Why Oregon’s Official Vegetable Is (Rightly) a Potato

Oregon adopted the potato as its state vegetable this year.

That may seem like a curious choice, given that Idaho grows a ton more potatoes. But our state can stake a claim to some notable contributions in potato snacks.

OPB’s Superabundant newsletter producer Heather Arndt Anderson talked to the City Cast Portland podcast about Oregon’s potato innovations.

🥔 Tater Tots

“The folks behind [Eastern Oregon food company] ORE-IDA were producing frozen corn niblets and frozen potato products, and they could offload the waste to cattle farmers in the area. But the scraps of potatoes were technically still edible. They wanted to figure out a way to recapture some of that cost rather than just throwing it out. They finally figured out a way to make them so that they wouldn't stick together in the freezer bag. Luckily, they were already producing some of their hash brown products. So I think the market was ready and when they finally released tater tots into markets in the mid 50s, they were just perfectly situated to be a hit.”

🍟 Curly Fries and the Jo Jo, Too

“ORE-IDA competitor [Lamb Weston], also in Eastern Oregon, invented this hydraulic gun that's a grid of knives — the water blasts the potato through it to rapidly cut french fries. And the same company invented the curly fry, so the curly fry is also born in Oregon. And we also invented the jo jo. So the holy trinity of potato products are all from Oregon.”

🥔 Best Tater Tots

Heather Arndt Anderson also offered her picks for Portland’s best tater tots.

• Fire on the Mountain
• McMenamins
• Bottle Rocket Burgers
• Hungry Tiger