Featured Food: Potatoes

Happy Independence Day ya’ll! As you celebrate, perhaps you are eating one or more of the many glorious potato-based dishes. What is more American than French freedom fries?

So join me as we hail the mother tuber.

Samwise Gamgee, in Lord of the Rings, yearns for the comfort of potatoes on his long and perilous journey with Frodo to destroy the ring and save Middle Earth. Potatoes are powerful comfort food. Sent from heaven it seems to nurture and comfort our species. We have figured out so many ways to enjoy ‘taters, owing to their incredible nutrition and utility. “Po-ta-toes! Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew!” To Samwise’s list I would also vote in favor of adding hash browns, tater tots, and of course, french fries.

Oven_roasted_french_fries_(3862654181)

How most Americans eat their taters. Photo by Keith McDuffee

 

Potatoes pack a punch. No matter how they are prepared, they are so rich in starch that they rank as the world’s fourth most important food crop, after corn, rice, and wheat, according a United Nations factsheet. No wonder we grow so many of this staple. Potatoes, Solanum tuberosumare, are native to the high Andes region of South America, and belong to the Solanaceae family, to which tomatoes also belong. The big difference lies in the part of the plant that we consume: the fleshy fruit versus the dense tuber. The shapes of their flowers and leaves still appear similar, even though we have bred the two plants for different purposes. Tomato is the fruit of the plant, but we do not eat the fruit of the potato, opting instead for its underground tuber. The UN declared 2008 as the year of the potato, owing either to their boredom that year, or to the crop’s importance in global agriculture. Either way, I’m hungry already. But let’s dig deeper for our underground tater treasure.

The powerful and cheap potato nourishes the world, and has altered the course of human history. An average potato provides abundant potassium and vitamin C, as well as B vitamins, phosphorus and magnesium. Indigenous cultures such as the Incas first grew wise to potato’s benefits. They did not spread across the globe until about 400 years ago. Europe, and consequently, the United States, took to them with great relish, and we have not looked back since. They proved such an important form of nutrition that around the time of the Irish Potato Famine, 80% of an average Irish caloric intake came from potatoes. Unfortunately, lack of genetic diversity in the crop proved a huge mistake, and 1 million Irish lost their lives during the crop failure in the mid 19th century. As a result millions of Irish emigrated to the United States and contributed to the rich tapestry of our land. Powerful potato indeed. Cultivated potatoes improved after a concerted effort to avoid another blight. Colonialism, which I detest in general and has many faults, did manage to spread potatoes to all reaches of the globe, and currently 100 countries grow potatoes. Peruse this super interesting UN fact sheet for more information.

I present to you: Potato.  Photo by Claire Briguglio

I present to you: Potato. Photo by Claire Briguglio

Here in coastal Maine we cultivate potatoes using the unique, perfected technique of Helen and Scott Nearing. They grew exceptional potatoes between stratified beds of seaweed, compost, and straw. First we walk down to the beach to collect about 2-3 wheel barrow loads of seaweed. Then we place a thick layer of seaweed directly onto the ground. The seaweed, rich in nitrogen and the other nutrients of a leafy green, heats up as it decomposes to keep the bed warm. Next comes a layer of straw spread on top of the seaweed. On top of that we add a layer of rich compost from the compost heap. We place the sprouted potatoes (old potatoes not eaten in time that begin to form eyes) directly on the compost layer for them to soak up nutrients as they grow. The stratification process of growing potatoes is completed with a final layer of straw on top, as mulch, to keep the potatoes moist, warm, and weed free. We have four large beds of potatoes, beyond the stone walls of our garden, in which purple, red, and fingerling varieties are growing.

Building the potato beds using the Nearing method

Building the potato beds using the Nearing method: Seaweed, straw, and compost. Photo by Claire Briguglio

After about a week, potato seedlings emerge

After about a week, potato seedlings emerge. Photo by Claire Briguglio

Potatoes comfortable in their bed. Photo by Claire Briguglio

Potatoes comfortable in their bed. Photo by Claire Briguglio

Harness your inner pirate, because harvesting potatoes is like searching for buried treasure. The prize does not present itself for you to pick off a tree like an apple, or cut from a stalk like corn. No. For the juicy tater you must dig. Turn the soil loosely, or pull on the plant, and out pops buried treasure! The original seed tuber that we planted has grown a tall plant with pretty white, pink, or purple flowers above the soil surface and a network of roots and tubers below the surface. The new tubers equal the new crop of potatoes, ready to be (ok washed) stored and eaten in as many fun and creative ways as one can cook up.

And remember, old potatoes easily grow from new potatoes. Just fail to eat some and leave them in a dark cool room or pantry to sprout. Once they have grown one or more eyes, you can cut them up into single eyed chunks and plant in soil. Easy, delicious, nutritious.

Can you dig it?

Sam Adels

About Sam Adels

Sam and his wife Claire are the resident stewards of the Good Life Center, the homestead of Helen and Scott Nearing in Harborside, Maine. They are learning from the example that Helen and Scott set with their lives: living simply, gardening, and welcoming visitors to their homestead. They are transplants, and like a seedling, they are together putting down roots in order to grow.