Get real about Maine potatoes

    Despite my leaning to fret about tar balls, dying fish, sludge covered birds (did you know last week the Federal Inland Fish folks wouldn’t let Anderson Cooper get close enough to actual see or photograph the birds they were saving?), and the general lack of humanity some BP officials seem to be displaying, despite their dry commercials to the contrary, I decided instead to write about our own local farmers, Lays potato chips, the Potato Blossom Festival, and Get Real Get Maine, for the most part.     For those folks who had previously seen Darrell McCrum’s picture on the Lay’s potato chip advertisement as you left Shop and Save, and were wondering where he went, you’ll have to come to the Chamber Office. I have him here with us. I didn’t actually steal him for the record: I did “ask” Dana. And, I have it on good authority, there’s going to be a big display even, so keep an eye out. He’s not going to be on display forever either, and I do have a place for him in the office once he’s done advertising up the street.
    What I missed the first dozen times I watched what I think is a fairly funny commercial about potato farmers from across the country, advertising their potatoes make better chips for Lays, was that young Mr. Mars Hill McCrum must have been tortured by the Lays officials into saying New England, rather than Maine Potatoes. I have watched the commercial over and over feeling just mean that they didn’t have one single person saying Maine (those Texas farmers are too good), when after I hootched the ad from Shop & Save, it finally dawned on me, why Mr. New England did in fact look so familiar.
    Bringing me back to why would Lays torture a young County Farmer like that? New England, huh. I suppose I’ll have to get over it, but I think there should have been a byline on the TV commercial saying “One young farmer was harmed in the shooting of this commercial,” or something to that effect. But, although I am complaining a bit, I think it’s a great campaign, a great idea, and I am so happy they chose a County potato farmer to represent Maine Potatoes, even if he’s not from Caribou. He’s a good looking young man, and they can’t all be Irvings, Blackstones or Griffeths I suppose (not that there’s anything the matter with our other Caribou farmers, I’m just saying).
    Ahh, bringing me somewhat to a different subject, do you have your Blackstone Barn calendar yet? It begins with July 2010 – and you’ll want to pick yours up ASAP: don’t wait ‘til digging.
    Anyways, it won’t be long until Potato Blossom, and we’re taking our Caribou Cares About Kids “show on the road. We’re going to the Potato Blossom Festival on July 15th and we’re going to have a children’s event: Xtreme Potato Racing. No, none of us have yet to make a potato car. No, we don’t know how we’ll make the wheels stay on (yet? If at all?). But we’re going to figure it out between now and then, and we’re going to Fort Fairfield! We’re going to drive the bugs out of the whole thing (yes potato bugs, yes it’s a bad pun), and once we’ve mastered the whole racing format, we’re going to do it again in Caribou – in the downtown, during Caribou Cares About Kids in August!
    Finally, we had two visitors of note in the office last week, one from another chamber, and one young lovely local, who picked up some agriculture materials, who didn’t seem to know about Get Real Get Maine and the Maine Lobster folks. Well! Some of the best things in life really are free, if you’re into this kind of thing!
    And, yes Get Real, Get Maine is a fabulous marketing machine which has a huge litany of items to advertise our agricultural communities. Great stuff, free, shiny, in color and very catchy! Lastly so do the Lobster folks. Now, in general I’m not a huge fan of the whole Maine Lobster deal. I just figure those folks down along the coast have it all going on, and don’t need our help campaigning for their crustaceans. They’re all set. But, through the Maine Restaurant Association I have seen blips in their newsletters about free lobster materials, and yes, I’m a hootch (which turns out to be a virtue in the land of chamber people). So the first year, I sent them an e-mail, and they mailed us lobster bags and placemats and bibs and even cute little lobster passports (very cute). The second year the campaign either didn’t have as much funding, or I missed the first call on them, or something because they called the Caribou Chamber, and asked if we might want any bags or placemats, which is evidently all they had. I said yes, send them.
    I always tell everyone, send/give us as many as you have, and we’ll find them good homes. Poof, a week goes by, and the UPS man comes in the office to ask where do we want the boxes? Well, how many boxes? Eighteen boxes. Eighteen big heavy boxes. There is a new graduate of Caribou High School who can corroborate this. She lugged them to the basement, and the ladies all grumbled about my hootch-ed-ness. No kidding. This was two years ago now, and we’re actually finding them homes after all this time: you’d be surprised the folks who take the bags.
    They are nice bags. They’re heavy and pretty, and we do include them in materials we send to school children from far away states who’ve written to the interestingly named town on the map — way up at the tip of Maine. We include a great deal more about potatoes, and Caribous, but a little lobster seems OK in these instances.
    Don’t forget, Xtreme Potato Racing, July 15th. If we crash, we won’t burn anyway, and it should be lots of fun. In the meantime, buy Lay’s, shop local, and keep an eye out for the display at Shop and Save!
    Wendy Landes, MPA, is the executive director of the Caribou Chamber of Commerce & Industry. She can be reached in person at 24 Sweden Street, Suite 101; by telephone at 498-6156 or via e-mail at wlandes@cariboumaine.net.