Summary: How to Grow Great Potatoes
Grow Great Potatoes in Your Own Backyard
A really nasty seed-borne
bacterial blackleg disease, Dickeya
solani is causing concern to potato
farmers.
First identified in Holland in
2005, Dickeya solani is an aggressive form
of another type of blackleg disease, Dickeya
dianthicola that has established itself in several
countries in Europe, including Spain, France and Belgium, as
well as in Finland and Poland. It has also spread to the United
Kingdom (specifically England and Wales) and other parts of the
world.
Prior to this, as early as 1970,
the less aggressive form of blackleg, Dickeya
dianthicola had been reported in Holland and was
already causing concern.
A Threat to
Farmers
Dickeya
solani causes tubers to rot and the growing plants to
wilt, which is exactly what the traditional blackleg diseases
do. But the damage this one causes is much worse, and it
happens in a far wider range of conditions, with less bacteria
present.
Farmers worldwide are warned to
use only high quality seed crops since the original scourge is
said to have been largely the result of the downgrading of seed
crops and exportation of affected seed.
Scotland has taken a particularly
hard line since the disease has never been found in potatoes of
Scottish origin.
In 2009 the bacterial disease was
found on a Scottish farm. According to widely published news
reports, immediate action was taken by the authorities who
insisted that all seed stock from potato production on that
particular farm was removed and destroyed, and all machinery
and equipment thoroughly cleaned.
What Researchers
Say
According to Jan van der Wolf and
four of his Dutch colleagues, climate change is partly
responsible for the “new” blackleg diseases.
They stated in research papers
published in New and old pathogens of potato in
changing climatein 2007, that there were as many as six
new species of Dickeya, and that they were most
virulent in warm climates. Another problem they identified is
that water can spread the disease through the soil where rotten
tubers are present, contaminating plants that were not
previously affected.
Jaana Laurila and five colleagues
from Finland reported in same series of papers, that some
highly virulent Dickeya strains may be
present in rivers and there “is a risk that they will spread
into potato stocks if contaminated river water is used for
irrigation of seed potato fields”.
How to Prevent This Disease from
Spreading
According to the UK’s Potato
Council head of seed and export, Mr Robert Burns, the rest of
the world can learn from the Scottish lesson.
As Dickeya solani wreaked havoc in other
parts of the Britain during the first decade of this century,
legislation was introduced to Scotland to force farmers to
use potato seed produced in Scotland.
Wales and England, on the other
hand, still import about 10% of their seed from Europe – and
there is no quarantine status requiring the seed to be free
from Dickeya solani.
“The best way to prevent the
introduction of these non-indigenous pests is by doing all we
can to stop them entering the country in the first place,” said
Burns just weeks before the 2012 World Potato Congress to be
held in Edinburgh.
Date Published: May 15, 2012 - 5:23 pm
Growing potatoes can be incredibly rewarding,
particularly if you have the space to plant a fair number of
them. Better still, if you get a particularly good crop, you can
process some of them and store them for times when there aren’t
any fresh tubers to harvest from your garden.
The Best Ways to Process Your
Spuds
When you “process” potatoes, all
you are really doing is semi-preparing them for cooking. So you
can peel them, halve them peeled or unpeeled, quarter or slice
them, peel and dice them, or you can even cut them ready for
frying as chips.
If you don’t process your spuds,
you can also cook them and freeze them (for example in the form
of mash), but the processing option is a lot more
versatile.
While it’s wonderful to have a
ready supply of fresh veg from the garden, potatoes will start to
go soft if they are left for too long. Then they will eventually
start to rot.
How to Store Your Processed
Potatoes
While freshly harvested spuds can
be stored in any cool, ventilated pantry, cupboard or drawer, as
soon as they have been processed, you need to refrigerate or
freeze them. While frozen veggies will obviously last a lot
longer (for at least a year), this isn’t always the best option.
For example chips freeze very well, but baby potatoes lose
texture and flavour, even though the freezing process preserves
them. If you are going to use them in a stew or casserole, that’s
fine, but it doesn’t work for those that are intended for a
salad.
