A peek inside a potato barn

The humble potato, a staple of the American diet and for generations the backbone of Long Island agriculture, is still one of the island’s major food crops, despite hundreds of acres of former potato farms giving way to vineyards over the course of the last three decades.

The tuberous vegetable is still the principal crop grown by Edward Zilnicki & Sons in Riverhead. For more than 65 years and three generations, the Zilnicki family has been planting, harvesting, grading, washing and bagging several varieties of potatoes on its Sound Avenue farm.

Here’s a peek at the Zilnicki operation, from field to bag.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti and Peter Blasl.

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