Comments on: Potato Madness http://justorb.com/2009/02/23/potato-madness/ A Tangential Autobiography Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:52:18 +0000 hourly 1 By: Ekim http://justorb.com/2009/02/23/potato-madness/comment-page-1/#comment-14637 Ekim Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:46:15 +0000 http://justorb.com/2009/02/23/potato-madness/#comment-14637 If you know the source and the potatoes all look fine then I'd say they're as good if not better than seed crop from a source you haven't personally verified. The one major advantage of this job (aside from that it looked pretty stable a year ago when things seemed uncertain) is the wonderful food contacts you get :) If you know the source and the potatoes all look fine then I’d say they’re as good if not better than seed crop from a source you haven’t personally verified.

The one major advantage of this job (aside from that it looked pretty stable a year ago when things seemed uncertain) is the wonderful food contacts you get :)

]]> By: Orb http://justorb.com/2009/02/23/potato-madness/comment-page-1/#comment-14634 Orb Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:44:16 +0000 http://justorb.com/2009/02/23/potato-madness/#comment-14634 Ooooh. Great linkies! Lead me on an exploration of photos of potato diseases. Since I'm not going to have acres of plants and will be staring at each plant personally, likely on a daily basis, pretty sure I would recognize if something is going wrong ... at which point, I will have no problems slashing and burning with impunity. LOL! We've been eating off this bag of potatoes for the whole month, and from the same farm for about three months. They've all been perfect and entirely blemish-free potatoes. I'm feeling fairly confident it's not going to lead to any problems. And if it does ... well won't that be educational. And one can never have too many potato recipes. Oh do we go through the potatoes. Love us some 'taters! :D Ooooh. Great linkies! Lead me on an exploration of photos of potato diseases. Since I’m not going to have acres of plants and will be staring at each plant personally, likely on a daily basis, pretty sure I would recognize if something is going wrong … at which point, I will have no problems slashing and burning with impunity. LOL!

We’ve been eating off this bag of potatoes for the whole month, and from the same farm for about three months. They’ve all been perfect and entirely blemish-free potatoes. I’m feeling fairly confident it’s not going to lead to any problems. And if it does … well won’t that be educational.

And one can never have too many potato recipes. Oh do we go through the potatoes. Love us some ‘taters! :D

]]> By: Ekim http://justorb.com/2009/02/23/potato-madness/comment-page-1/#comment-14633 Ekim Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:59:39 +0000 http://justorb.com/2009/02/23/potato-madness/#comment-14633 Actually though, while I'm linking those guys you're probably more interested in http://www.potatoesforcaterers.co.uk/recipes/ am I right? Actually though, while I’m linking those guys you’re probably more interested in http://www.potatoesforcaterers.co.uk/recipes/ am I right?

]]> By: Ekim http://justorb.com/2009/02/23/potato-madness/comment-page-1/#comment-14632 Ekim Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:17:24 +0000 http://justorb.com/2009/02/23/potato-madness/#comment-14632 http://www.potato.org.uk/media_files/FAB_GAs/02seedhealth2005a.pdf Short version: If you're particularly concerned about blight, cut up and inspect a few potatoes from the bag, if they're good then you should be okay to plant the rest. You can make potato salad with the cut up ones afterwards. There's a whole section about it over here http://www.potato.org.uk/department/knowledge_transfer/fight_against_blight/advice_blight.html http://www.potato.org.uk/media_files/FAB_GAs/02seedhealth2005a.pdf

Short version: If you’re particularly concerned about blight, cut up and inspect a few potatoes from the bag, if they’re good then you should be okay to plant the rest. You can make potato salad with the cut up ones afterwards.

There’s a whole section about it over here http://www.potato.org.uk/department/knowledge_transfer/fight_against_blight/advice_blight.html

]]> By: Orb http://justorb.com/2009/02/23/potato-madness/comment-page-1/#comment-14631 Orb Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:56:52 +0000 http://justorb.com/2009/02/23/potato-madness/#comment-14631 The scare-mongering about NOT planting ANY store bought potatoes is quite heavy-handed. A little too heavy-handed. Yes, potato blight is bad, and it will kill your potatoes and tomatoes and be a pain to get rid of owing to the need to sterilize the soil and let it rest for a season, but considering most potatoes over here aren't organically grown, I'd imagine the fields are so filled with things to kill diseases the risk is going to be slim at best of me personally having a disaster. I mean, ask Ireland how a little potato blight can wipe out an entire country's worth of potatoes. If our commercial fields were so rife with the stuff, potatoes wouldn't be incredibly cheap and available and someone would be complaining about whole crops being wiped out. I heard about the cutting into pieces thing. Most of the ones I have are pretty small (being the very last ones left in the bag), but I do have one large one, so I might try it just to see what difference there is. The potatoes and peanuts are totally experimental for me. No one in my family has ever tried them either. Or I might end up with so many potatoes I end up giving them away (which would be cool, I bet the local food bank would love to have them). The scare-mongering about NOT planting ANY store bought potatoes is quite heavy-handed. A little too heavy-handed. Yes, potato blight is bad, and it will kill your potatoes and tomatoes and be a pain to get rid of owing to the need to sterilize the soil and let it rest for a season, but considering most potatoes over here aren’t organically grown, I’d imagine the fields are so filled with things to kill diseases the risk is going to be slim at best of me personally having a disaster.

I mean, ask Ireland how a little potato blight can wipe out an entire country’s worth of potatoes. If our commercial fields were so rife with the stuff, potatoes wouldn’t be incredibly cheap and available and someone would be complaining about whole crops being wiped out.

I heard about the cutting into pieces thing. Most of the ones I have are pretty small (being the very last ones left in the bag), but I do have one large one, so I might try it just to see what difference there is. The potatoes and peanuts are totally experimental for me. No one in my family has ever tried them either. Or I might end up with so many potatoes I end up giving them away (which would be cool, I bet the local food bank would love to have them).

]]> By: Ekim http://justorb.com/2009/02/23/potato-madness/comment-page-1/#comment-14630 Ekim Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:34:29 +0000 http://justorb.com/2009/02/23/potato-madness/#comment-14630 Well that is certainly news to me and I've been working in association with the British potato industry for nearly two years. Of course it might be something with how Americans handle their spuds but it sounds more like what you say, sales pitch from people selling seed potatoes. Did you know you can actually cut potatoes up and as long as an eye and a good area around it is undamaged you can use one potato as several seeds? I've not tried it but that's what they say. (I should probably add a disclaimer that I'm not any kind of biologist although I've had to sit through quite a few seminars...) Well that is certainly news to me and I’ve been working in association with the British potato industry for nearly two years.

Of course it might be something with how Americans handle their spuds but it sounds more like what you say, sales pitch from people selling seed potatoes.

Did you know you can actually cut potatoes up and as long as an eye and a good area around it is undamaged you can use one potato as several seeds? I’ve not tried it but that’s what they say.

(I should probably add a disclaimer that I’m not any kind of biologist although I’ve had to sit through quite a few seminars…)

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