Unless you’re talking about some of their specialty spuds, the Masser Family of Companies is no small potatoes.
The operation encompasses an entire potato supply chain from field to shelf, including growing, processing, packaging and shipping tubers all over the country.
The family got started in potatoes after emigrating to central Pennsylvania from Germany back in 1754, said Dave Masser, CEO of the family of companies.
“I’m the eighth generation in the family’s history to farm potatoes here in this country,” Masser said.
First settling in the Reading area, the family moved a bit north to the fertile Mahantongo Valley where they grew potatoes and other produce, marketing them to communities in the surrounding coal regions.
By the early 1920s, Dave’s great-great-grandfather Charles Masser was serving retailers throughout the region, including Weis Markets, which had been recently founded in Sunbury. The potato business grew.
Through the decades, the Massers collaborated in marketing with the Pennsylvania Co-Operative Potato Growers, founded in 1922. The year 2026 will mark a century since the Masser family began working with the co-op, Dave said.
In the 1950s, his grandfather Sterman began farming on about 100 acres he rented from an uncle in Sacramento, Schuylkill County.
After he bought the land in the late 1960s, the Sterman Masser Potato Company was incorporated in 1970.
Sterman was instrumental in developing the business’ hauling branch, starting with green International trucks prior to what became the signature red of the current 40-truck fleet.
“My grandfather always had trucks,” Dave said. “So when we incorporated in the ‘70s, we always had trucks to support the business.”
A handy and supportive local John Deere dealership helped facilitate a switch from red to green tractors in the 1980s.
“My dad (Keith Masser) always said when we started we had green trucks and red tractors,” Dave said. “When my dad bought the business in 1984, he converted the tractors to green tractors and then red trucks.”
Masser trucks in their signature red color.
The potato business continued to grow through the 1990s.
Around 2000, the Massers began to shift away from traditional round potatoes toward russets, which were becoming increasingly popular thanks to their versatility in the kitchen.
At the time, there was a lack of russet varieties that grew well in Pennsylvania, compelling the family to begin farming in Michigan where the sandy soils were well-suited to their production.
“We started growing potatoes there and then realized that instead of bringing all the potatoes here, it would make sense if we would pack the potatoes in Michigan as well,” Dave said.
That led them to launch Fresh Solution Farms, LLC in Michigan, a facility where the potatoes are packed without traveling to Pennsylvania.
Fresh Solution Farms is a five-way partnership that includes three marketing partners and a grower that has taken over production.
Meanwhile, along with the Pennsylvania Co-Operative Potato Growers and other partners, including Penn State, Massers have been developing russets better suited to Pennsylvania.
“We’ve developed some russet varieties over the last 10 years that can grow well here,” Dave said.
Other niche varieties that have been seeing market growth include gold potatoes, fingerlings, and especially baby potatoes or “creamers.”
“We see steady growth with creamer potatoes,” Dave said.
Tractor and potato harvester.
The Massers farm about 6,000 acres in the Lykens and Hegins valleys on a three-year rotation that includes corn, soybeans, wheat and cover crops alternating with the potatoes. They grow some hay as well.
While raising potatoes requires some tillage, Dave said they try to minimize it. The rotating grain and cover crops are no-till.
Dry weather and heat are among the biggest challenges potatoes growers face. They affect both quantity and quality.
“Potatoes are nightshades,” Dave said. “It can be hot during the day, but then it needs to cool down at night. And when it doesn’t do that, along with dry conditions, they don’t respond well.”
The capacity to irrigate about half of the potato acreage helps but still leaves “a lot of risk out there,” he said.
In 2022, Massers launched Lykens Valley Grain in Elizabethville. While potatoes remain at the core of the businesses, acquiring the grain storage facility was a natural step given the large amounts of corn, soybeans and wheat already being grown as rotation crops.
“We had our grain facilities on site here,” Dave said. “But as we expanded the operation, we ran out of space here at Sacramento. So that’s when we purchased the grain center.”
Grains are sold to local processors in the state.
Additional products marketed by the Massers include onions and sweet potatoes.
Potatoes being processed at Keystone Potato Products, LLC, one of the Masser companies.
Altogether, between Sterman Masser Potato Farms, Masser Logistics Service and Brokerage (a transport company launched in 2013), Keystone Potato Products (a processing plant in Hegins) and Lykens Valley Grain, the Masser Family of Companies employs about 450 people.
The processing plant, built in the early 2000s, has fostered growth by providing labor-saving fresh cut and peeled potato products to restaurants and other customers.
“I think our ability to provide just-in-time inventory services to our customers has allowed for that growth,” Dave said.
Delivering a variety of value-added products and offering alternate package sizes have also helped facilitate growth in recent years. That includes specialty potato products sold under their proprietary Side Delights label.
“We’re constantly looking at new ways to create excitement within the potato category,” Dave said.
Peeled and bagged potatoes ready to ship.
