New Jersey potatoes...

New Jersey potatoes...  My father's uncle Edward Dilatush (my great-uncle) grew potatoes near Robbinsville, New Jersey.  The farm has long since succumbed to suburban development, and nobody grows potatoes there any more.  As best I've been able to tell, Edward's potato company operated from around 1910 through the early 1950s.  He was part of a group of New Jersey potato growers that cooperatively marketed their potatoes under the “Garden State” brand.  Those of you who don't hail from New Jersey, besides being fortunate, you may not be aware that New Jersey calls itself “The Garden State”, and for much of its history that was an appropriate moniker.  These days, something like “smelly, polluted, Mafioso suburb” would be more on point.

But I digress.  At right you can see a photo of a burlap 100 lb potato sack bearing Edward Dilatush's name.  The Garden State branding dates from 1933, so it's no older than that.  The nice two-color silk screening was probably not done during WWII (everyone had better things to do then).  So most likely this sack dates from either '33 to '41, or from '47 to the early '50s...

Update: my mom tells me that Edward was my grandfather's uncle, or possibly his cousin – not his brother as I had believed.  Oh, well, at least I got the family right!