The Wonder Potato

Yukon Gold Potatoes by Summer Tomato

With St Patrick’s Day almost here it seems appropriate to pay tribute to the wonder potato, or should I say the wondrous potato.

Later this week I’m going to post an article on everything you need to grow potatoes, but today I just want us to think about the amazing potato, the wonder potato, and to share how potatoes have always been part of my life.

Gold Straight From the Earth

When explorers set out to discover the New World perhaps they didn’t expect to bring back gold in the form of potatoes. “…the Spaniards failed to realize that the potato represented a far more important treasure than either silver or gold” writes Jeff Chapman on The History of the Potato. To me potatoes are synonymous with the earth – they come from the earth, smell of the earth, and a good potato even tastes of the earth.

Potatoes Twice a Day

Kids growing up in Scotland in the 1960’s had to love potatoes. Potatoes were an absolute staple. Most days I ate them for two meals – boiled potatoes at lunch and deep-fried potatoes, chips (known in the USA as french fries) for dinner. I don’t remember tasting rice or pasta until I was a teen; it took me quite a while to acquire a taste for them.

Golden Wonder Crisps

And when I had money to spend on a snack at the corner shop, my first choice was always a bag of crisps (potato chips). In fact I measured currency by crisps – I still remember the British conversion to decimal and how a a bag of crisps changed from being 6d (sixpence) to 2.5p (two and a half pence). One of the brands of crisps was called Golden Wonder. They’re still in business today – you can read more at that link.

The Best New Potatoes

There’s something magical about new potatoes, potatoes harvested for eating right away, early in the season, small and with thin skins, rather than for storage. Every spring in Scotland my mouth would be begin to water at the idea of them. My family would embark on a virtually endless quest to find the best new potatoes. Usually the best were Ayrshire potatoes, if we could get them.

Living by Potatoes Alone

I’d never have wanted to be dependent on potatoes like the Irish or the Scots when the potato famines arrived, but, until I left the home of my parents, I was perfectly happy to eat a meal of good-tasting new potatoes with nothing more than butter and salt, a sprinkling of shredded cheese, chopped up fresh mint, or even oatmeal. Who needs meat when you have a big bowl of wonderful potatoes?

The Potato Quest Continues

Since moving to Kansas I’ve been rather disappointed by the taste of potatoes, even new potatoes from the farmer’s market, they all seem to have a bitter under-taste. The only potatoes I can recommend are the ones I’ve had from the Rolling Prairie Farmer’s Alliance farm share program. This year I’m going to try growing my own – about 3lbs of delicious potatoes in the year is nowhere near enough for me!

On the other hand I have been quite satisfied by the crisps (potato chips) here in the USA, but for health reasons, and for my grocery budget, I’ve pretty much sworn off them. My favorites are crunchy, salt only, kettle chips.

Getting Back to Potatoes

I have to say that potatoes hold a special place in my heart, even though I have no Irish blood that I’m aware of. Maybe this is my humble attempt to claim back the potato from the Irish. My husband and I are both fans of the wonder potato, unlike my two teen kids who have been raised on much more bread, pasta, rice, and corn. I have many treasured potato recipes. I look forward to the day when I’ll be cooking potatoes, maybe twice a day again, for the two of us to enjoy, or at least once.

My favorite potato recipe book is Country Collection by Lyn Smart, which is available used through Amazon.com for as low as $0.25! What do you have to say about potatoes? Would you like to grow them?

Related posts:

1. Everything You Need to Grow Potatoes
2. Taste of the Sea
3. Local Thanksgiving, Kansas Style – part 2