Any processed spuds kept in the
refrigerator should be packed in polythene bags and stored in the
vegetable tray that isn’t a cold as the open shelves.
Tips for Freezing Processed
Potatoes
1. Chips. Peel, slice and then blanch in hot oil
for a couple of minutes. Remove them from the oil and let them
drain, and then cool. Package in polyurethane bags and remove all
air before sealing (a good way is to suck the air out through a
straw).
2. Baby potatoes. Blanch in boiling water for
about three minutes. Plunge into cold water and then allow them to
cool before packaging them as above.
3. Diced potatoes. Peel, dice and blanch in
boiling water for a couple of minutes. You don’t want them to go
soft. Follow the same cold-water plunge, cooling and packaging
process.
4. Label all your bags with the process used to
prepare the spuds as well as the date. It’s also a good idea to
include the unfrozen weight of your spuds because once they are
frozen they will weigh more. If you generally use a specific
quantity of say diced veg in stews, package according to this
quantity for convenience.
Freezing and
De-thawing
It usually makes sense to load
your freezer progressively for energy efficiency reasons, but it
depends on quantity. Small amounts don’t really make much
difference; but if you’ve got more than about half a dozen bags,
consider keeping half of them in the fridge overnight.
The best way to thaw frozen
potatoes is in the refrigerator, or at room
temperature if the weather is cool.
Date Published: Apr 22, 2012 - 6:12 am
With potatoes being the number one veggie crop in the USA, it's
not surprising that the United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) has dedicated a lot of time and money to doing all it can
to develop potatoes that will resist the typical diseases that
attack potatoes.
It's not just the damage from potato diseases that costs the US
economy a lot of money, it is also post-harvest losses that the
USDA maintains are as high as 30%. And if it happens there,
chances are the international potato industry is suffering
similar losses as well.
What Geneticists are Doing
In Madison, Wisconsin in the USA, there are geneticists employed
by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) who have been
searching for wild potatoes that are naturally resistant to
certain deadly diseases that constantly plague potatoes –
including blight. And they are finding them too.
Diseases Geneticists are Fighting
One major problem-disease the scientists have been looking to
find a solution for is Verticillium wilt, which is a fungal
disease. It's a tricky one, because it can remain active in the
soil for as long as a decade and will strike when farmers least
expect it to.
|
American geneticists Dennis Halterman and Shelley Jansky
from the ARS Vegetable Crops Research Unit with some of the
plants they are working with. Photograph credit:
USDA.
|
They have found a wild potato – Solanum chacoense – which
appears to be resistant to Verticillium wilt, and they believe
that the resistant gene is durable enough to hold up long-term in
the commercial potatoes they have bred.
They have also identified at least one wild potato – Solanum
verrucosum – that is highly resistant to late blight, and
another that is resistant to early blight; and they have crossed
these with one another. Now they are trying to cross this
resultant "wild" potato with a cultivated potato in an endeavour
to integrate the gene that will make the "new" potato resistant
to both early and late blight.
Early blight, which also affects tomatoes, is a fungal problem
that affects the leaves and stems of the plant. Ultimately it can
drastically reduce the yield of both
potatoes and
tomatoes.
Late blight is also fungal. It is spread by wind and rain – and
sometimes over very long distances. It's a bad one because it
survives on infected tubers making it easy for proliferation.
They are also working to find a wild potato that will resist
common scab, a horribly common disease that is spread through the
soil by bacteria that attack the tubers. While you can eat
potatoes that are affected by scab, it's ugly and not acceptable
commercially.
Chances are they'll do it too!
Knowing that there are disease-free possibilities, make sure you
see if any of these are available before you buy your next potato
seed.
Date Published: Mar 11, 2012 - 10:19 am
All living organisms are prone to certain diseases, not least of
which is the humble potato which, by the way, is the fourth
largest crop in the world after wheat, rice and corn! In fact the
potato is prone to so many different diseases, and is attacked by
so many lethal pests, that horticulturists have made it their
business to develop many varieties of disease-resistant potato.
|
Defender, a blight-resistant variety of potato,
thrives in a bed where all the other varieties have been
killed by late blight. Photograph credit: USDA.
|
Potatoes have been attacked by various pests and diseases for
centuries. The most infamous disease is probably late blight, a
fungal condition which is said to have caused the great Irish
Potato Famine in 1845. There are a myriad of others, some also
fungal, but many others that are either viral or bacterial.
