Of Chips and Colts

Hanover, PA

“Utz Are Better Than Nuts”

The area of Southeastern Pennsylvania is home to many companies that make – those foods that are at the top of the food triangle – junk food - potato chips, pretzels and other snack foods. We started today with a tour of Utz in Hanover, PA. Picture taking was strictly forbidden so – I only snuck one photo.

Utz, started in 1921 in the kitchen of Bill and Salie Utz with an investment of $300. They could produce 50 pounds of chips an hour. In 2011, Utz is distributed to 13 states and to Costco and Sam's Clubs nation wide and is the largest independent privately held snack brand in the U.S. Utz produces one million pounds of potato chips and 900,000 pounds of pretzels each week. And so many other snack foods that I cannot begin to name them.

After snarfing down our measly little free bag of chips – the size bag that you get with a sandwich – we headed down the road to Hanover Shoe Farms.

If you have ever been to a harness race or seen one on TV you have undoubtedly seen horses with the name “Hanover” as part of the horse's name “Donato Hanover” “Blaze Hanover”. These horses have been bred at Hanover Shoe Farms. Hanover was originally founded in the early 1900's and is today the leading breeder of Standard Bred horses. What we found amazing is that visitors are allowed to wander at will, unaccompanied through several of the barns and out among the paddocks where the older foals and their moms and the stallions – who are kept far from the mares - are. This is something that would never happen in the world of Thoroughbred race horses. This time of year is when the foals are being born and although we did not see any mares actually in labor we did see several colts and fillies that were born yesterday and today. 

All in all – it was a nice day away from the ravages of the Civil War.