I go to the Pennsylvania Farm Show in January so you don’t have to — although you really should. This year, in addition to learning about the Lineback, an old American “landrace” dairy cow breed with freckles and, yes, a white stripe down their backs, I ran into Ben Wenk, who grows a lot of our apples at his Three Springs Fruit Farm in Adams County. Ben was “helping” with a cooking demo. 

And I also made this astounding discovery:

Dieffenbach’s makes One Potato Two Potato.

Dieffenbach’s Old Original are my favorite potato chips. Well, my second favorite, after blue Good’s. No, Dieffenbach’s. Probably. Anyway, what these chips, and maybe a dozen other brands concentrated in Berks, Lancaster and York counties, have in common is that they’re kettle-fried in lard — the way all potato chips used to be made before PepsiCo and Frito-Lay took over the snack world. 

Now, salty snacks are no one’s idea of health food, but here at the Co-op, we try to minimize the damage rather than going all executive order on them. Our buyers and suppliers are always looking for tortilla chips and pretzels and potato chips and other snacks that are baked or use healthier oils or at least are organic. And one of these is One Potato Two Potato — fried in expeller-pressed sunflower-seed oil, certified kosher, no artificial flavors, no MSG, no nuts, no gluten, Non-GMO Project-certified. One Potato also makes chips out of sweet potatoes and other roots. All in all, they’re doing the right thing by you people who are looking for a “better-for-you” snack — which is actually a slogan One Potato uses in its marketing.

So I’m in the vendor hall at the Farm Show, at the Dieffenbach’s booth, tearing into my Dieffenbach’s Old Fashion sample, when it dawns on me that I’m facing a wall of One Potato Two Potato bags. “What?” I shriek, “Dieffenbach’s makes One Potato Two Potato?” Replies Donna, who is putting out samples: “We sure do.”

Well. When I got back to work, I rang up Melissa Billman, head of sales promotion for One Potato snacks at the home office in Womelsdorf (which is in Berks County, halfway between Reading and Lebanon, in case you didn’t know.) 

Dieffenbach’s launched One Potato in the spring of 2013, “just seeing the trend in the market,” Melissa said. “One Potato is performing very well throughout the U.S.,” and Naked Sea Salt is the best seller. “The Dieffenbachs have been making kettle chips for 50 years,” she added. “We’re still family owned and operated,” Is she a Dieffenbach? Chuckle. “No.” (For the record, CEO Nevin Dieffenbach is the grandson of founder Mark Dieffenbach.)

I’ve tried One Potato chips (Naked Sea Salt, of course) and they’re OK — for being cooked in sunflower-seed oil. However, I’m all for line extension, especially if it keeps the lights on and rings the cash register. Dieffenbach’s doubled its plant size and production capacity in 2013, and upped employment from about 50 people to 95 in 2015. 

No, we don’t carry Dieffenbach’s Old Original at Weavers Way. But I know where to get them, and blue Good’s too. Just ask.