PEI Potato Board: 'We've had and excellent growing season'

Greg Donald, general manager of the Prince Edward Island potato board, is looking back on a good year:

"We've had an excellent growing season,"he said. “The fields looked as good as we’ve seen them in a long time. As usual with any crop, there are minimal issues here and there, but nothing major.

“This is certainly good news after the bad 2009 harvest. About 3,000 acres of potatoes were left in the fields last year. They won’t be leaving behind anywhere near that amount this year.”

Later in November the PEI starts their packaged products’ promotion. The PEI Potato Board is once again holding its annual “Pack Your Appetite” contest. Consumers can find a PIN code on select PEI potato paper bags and on PEI potato polybag clips. They enter the PIN on the web site or submit it by mail. Two grand prizes are trips to Prince Edward Island. Other prizes include grocery store gift cards and copies of Flavours of Prince Edward Island: A Culinary Journey, a cookbook by Jeff McCourt, Alan Williams and Austin Clement.

“We team up for the contest with the PEI tourism department, and with Michael Smith, a well known Canadian chef who lives in PEI,” said Mr. Donald. “The contest is always a great success. Last year we had over 114,000 entries.”

Related: Stats of 2010 Canadian potato production, including the acreage and production of Prince Edward Island