Lamb Weston Boardman Potato Plant, Oregon

This is the largest of Lamb Weston’s half dozen potato plants in the Columbia River Basin, which collectively transform 11 billion potatoes each year into French fries and other frozen potato products for restaurants, retailers, and foodservice companies. In 1960, F. Gilbert Lamb, the company’s founder, invented the Lamb Water Gun Knife, the first device to slice French fries in a high-velocity water flow (now common practice). In addition to freeze tunnels and cold storage for finished products, the Lamb Weston Boardman plant, like most potato processing plants, also holds raw potatoes in cold storage for several months, at between 45 and 55 degrees F, in order to continue operations year round. ConAgra Foods owns the company. The second-largest Lamb Weston plant in the Columbia River Basin, the Hermiston plant, is nearby, and currently employs 500 people making frozen potato products. That plant was featured in a 2008 History Channel Modern Marvels episode showing how French fries are made.