Similarly there are a host of pests that can kill crops,
including the Columbia root-knot nematode, which, according to
the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA)
Agricultural Research Service, costs US potato growers (many of
which are family farms) as much as US$20-million every year.
And as the USDA is quick to point out, potatoes are the number
one veggie crop in America, with consumers devouring as much as
130 lbs or 60 kg per person annually.
The Shift from Chemical Control to Disease-resistant
Varieties
For more than a century, fungicides and fumigants have been the
first line of defense for farmers striving to rid their potato
crops of disease and pests. But like most chemical pesticides
and other formulas, resistance has built up over the decades.
In addition to this, there are growing concerns worldwide about
the effect harmful pesticides have on the environment and our
Planet as a whole.
This, says the USDA, has "prompted the search for sustainable
solutions in the form of genetic resistance."
Not only are their researchers developing potato varieties that
will resist pests and diseases, they are also concentrating on
generally improving the nutrient content of these potatoes.
The First Potato Resistant to Late Blight
In 2006, the USDA released the first potato cultivar that was
resistant to late blight. Called Defender, it has enabled
potato farmers to markedly reduce their use of fungicides and
other chemicals they were previously forced to use in an
endeavour to control late blight.
The USDA has also announced that it hopes to release at least
one more blight-resistant potato variety in the next couple of
years. They also hope to come up with potato varieties that are
resistant to common scab and to the virus Y, amongst other
things.
Many countries have standards for disease-free and
disease-resistant potatoes, so before you invest in new
potato "seeds", investigate whether any
disease-resistant types are available in your part of the
world.
Date Published: Feb 20, 2012 - 3:54 am
And now for a bit of light hearted fun!
A Girl Potato and Boy Potato had eyes for each other,and
finally they got married, and had a little sweet potato,
which they called 'Yam'.
Of course, they wanted the best for Yam.
When it was time, they told her about the facts of life.
They warned her about going out and getting half-baked, so
she wouldn't get accidentally mashed, and get a bad name
for herself like 'Hot Potato'.
Yam said not to worry, no Spud would get her into the
sack and make a rotten potato out of her!
But on the other hand she wouldn't stay home and become a
Couch Potato either.
She would eat properly so as not to be skinny like
her Shoestring Cousins.
When she went off to Europe, Mr. And Mrs. Potato told Yam
to watch out for those hard-boiled guys from Ireland and the
greasy guys from France called the French Fries.
And when she went out West, she must watch out for
the Indians so she wouldn't get scalloped.
They sent Yam to Idaho P.U. (that's Potato University ). So
that when she graduated she'd really be "in the Chips".
But in spite of all they did for her, one-day Yam came home
and announced she was going to marry Richie Benaud.
"Richie Benaud!!", they cried. They were very upset and
told Yam "You can't possibly marry Richie Benaud
because he's just …..
Are you ready for this? Are you sure? * OK! You asked for
it: Here it is! * *
… just a COMMONTATER!"
(For non-cricket followers…. Richie Benaud is a former Australian
cricketer who, since his retirement from international cricket in
1964, has become a highly regarded commentator on the game.)
Date Published: Feb 04, 2012 - 7:16 pm
The great Irish famine
of the mid-19
th century shows us how vulnerable
potatoes can be when it comes to disease. Potato blight, caused
by a rampant fungus caused a massive crop failure throughout
Ireland, leading to famine and starvation.
Many of those who survived the famine decided to emigrate to
far-off lands like North America and Australia, leading to a drop
in the Irish population of some 50%.
Hybrid Potatoes can Resist
Disease
Of course it was the common so-called Irish potato that was
affected by the terrible blight. So it is not surprising that
horticulturists decided to do what they could to try and
"improve" the common potato.
Luther Burbank, an American horticulturist, is credited with
having developed the first disease resistant hybrid potato. He
called it the Russet Burbank potato and then, after selling the
rights to it, went off to Santa Rosa with the proceeds. It was
there that he established what is now a world-famous experimental
farm.
