The Masser family’s roots in potato farming extend for at least the past seven generations in America and to his ancestors in Germany as well, Nolan Masser recollects. He is the president of Red Hill Farms, Inc. in Pitman, Pa., and has represented his state and the Northeast caucus on the U.S. Potato Board (USPB) for five years. During this time, he has served on the Administrative Committee for the USPB’s Finance Committee and has also served four years on the “Potatoes…Goodness Unearthed” (PGUNS) Trademark Review Committee (TRC). He also serves as the presidentof the Pennsylvania Cooperative Potato Growers.“Becoming a farmer and growing potatoes is the only thing I ever wanted to do,” Masser says thoughtfully. “A lot of people might not understand this, but when potatoes are part of your heritage and who you are, this simply becomes the livelihood you grow to love and hold hopes and aspirations for. And now, I’ve been at this for almost 30 years.”
Masser started farming while he was in middle school with his father Mark and his brother Lamont. Mark gave Lamont and Nolan the chance to grow a few acres of potatoes for themselves. They learned how to grow, finance their small venture, and market their production. Red Hill Farms is operated and managed by Nolan. Lamont runs the Masser family’s seven H&R Block tax preparation franchised locations, but returns to help Nolan farm when time permits. Their father Mark retired 10 years ago, officially turning the management over to Nolan, but he still shows up to help with the farming every day. Again, when potatoes are part of who you are, retirement doesn’t seem to matter; farming is just what you do.
Many people help Red Hill Farms be successful. Masser is particularly mindful and grateful for the support of his entire family. His cousin Jim Saltzman is his right-hand man. His wife Melinda; his sons James, John and Nathan; his mother Arlene; and his in-laws, nieces and nephew all volunteer and help get the work done.
Mid-Atlantic Farming
At Red Hill Farms, potatoes are grown for both table-stock and chip-stock production. Most of the potatoes are tablestock and marketed to wholesalers for distribution through area supermarkets. A quarter of the production is for chip-stock, and Masser’s chip varieties are marketed to regional chip processors through the Pennsylvania Cooperative Potato Growers. Cabbage, wheat, corn and soybeans are the farm’s rotation crops.
Farming in Pennsylvania has challenges similar to other farming regions in the Northeast. It can be difficult to find suitable farmland, and field size tends to average around three acres for Red Hill Farms. Rolling, steep hills and long slopes mean strip farming is the most suitable practice to help minimize erosion. More than ever, area farmers are adopting no-till farming practices, building up heavy field residues in the process. Unfortunately, they are not too keen about having potato growers move on to their fields and till everything under for potatoes. It can also be hard finding fields with good water resources for irrigation. It’s not essential to irrigate crops in Pennsylvania, but Masser likes having the ability to control water for his potato crops in order to manage growing conditions and to prevent heat stress and subsequent quality issues.
After developing suitable fields with good water and irrigation resources, Pennsylvania potato growers then contend with rocky soils. To handle the rocks, Masser implemented a European style rock removal system and creates beds to grow potatoes in. The rocks are piled on outer wheel tracks and the beds are each tworows wide.
Because they rarely have the volume of water conducive for overhead irrigation, Masser irrigates these beds with drip irrigation. Drip tape is set in between the two rows in the potato beds and buried about two inches deep. “The potato beds and drip irrigation production methods are a continual work in progress, and with strip cropping, we need to be extremely precise in managing our water,” he said. “It is an unconventional system, but this is what works for growing potatoes in the Mahantongo Valley of central Pennsylvania.”
Locavore Opportunity
In general, the Pennsylvania industry struggles with the same marketing challenges the rest of the country faces. Retail continues to consolidate, and customers for growers and shippers to market table-stock potatoes to are becoming less and less. Growers in this area, for the most part, are not geared-up to play the commodity game.
Many consumers have embraced the locavore movement (where participants try to eat as much locally grown food as possible), and Masser comments about how this entire movement has been helpful to the marketing of potatoes grown in his state. “We try to identify customers who want specific types of Pennsylvania-grown potatoes, and the Norwis is a variety that has done well for us,” he said.
The Norwis variety is said to have originated as a Frito-Lay chip-stock variety, first developed in Rhinelander, Wis. Norwis potatoes are oval to oblong, slightlyflattened potatoes, with smooth, light-buff skin and pale yellow flesh. According to the American Journal of Potato Research (June 1990, Volume 67, Issue 6, pg. 371), it is also said to be a cultivar combining high yield, wide adaptation, good chipping quality, and general resistance to common potato diseases.
“It may have started as a Frito-Lay chip-stock variety, but customers in Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic have started asking for Norwis potatoes by name for fresh consumption,” Masser relates. “People especially like this potato for fresh-cut fries, and these are being sold in food and concession stands at diverse places like fairs and football games. So in away, the Norwis has become a specialty potato for our region. It must be grown and stored correctly or else it won’t fry, but when everything is right, the Norwis has a distinct flavor and texture that customers recognize and ask for by name.”
USPB Service
Masser is completing five years on the USPB, and is honored his fellow industry members in Pennsylvania have entrusted him with this opportunity to represent them. “I was motivated and accepted the nomination to serve on the USPB because I recognized this as an opportunity to give back to the industry that has given me so much,” he said.
Last year, Masser served on the USPB’s Finance Committee, overseeing the development of the USPB’s budgets with fellow Finance Committee members to ensure the USPB’s funds are responsibly allocated to the various marketing programs and activities for the current and future budget years. He also served three years on the PGUNS Trademark Review Committee. This committee is comprised of a group of 11 national grower-shippers who are tasked with reviewing and approving bags, cartons and other retail packaging which incorporates the “Potatoes… Goodness Unearthed” campaign signature artwork, telling all consumers how potatoes are good for them.
“Serving on the USPB has been an eye-opening experience about how diverse the potato industry truly is,”
Masser said. “I had the chance to travel to Idaho during last year’s USPB summer meeting, and traveling around Idaho really opened my eyes to their economies of scale, commitment and resources they’ve invested in this industry. We drove past the Palisades Reservoir on the Idaho-Wyoming border, and it could have been Lake Erie, from my perspective.
“One thing that continues to impress me about the USPB is how far the USPB can leverage the funds of growers. This money helps all of us at home and extends our reach around the world. I’m simply amazed at how the USPB can do that. Whether we sell our potatoes at the end of our farm lane or in Asia or South America, as an industry, we all rise and fall together. The USPB does a great job of promoting all potatoes, all the time.
“The research into consumers and the category has given me a lot of direction as to where I need to be heading and the types of potatoes I need to be growing. The insights about the ‘Linda’ marketing demographic have been particularly helpful to me in knowing and understanding my customers. Also, last year at the USPB annual meeting, the millennial focus group was quite telling about how we, as an industry, need to connect with this new generation who are very food-oriented and are increasingly influential with their rising purchasing power, new ideas and lifestyles.
“The USPB—along with the National Potato Council and Alliance for Potato Research—benefits us most when there’s an industry-wide problem like the lowcarbohydrate dieting trends from the past few decades. These organizations are who we count on to be on the front line defending potato nutrition, and it doesn’t matter who you are in the industry—everybody benefits from the air cover they give us.”
Promote All Potatoes
In closing, Masser believes all growers, everywhere, need to remain supportive of the USPB in continuing to promote all potatoes, all the time. “By promoting all potatoes, all the time, this helps all of us grow our own businesses,” Masser said.