White House donuts grace Giants’ table

White House donuts grace Giants’ table

CANFIELD

Super Bowl week is almost exclusively devoted to the game, the commercials and the parties.

It’s difficult to divert the attention away from those three topics, but one local company managed to find itself in the spotlight.

White House Fruit Farm, 9249 Youngstown-Salem Road, received some unexpected recognition this week when its popular blueberry donuts — 120 of them — were picked up and taken to Indianapolis in advance of today’s Super Bowl, for consumption by the NFC Champion New York Giants.

“It was a really fun week here on the farm,” said Debbie Pifer, owner. “We think we’ve had our 15 minutes of fame.”

Pifer said the farm received a call last Saturday from Linda McNally, the mother-in-law of New York Giants center Jim Cordle, who played high school football in Lancaster, Pa.

Cordle, who played at The Ohio State University for five years, was signed off the Giants’ practice squad earlier this year and will start at center in today’s game.

Like most offensive linemen, Cordle, at 6-foot-3, 320 pounds, likes to eat.

“When he’s in town, he likes to come out to White House Fruit Farm to get some fruit,” said McNally, a Canfield resident. “[He] started taking back the blueberry donuts to New York for the O-line, so it’s kind of become a tradition.

“Every time he comes to Canfield he has to bring back the blueberry donuts.”

So McNally on Friday morning picked up 10 dozen donuts and drove them 337 miles to Indianapolis, the site of Super Bowl XLVI.

“Not only the O-liners are going to have the donuts but also the entire New York Giants football team,” McNally said.

And not only will Giants players be satisfied with the donuts, but White House Fruit Farms also received a boost.

“We’ve had a very wonderful local response,” she said. “People who have never visited our farm before, or who have known of us but never visited. Phone calls from around the area, from around the country. It’s been a blast.”

This week was an especially apt time for the farm, Pifer said.

“Farm markets in January in Ohio are not real, real busy, so we’ve had a really great week of business and connecting with a lot of new friends.”

There are enough donuts to last the entire Giants’ football squad, but McNally doesn’t think the off-field donuts will lead to an on-field donut.

“We’re hoping that the White House Fruit Farm donuts bring in a victory.”