Since then many different varieties of disease resistant potato
have been bred (and I'll talk about these in another post).
Furthermore, most countries have standards that certify potatoes
that are disease-free. If possible these are the seed tubers that
you should plant.
Diseases Potatoes are Prone
to
Unfortunately potatoes are prone to many diseases, including
various leaf diseases. Insects often transmit viral diseases, but
bacteria and fungi are also problems. These are just some
examples:
·
Potato scab, which affects the appearance of the underground
tubers, is a very common fungal disease that affects potatoes.
You can avoid it by ensuring the pH of your soil is between 5.2
and 5.5 and by keeping the soil relatively dry and always
well-drained.
·
Black dot is a fungal disease that causes wilt and rotting. It is
encouraged by poor soil and bad drainage.
·
Black scurf is another fungal disease, attacking underground. Good
management should help you avoid this; unfortunately there are no
varieties that are specifically resistant to it. Silver scurf is
another type, but this usually occurs during storage.
·
Early blight is also caused by a fungus. You can identify it by
little dark spots that form on the leaves, which then turn yellow
and dry, and then fall off. It is a major problem which is
exacerbated by overhead irrigation.
·
Late blight is another fungal disease, and is spread by wind and
rain – and is worsened by overhead irrigation.
·
Mould can be quite a bad problem, again because of moist condition
and overhead watering.
·
While wilts may be caused by a fungal disease, sometimes it is
caused by bacteria. Either way it's bad news. Healthy plants
shouldn't be attacked by wilts (of which there are several types),
but using disease-free stock is your best protection.
·
Blackleg disease is a rather horrid bacterial disease and one
that may attack early on in the growing season. Again planting
disease-free seed will usually avoid the problem.
How to Avoid Diseases from
Infecting Your Potato Crop
Happily there are steps that you can take to avoid these problems
in your potato patch. For instance weeds can be a source of
disease, so these should be diligently removed. Aphids also carry
diseases, so keep an eye out for these and use an organic spray
if you spot them (spray in the evening when the good bugs aren't
usually around).
Crop rotation is an excellent way to prevent infections and
diseases from one season being passed on to the next. Just
remember that you should plant something that belongs to another
family, because plants in the same family – brinjals, tomatoes,
peppers, and so on – suffer from the same problems.
Feeding the soil with organic compost or manure is another
safeguard, because good quality soil encourages good bugs.
Planting cover crops like wheat or barley is another safeguard,
although this is only really an option if you are able to plant a
field of potatoes. Alternatively you could plant one of the
brassica species that grows through winter; mustard, cabbages,
and canola are all brassicas that will help to minimise disease
and control pests in your potato patch.
While mulching is always good, when it comes to potatoes, make
sure you don't mulch right against the plant as this may cause
the stem to rot or even affect the leaves of the potato.
Too much nitrogen in the soil is also a disease risk.
Overhead sprinklers tend to exacerbate problems, so if you are
able to, rather install a drip system or soaker hoses. If you're
watering with sprinklers, do so early in the day because wet
leaves seem to invite disease at night; water splashing on the
leaves also helps to transmit diseases.
If your
potato plants look as if they are wilting, but the
weather is cool, check for disease.
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Date Published: Jan 13, 2012 - 5:09 am
A successful potato crop
will keep you stocked up with freshly grown potatoes for as long
as eight weeks, from the time the plant flowers.
The first potatoes you can harvest will be little, baby potatoes
– normally referred to as "new potatoes". This could be as early
as six weeks after planting; be guided by the flowers which
should be fully open. A mature crop though will only be ready 12
to 14 weeks after planting, depending on the variety.
Harvesting New
Potatoes
The harvesting process for young, new potatoes is not the same as
for mature tubers. The reason for this is because you don't want
to damage the remaining tubers when you dig out baby potatoes.
If you dig carefully under your potato plants, you will be able
to feel the tubers and judge their size, bearing in mind the
usual size that new potatoes are when harvested commercially.
Then all you do is to carefully "pick" a few from underground.
