As a child, we would eat some form of white potatoes pretty near every day. I wasn’t a fan. I wished Mom would make just about anything but white potatoes. We had ‘em boiled with butter, mashed, baked, fried.
The mashed potatoes were made using a potato ricer and a small electric mixer—a lot of work and a lot of noise. The potatoes were lumpy.
Tastes Change
We had a small garden. We never grew our own potatoes. Instead, we’d buy them at the local A&P grocery store. When I left home, I ate relatively few potatoes. Eventually however, I overcame my distaste of eating the things and even grew to love them. Eventually, I realized how tasty they were.
So I started eating them again. My very favorite forms of white potatoes are raw-potato potato pancakes (sometimes called Irish), and mashed-potato potato pancakes. Of course I coat them with a ton of salt. So, in the natural progression of things, I decided to grow my own white potatoes.
Grow Your Own
Everyone knows, after all, that homegrown foods are both the best and the tastiest. So how does one grow potatoes? Well, in addition to planting them in hills, it was very, very strongly advised that only seed potatoes be used. Ordinary potatoes that develop eyes should not be used. Why not?
Here’s why not. Potatoes obtained at the grocery store—while they eventually develop eyes and outgrowths from those eyes—have been treated. Treated? Treated to prevent the development of those eyes. Customers who purchase potatoes want those potatoes to remain eyeless in storage for as long as possible.
Seed Potatoes – The Eyes Have It!
For this reason, store-bought potatoes have been dipped in a solution of an eye-inhibiting chemical (or chemicals). Seed potatoes have not been so dipped. In addition, however, seed potatoes are likely carefully prepared, as is evidenced in this article by the University of Maine: Growing Potatoes in the Home Garden.
Note: You might also enjoy Store-Bought Potatoes Treated with Eye Growth Inhibitor
We used to grow our own potatoes, both in the soil, with mounding up and also in large black bins, adding compost every few days or weeks, as the plants grew (that gives you new potatoes at Christmas). Nowadays we do not eat any potatoes at all, though my husband (being Northern Ireland born and bred) misses his potatoes and butter at every dinner. (He is on a special diet)
There aren’t many foods better than potatoes, that’s for sure. So many ways to prepare them. Each of them delicious.