February 18, 2022

ONE POTATO, TWO … ROTARY CLUBS TRUCKING IN 40,000 POUNDS OF SPUDS FOR FOOD BANKS

MUSKOKA — As Ottawa protesters were arrested today, a reefer truck full of “Yellow Gold” PEI potatoes is en route to Muskoka for a poutine party tomorrow morning.

Rotarians from Bracebridge, Gravenhurst, Huntsville and Muskoka Lakes will be at offloading 4,000 10-pound bags for distribution to local food banks.

And fear not, worrywarts, the spuds are perfectly safe to eat.

“I tried them out last night,” Rick Sanderson told MusokaTODAY.com Thursday from the Sanderson & Sons family farm overlooking Charlottetown.

It’s 50 miles from two neighbouring fields at the heart of last fall’s Canadian government ban on shipment to the U.S. due to potato wart.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has since given the affected farm the all-clear, but American authorities are only allowing potatoes from “Potato Country,” Canada’s largest potato producer to be shipped to Puerto Rico.

Sanderson faces the prospect of dumping four millions of pounds of potatoes — about a quarter of what he harvested from Oct. 1 to 21.

Driver Dena Peters shows some of the 16 skids of PEI potatoes destined for Muskoka tomorrow as part of charitable efforts by the five Rotary clubs in Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Huntsville and Muskoka Lakes. (Ken Peters photos)

Bracebridge Rotary Club member Paul Hammond was driving to Florida, with his wife Shirley, Dec. 29, when he heard on the radio about the blight plight of the farmers and how a man in Quebec bought a tractor trailer load of potatoes from PEI for food banks in Montreal.

Always looking for a way to help, Hammond came up with the idea of doing the same — helping farmers and Muskokans suffering COVID food insecurity.

“I’ve been a Rotarian for 42 years and I’m always looking for a project,” the 75-year-old said, adding the club distributed hand sanitizer 18 months ago “which went over extremely well.”

So when the snowbird landed in Fort Myers he contacted a friend in PEI and told him he didn’t want to deal with a big conglomerate.

Hammond called the PEI potato board about four times from Florida.

“You wouldn’t believe how much they thanked me,” he said, adding “I can’t say enough about the good people from PEI. The farm I’ve been dealing with and the trucking company (Bulk Carriers). They’re just the best.

“I’ll tell you how it all came about. When I found out the potatoes were available, I decided I had to find some money. Because, as you know, Rotary clubs don’t have any money — there’s no fundraisers going on right now.”

So he called the District of Muskoka “and spoke to some of the people I know and told them here’s what I want to do. But I got no money and club’s got no money.”

He said he told them he had five Rotary clubs involved and they said: “‘Well, leave it with us.’”

Four days later they called back and said they’ll “verbally approve the cost of the potatoes and the transportation” — and the province of Ontario will “pay the bill” through a grant process.

Hammond said the potatoes cost approximately $10,000 and the transportation about $3,700.

**Rick Sanderson sends his love and “thanks” to Muskoka’s five Rotary clubs for buying 40,000 pounds of PEI potatoes from his farm.**

Saturday morning at 10 a.m. long-haul truckers Ken and Dena Peters will end their 1,100-mile delivery of 40,000 pounds of potatoes on 16 skids, which they picked up Wednesday afternoon. They drove to Toronto last night and will make the final trek to Bracebridge tomorrow.

There at Fanotech, where some potatoes will be stored, Rotarians from across Muskoka will “hand-bomb” them into pickup trucks for distribution to their towns and various food banks and the Salvation Army in Bracebridge and Huntsville.

Two skids are going to Muskoka Lakes and Hawk Delivery Service is taking four-and- half skids up to Huntsville to meet Rotarians there.

Afterwards the Bracebridge Rotary Club is hosting a poutine party to celebrate the arrival and distribution with French fries, gravy and curds.

The Peters will then deliver the remaining seven skids to the Gravenhurst Home Hardware, which is storing them for the GAP located across the street and the Salvation Army a few blocks away.

Rick Sanderson, a third generation potato farmer on the North River across from the Prince Edward Island capital, “thanked” the Rotarians.

He said the sale may be small potatoes compared to the millions of pounds he has. But it helps him and his three brothers — Randy, Rodney, Robbie and Rick’s son Dylan — who run the farm avoid destroying much of their crop.

Their father, John, died last month at age 88.

Fulton Sanderson and his son John began the relatively small 450-acre Sanderson & Sons Farm in 1947. They also have cattle and grow soybeans, which have seen a bumper crop this year, but with increased prices.

Sanderson said they are lucky to have a contract for 5.1 million pounds of their Russet Burbank potatoes with Cavendish Farms, which makes French fries. He also expects to be able to store some seed potatoes for sale later this year.

He said the ban was “blown out of all proportion. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Meanwhile, he said potatoes from Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick are still being sent to the States, where farmers including in Idaho are happily reaping the benefits. Soon he said more Florida potatoes will also be available.

“It’s a wonderful thing,” said Hammond. “I’m so happy the way it’s working out. We’re only one truckload.

“But the Sanderson people said: ‘It’s all cash flow for us. We’re sittin’ here and thinkin’ we’re gonna have to take the snowblower out in the field and put the potatoes through it and plow them all over.’”

Bulk Carriers driver Dena Peters and her husband Ken, her co-driver, picked up the reefer truck Wednesday afternoon and will deliver it to Bracebridge and Gravenhurst Saturday morning after an 1,100-mile long haul.

As an aside, Hammond — who was owner of Hammond Transport for decades before selling it six years ago and was also head of the Ontario Trucking Association — joked that he didn’t know of any of the Hammond trucks being involved in protests.

“Jesus, no. I’d shoot anybody if my drivers were ever in that.

“It’s a whole bunch of bull shit. It’s not big companies, it’s just little individual operators who are lookin’ for somethin’ to do,” said Hammond, who had his three shots before left he his Bracebridge home and thought the prime minister should have stepped in the first day or two.

“Is the whole world going crazy, or what?”

Hammond said he wished he could back in home for the delivery.

But he was happy to leave in the hands of fellow Muskoka Rotarians.

“You know, people like Bonnie Dart, Barb McCabe (in Gravenhurst), Andrew Smellie (Bracebridge) and Gord Mitchell in Huntsville, they can look after this. All I did was lay it all out and how I thought it should all come about. And that took quite awhile, about three or four weeks.”

The yellow potatoes coming to Muskoka are in white paper sacks baring the Sherwood Produce brand, where they were packaged and shipped in the 45-degree Fahrenheit Bulk Carrier transport trailer driven by the husband and wife haulers.

Sanderson said in cold storage they should last a couple of months.

But “they’re so good, once you open them they won’t last long.”