Take a few from each plant, and from different sides of the
plant.
The skin of new potatoes is very thin, and you won't have to peel
them before cooking them. By the same token you can't store them
for very long (it's the hardened – or cured – skins that extend
their "shelf" life), so eat them immediately, or at least within
days of harvesting.
Harvesting the Rest of your
Potato Crop
There are no absolutes in terms of the size potatoes should be
when harvested; some varieties do have the potential to grow
bigger than others, without starting to deteriorate (for instance
those that have been produced or bred for baking).
While you can dig out mature potatoes by hand, this is a tedious
process and it is easier to lift them with a four-pronged garden
fork (spades and hoes are more likely to damage the tubers).
To lift complete plants with a fork make sure you push it into
the ground away from the tubers (check with your hand until you
are able to judge from experience). Then lever the plant out of
the ground. Gently shake the soil off the tubers.
Sometimes potatoes get left behind in the ground, so when you've
completed the harvest, fork-over each row and retrieve the
stragglers.
How to Make your Potatoes
Last
If you are planning to store your potatoes for any length of
time, before you harvest them you should "cure" them. All this
involves is a simple process that thickens the skin and closes
the minute openings on the potato skin. Correctly done, you will
be able to store your potatoes successfully for months.
Once you have established that the potatoes are ready for
harvesting, give them a good, thorough last watering. A couple of
days later cut the plants down to ground level and remove.
They will be ready to harvest a week to ten days after this
has been done.
You can leave mature tubers in the ground for longer than this,
but you must be sure that they are totally covered with soil and
they must not be watered again. If it rains, lift the crop
immediately.
Date Published: Dec 03, 2011 - 2:08 am
If you have never
grown potatoes before, it is a good idea to familiarise yourself
with the growing process of tubers, so that you can take
appropriate and progressive action to ensure a successful crop.
While stems, leaves and flowers do form above the ground, it is
the expanding section of the plant – the tuber – under the ground
that forms the crop.
Once you have planted your "seed" tubers, there are five main
stages to watch for:
- the green sprouts that emerge from the eyes of the seed
potatoes,
- the stalks and lush green leaves that form,
- flowers (and tubers),
- healthy plants,
- the plants start to turn yellow and lose their leaves.
The Buds Sprout
You may be able to buy seed potatoes from a wholesale stockist in
your area, alternatively, you are going to have to produce your
own seed potatoes from good quality potatoes bought at your local
vegetable shop or supermarket. Do not be tempted to try and grow
anything that you might be put off from eating; for example
tubers with nematodes or skin blemishes, however minor.
If you choose the latter route, a good way to encourage them to
sprout is to lay them out in trays until they shoot. In the UK
they call this "greening", and it is considered to be an
excellent way to encourage the development of really strong
shoots. Note that the shoots you want to encourage are those at
the broad end of oval cultivars, and the sunken eyes on round
cultivars. Rub off any other sprouts. You can plant them as the
shoots develop, ensuring that the sprouts face upwards, out of
the soil.
If you plant the seed tubers directly in the ground, you will
eventually see the sprouts emerging from the soil. Well sprouted
tubers should push through after about two weeks. It is at this
point that the plant will begin to develop roots that will push
down into the soil under the tuber.
If you have planted in autumn or fall (bearing in mind that
spring and autumn are the best times to plant), if there is a
sudden cold spell, throw grass cuttings over the plants to give
them some warmth and protection.
Stalks and Leaves
Once the first buds have sprouted, the plants will start to form
stalks and leaves above the soil. You can be sure that the roots
will also be developing underground. The new potatoes will later
start to form on these "underground stems" and rhizomes.
As the greenery develops, and the plants grown, you should start
to "hill up" the potatoes, by drawing a little loose soil up over
the shoots – but without covering them. By the time the flowers
appear, you should have created a rather substantial ridge.
During this period of growth, you need to water regularly, but
try not to wet the foliage too often. A drip or furrow method of
irrigation is preferred. You also need to vigilant about weeds,
removing them so that they don't compete for nutrients or water.
