This weekend, the Potato Festival will continue its long history of bringing folks to the small community to celebrate the lowly spud. What has been known over the past 50-plus years as the Mantua Potato Festival first began as a Potato Show in 1938. The purpose of the event was to promote the superior quality of the high concentration of spuds grown in Mantua. In a program for the 1941 Potato Show, local grower Samuel Alger noted, “…we as growers have before us a potato second to none in quality and appearance. Let our goal be to grow more, show more, and sell more like them.”
A printed program from that year also included potato recipes, winning growers from previous years, and local advertising from area businesses including Portage Farm Bureau, Stamm Contracting, and Mantua Grain & Supply. The guide was also full of potato facts, including one from Mrs. Arthur Ryder, who noted that grated potato will relieve a burn. Also included were bits of potato history, such as this morsel from Mrs. A. V. Zuver of Hiram, who explained the origin of the tuber’s nickname of SPUD. Zuver noted that in colonial Virginia, the potato was such a crucial food source that an organization was formed to encourage its use. The organization was called the Society for the Prevention of Unwholesome Diets (SPUD).
The first Mantua grower began shipping potatoes to Cleveland by train in 1855. By 1900, 32,000 bushels filled 500 rail cars annually. During the 1850’s, ten pounds of potatoes were sold for nineteen cents; prize-winning produce was awarded a dollar for first place, down to fifty cents for a fourth-place potato. The Mantua Potato Show ceased in the mid 1940s due to WWII.
What we’ve come to know as the Mantua Potato Festival began in 1974 to celebrate Mantua’s 75th anniversary. The fledgling festival made history in 1980, serving the world’s largest single serving of mashed potatoes, when five tons of creamy goodness slid down a cement truck chute, affixing Mantua in the Guinness Book of World Records for the first time. In 2017, the small town again made it into the notable record book, creating a 200-pound pierogi at the festival grounds. The potato-filled delicacy was created with help from the Crestwood Foodservice team and two chefs from Jake’s Restaurant and verified by then-Portage County Auditor Janet Esposito. Sadly, the record was broken the following weekend by a local culinary school.
At this year’s 50th Potato Festival, while tubers won’t be on the judging block, there will be events and attractions for folks of all ages. For live music lovers, band performances from Country Reign, Bad Seed, Paul Kovac Big Grass Band, and My Drunken Uncle will take the stage at various times throughout the weekend.
Crooked River Floral will have make and take succulent pumpkins (or potatoes) and kids pumpkin painting, and kids of all ages can be judged as the best dressed potato head. In addition to concessions and fair rides and games, the Potato Festival will hold potato chip, mashed potato, tater tot, and French fry-eating contests throughout the weekend as well.
Activities include the bucket brigade, Timberbeast Ax Throwing, K9 demos, potato spoon races, potato sack races, cornhole, Roaming Railroad, Mini Monster Trucks and the annual Potato Festival Parade. This year’s Grand marshals of the parade are life-long residents and business owners Edie and Jeff Benner. “It’s exciting to be a part of this community,” Edie Benner shared, “and to be part of the continuing tradition of the Potato Festival.”
The 50th Potato Festival opens this Friday, September 8th and continues through Sunday, September 10th in Mantua.
