The History channel has a show on snack foods. It’s showing my all-time favorite junk foods. There were Milky Ways (okay, Snickers, but still, pretty much the same) and potato chips and Tootsie Rolls and next comes Hostess cupcakes.
So much for my trying to go to bed early.
Oh. My. Gawd. I cannot express to you how much I wish I were actually at each of the companies they showed us. Especially the Utz plant. I’d pay big money to be able to sample absolutely fresh potato chips.
Now I have to find out where to buy Snowden potatoes.
How about 5th Avenue candy bars ?
Abuelita Tortilla Chips are made in Manassas, a short drive from you.
chsw
the Utz factory is in Hanover, PA, which is only a few hours drive from Richmond. close to Gettysburg, so make a weekend of it or something.
the chips they sell in the Utz factory store are fresh, not hot out of the fryer fresh, but there’s a world of difference between the Utz you get in the supermarket vs. from their factory store. (while we were dating, my wife lived in Gettysburg, and when I’d come up on a weekend, we’d sometimes go over to Hanover, and the Utz store was a required stop.)
And only a few posts ago you were on statins? :-)
By the way came across this link about blueberries being effective in reducing LDL:
New research shows blueberries lower LDL cholesterol better than statin drugs
Cynic, the fact that a doctor told me my cholesterol needs to be lowered does not in any way mitigate my lifelong worship of the fried potato in all of its wonderful, myriad forms.
Tortilla chips are okay once in a blue moon, but they’re not made from potatoes.
I still need to find a place that sells Snowden potatoes retail. I want to make a batch of chips with them and see what the difference is.
Utz is one of the things that make me proud to be a Pennsylvanian. (Hershey’s, too.)
I still remember some of the billboards for them in the Philadelphia area:
“New Orleans. Great Jazz. No Utz.”
“Too bad for the rest of the world.”
I make an evening snack by slicing a third of a baking potato real thin with my electic slicer. Fry til crispy on the griddle with garlic oil and seasoning.. Ymmmm.
Satisfying Meryl’s potato chip jones:
Middletown has the Rt. 11 Potato Chip factory: http://www.rt11.com/
Staunton has Curry’s Kitchn Cookd Potato Chips (540-886-4473)
Moore’s Snacks has a chip plant in Bristol, which was once a Wise factory.
Also, doesn’t Richmond have FFV, the largest maker of Girl Scout Cookies?
chsw (10 boxes of Mint Cookies every year)
HEY! Meryl does something PC!
The Herr’s factory in Nottingham, PA offers tours, and the highlight is the tour giude retrieving a batch of still hot potato chips from the machine and passing them out after they cool to a safe temperature. Can’t get any fresher than that…
There is also a marshmallow factory in Las Vegas that offers tours…fresh marshmallows are another treat to behold.
Book recommendation: “Watch it made in the USA”, which lists factory tours in all 50 states.