Just don't use any sharp tools, because if you damage the
underground tubers, this could lead to infection by fungi, or to
disease. If you spot any cracks or gaps in the soil, fill these
to reduce the possibility of tuber-moths attacking the potatoes.
This will also prevent unwanted "greening" underground.
These two stages will take anything from a month to 70 days,
depending on specific conditions.
Flowers and Tubers Develop
Even though different potato cultivars vary in terms of their
capacity to flower, it is during the flowering stage that the
tubers begin to form at the ends of the rhizomes that have
developed underground. It is a very stressful stage for the
plant, and regular irrigation is vital.
The Tubers Bulk Out
Though you obviously can't see what is happening underground, the
fourth stage in the potato's growth is when the tuber gets bigger
and accumulates starch.
It is at this point that you can harvest "new potatoes", by
carefully digging under the tubers, and removing some of the
small, newly developed potatoes at the base of the plant.
This phase can last as long as three months, however home
gardeners often harvest small quantities of
potatoes
throughout this period of time.
The Plant Matures
You will notice that the leaves begin to turn yellow and start to
drop off the plants. Gradually reduce the quantity of water, so
that the tuber skins can "set" or harden.
If the weather is dry you can leave the tubers in the soil for a
while. But if it is wet, or there is even a chance of rainy
weather, lift them so that they don't absorb the moisture and
possibly develop deformities.
Date Published: Nov 08, 2011 - 5:17 am
Potatoes are a staple and potentially delicious food, although a
large number of people are surprisingly unimaginative and
uninventive when it comes to cooking processes.
Mashed potato is a perfect example of a dish that may be totally
mundane, or marvellously cordon bleu!
At its most mundane, mashed potato is made by boiling the tuber
and then adding a knob of butter or yellow margarine, plus salt
and pepper to taste. Many people also add a bit of milk or cream
before mashing. There's nothing to it really, except that if you
don't mash it thoroughly, and season it tastefully, you're going
to end up with tasteless, lumpy mush.
Top Tips for the Best
Mash
There are several very simple tips that will help you to make a
tasty, super-smooth, delicious mashed potato dish.
- Choose a potato that has been bred for mashing.
- Place the potatoes in cold salted water before bringing the
water to the boil. NEVER place them in water that is already
boiling.
- Consider what you are going to add to the mash to improve or
simply add flavour.
-
Mash the cooked potatoes with a fork
or masher – don't use a liquidiser otherwise it will become
gummy.
Different Uses for Different
Potatoes
It is remarkable how many different varieties of potato there
are. Not only has the common potato been bred in numerous
colours, shapes and sizes, varieties have also been developed for
different uses – including mashing.
Generally the colour of a potato will indicate the type and
colour flesh you can expect to find. For instance white
(so-called Irish) potatoes have either white or yellow flesh and
can be used for most potato dishes. Red-skinned potatoes have
flesh that varies from white or yellow to red or pink, and it may
be starchy or waxy. Russet potatoes on the other hand generally
have brown skins, and the flesh is starchy.
If you are going to bake potatoes you should aim for a tuber that
will not only mature to a decent size, but its skin should be
coarse and the flesh firm and high in starch. The same type of
potatoes may also be used for frying and for mashing.
Potatoes for boiling should be waxy rather than starchy, and they
should have a high sugar content. These work well in casseroles
and potato salad, but don't fry or roast very successfully.
Ideal potatoes for frying and roasting will be floury. When
cooked they will break apart if they have been boiled or put into
casseroles, but they are generally delicious when baked, fried or
roasted.
Cooking the Best Mash
Clearly there is no one potato or one single recipe that will
produce the best mashed potato ever.
But here is a dish that we absolutely love. It uses a Dutch-bred
variety called Lady Rosetta which has a red skin and dark yellow
floury flesh. This potato variety (if you can find it where you
live) is a tasty option for baking as well as frying crisps, and
also results in a delicious mash.
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Lady Rosetta was
nominated as one of the tastiest potatoes in Europe not
that long ago.
|
You will need about eight nice-sized potatoes (be
guided by the picture), a head of garlic, about two tablespoons
of butter, milk, salt and coarsely crushed black pepper.
