the Maine Potato Board asked him to team up with the Rotary Club.
“It’s nice publicity for my farm stand,” he said. “I was happy they asked me to help start up that program again. It’s neat to think that my potatoes are going to go to Hawaii, Alaska, and the other states.”
Campbell called the project an “ambassadorial effort.”
“This is a great way to represent the state … ‘Here’s Maine, here’s Maine products … think about using Maine potatoes,’” she said. “We got permission from the governor and he’s on board with this. We’ll include a letter from the governor with each 50-pound box of potatoes that will be shipped to the other 49 governors.
“We hope to continue the project,” she said. “It’s a fellowship project … something we can do and have fun together as a club, but it’s also productive. It’s not the classic Rotary project where we’re raising money for a charity, but as a business and civic organization, economic growth and marketing of what we do best – potatoes in Aroostook County – is important to all of us.”
A colorful 8-foot by 5-foot portable sign designating the area as the Governor’s Potato Plot – created by Rickie and Sandy Guerrette of the Sign Place, located at 27 Reach Road in Presque Isle – was erected last week.
The Maine Potato Board paid for the signage and will also pay for the shipping of the potatoes this fall.
Stevens said the Governor’s Potato Plot project is an interesting way of promoting Maine’s most famous crop.
“It provides an opportunity to have a project that has some meaningfulness to it … that we can promote Maine’s quality potatoes throughout the governors in the United States, and for those states that grow potatoes, hopefully they’ll accept them in the spirit of which they’re given,” he said. “At the same time, I think people are going to have some fun with it.”
Campbell said any surplus potatoes from the plot will likely be donated to a local soup kitchen.