Peel and boil the potatoes while you roast the garlic
(drizzled with a little virgin olive oil) in an oven preheated to
350 °F/180 °C for about 40 minutes until soft. Drain the potatoes
and squeeze the garlic out of its skin into the potato. Add the
milk, butter, salt and pepper and mash until smooth.
If you like the flavour of Parmesan or Pecorina cheese,
stir in about a quarter cup of grated cheese before serving.
ENJOY!
Date Published: Oct 03, 2011 - 4:22 am
Many people think of potatoes as being dull-looking,
brown-skinned vegetables that you can bake, boil or fry. But not
only are there numerous ways to cook the common potato, there are
also a multitude of different types of potato – more than 5,000
varieties in all. Perhaps even more surprisingly, potatoes come
in a myriad of different colours, from white to blue and dark
purple.
This shows that the common potato is no longer as "common" as it
used to be! Unfortunately though, only a small number of
varieties make their way to any of the world's supermarket
shelves. While you're likely to find a bigger range at specialist
veggie stores, or at farmers' markets, why not grow some of the
more unusual type of potatoes at home?
|
Tasty Lady Rosetta
potatoes contrast with the
more regular Maris Peer variety
|
Here is just a tiny taste of some of the world's varieties:
White Potatoes
White potatoes are also called Irish potatoes, and they are
probably the best known in the world. Confusingly, though,
most so-called "white" potatoes have brown or a light beige
coloured skin. Some recently developed varieties confuse the
category further because their flesh is a creamy colour or
even yellow!
Coliban, developed in the United Kingdom, has off-white skin
and white flesh. Yukon Gold, developed in the US, is a
popular potato with yellow flesh. Maris Peer is a popular
British potato variety that is frequently used as a pre-pack,
and picked when small for new or baby potatoes. The skin of
this variety is a very light golden or creamy brown and the
flesh is white or just off-white.
Russet Potatoes
Tubers in this colour category have brown skins, and the
flesh is distinctively starchy. They have a good reputation
for successful roasting.
Russet Burbank, also an established American variety (it's
been available since 1908), has brown skin and white flesh.
Blue and Purple
Potatoes
Not quite the norm, blue and purple potatoes are favoured not
just for their unusual colour, but also because they contain
a high percentage of antioxidants, an excellent health
benefit. While they are classified by the colour of their
skin, the flesh tends to be tinged with colour as well.
Royal Blue has an attractive deep-blue skin with flesh that
is a creamy yellow colour. By contrast, All Blue, which has a
similar colour skin, has unusual "blue" flesh. Odem is an
Israeli variety with a bright purple skin and yellow flesh.
Purple Peruvian, an heirloom variety that originated in the
Andes is about as purple as you will ever get – and both the
skin and flesh are coloured. It is considered to be a gourmet
potato.
Red Potatoes
Like the blue and purple varieties, red ones also contain
additional nutrients and are packed full of antioxidants. The
flesh of red potatoes is sometimes white, although some
varieties boast a golden-yellow or even reddish flesh. A
tuber that is described as "red gold" will be red-skinned
with a golden-hued flesh.
An Australian variety developed in the 1970s, Tasman is a
reddish-pink tuber with white flesh. All Red, also known as
Cranberry Red, has red skin and pink flesh. Roseval, from
Europe, has bright pinkish-red skin and yellow flesh that has
a pink tinge close to the skin. It is also a gourmet type.
Lady Rosetta, a Dutch-bred variety, has red skin and
yellow-hued flesh. It was recently nominated as one of
Europe's tastiest
potatoes.
There's so much to choose from, why not seek out some
colourful varieties available in your part of the world, and
be the envy of your friends?
Date Published: Sep 14, 2011 - 5:32 pm
Growing potatoes can be incredibly rewarding,
particularly if you have the space to plant a fair number of
them. Better still, if you get a particularly good crop, you can
process some of them and store them for times when there aren’t
any fresh tubers to harvest from your garden.
The great Irish famine
of the mid-19th century shows us how vulnerable
potatoes can be when it comes to disease. Potato blight, caused
by a rampant fungus caused a massive crop failure throughout
Ireland, leading to famine and starvation.
