Potatoes

[Seaweed]

OK I could not resist a potato thread.

I collect heritage potatoes. At last count I was up to about 60 varieties. Some of them I am sure are the same but from different places. We no longer eat potatoes from the shops. Even the organic ones. The older potatoes have sugars in that are slow releasing so they are much better for you than the new varieties. I am sure it was urenika they tested & found to have 1000x the anti-oxidants of a modern white supermarket potato.

Every year in the autumn, we go looking for feral potatoes. In fact, I am planning a trip to Stewart Island this autumn to check out the wild potatoes there.

So does anyone else have any interesting potatoes? How do you grow yours? Anyone tried growing any from true potato seed?

[3monkeys]

Seaweed when you come down you MUST come and say hi and if you need any help planning etc just ask. I didnt even know we had wild potatoes growing here!!!!!!!! you really do learn something everyday.

Sorry..... back to potatoes.

[deesalie]

What kind of heritage varieties are available? The only potatoes I buy are Dutch Creams from the farmers markets. We're not a big potato household. I'm always puzzled by people walking out with a 10kg bag of potatoes.... what does one do with all those potatoes?? :confused:

[Seaweed]

deesalie - we're in a different country to you so alot of our heritage potatoes will be different. Most of the ones I have are what we call Maori Potatoes. We're GF so we could get thru 10kgs of decent potatoes in 2-3 weeks.

3Monkeys - I have been plotting to come to Stewart Island for a few years now. I need to leave dh behind & he always causes problems. His latest is trying to tell me it is a dangerous place to go & how I need not to stay anywhere off the beaten track :blah :alien:I am not totally sure where the potatoes are but if I were to come & look, I would start at the site of the old whaling station. Sand dunes behind beaches are other good places to look along with old house sites. You recognise old house sites by macrocarpa shelter belts around them, things like old overgrown olearia panniculata hedges etc. Usually you get the more obscure older european potatoes on old house sites & the maori potatoes around beaches & whaling stations.

[FrangipaniRose]

Potatoes have never sounded so cool.

When you find them like that, how do you know what you have found?

[Seaweed]

Occasionally they match something I already have. I found one down a bank by the roadside next to the garden of an old edwardian house near here. I am sure it is the same as one I already have which I got as a named variety. I also have a couple of different ones which someone else found growing out the back of a beach where they had been maori gardens which I am sure I know what they are.

[3monkeys]

Port Pegasus and Mason Bay would be an awesome place to look too. It sounds like fun.

Dangerous as in you can get lost, or dangerous as in all those axe welding maniacs :) cause where you would want to go is pretty easy to get around. Also we have a boat and I am sure DH would taxi you around if it meant getting out of the bay for the day.

[Seaweed]

Dangerous as in axewielding maniacs all waiting to get me :rolleyes: :alien:dh is a bit of a nut ( you see I said I needed my :nut smiley ;) )

Being a gardener I am sure you know how to spot a potato plant. Maybe you could keep an eye out for me while you are out & about? I need to plot my trip at some stage soon as if I don't actually do it, I will never get there.

[Wonder-Full]

I have an old variety of Maori potato in my garden at the moment. Not sure what they are, but my friend who gave them to me got them from her dad in the BOP and he just stores them at end of season and carries on the next year, so I would imagine they are a true seed potato? Looking forward to harvesting them, but last time I checked a couple of weeks ago they were tiny still opposed to my other earlys that are massive and we're eating already.

We're also GF and eat a ton of potatoes.

[Seaweed]

What do the maori potatoes look like that you have? I harvested some of my early potatoes at the weekend. I had done an experimental bed down the bank to the side of my orchard. Literally just a mound of horse poo & some straw which I planted on the full moon in July. Funnily enuf, my proper king edwards ( vs the red king ) did the best & they are supposed to be a shy bearer.

True potato seed is when you get what look like green tomatoes on the actual potato plant itself. They contain hundreds of seed but they are not necessarily like the parent.

[Wonder-Full]

Hmmm, will need to go down and investigate them later.

I have seen those seeds, but what do you do with them? Is it better to use these than the potatoes themselves? Do you dry them out just like regular seeds for the next season?

[Seaweed]

I have never tried growing potatoes from the tomato-like seeds. It is supposed to be experimental at best & I have no idea how you would select which of the seedlings to keep to get the potatoes from. I would love to try it anyways to see if I can get something exciting. I guess I would look for seed on one of my more exciting potatoes to start with. I would expect you would process the seed the same as tomato seed?

Using the actual potatoes themselves is the best way to go unless you want to experiment as you get the same potato back as you put in. Altho' you can sucessively select for certain characteristics. eg I was given a kararo that someone had selected all the shallow eyed potatoes every year for a number of years & ended up with a shallow eyed version that was easier to peel.

[3monkeys]

Dangerous as in axewielding maniacs all waiting to get me :rolleyes: :alien:dh is a bit of a nut ( you see I said I needed my :nut smiley ;) )

Being a gardener I am sure you know how to spot a potato plant. Maybe you could keep an eye out for me while you are out & about? I need to plot my trip at some stage soon as if I don't actually do it, I will never get there.

Me a gardener :ROFL: I am such a terrible gardener. BUT, I am not entirely ignorant and I am sure I will be able to spot a potato plant so I will keep my eye out. If I find them what bits do you want.

:LMAO:at axe welding maniacs here. Maniacs yes, but axe welding :giggle:

[Seaweed]

I refer to myself as a gardener coz I garden. I don't think the act of gardening entails you have to be good at it ;) Thankfully I have the weather to blame for alot here :D

dh likes the whole scare tactics thing. U know the sky will fall on your head if you do or don't do whatever. I am sure we are all familiar with that particular manipulation technique around here! I just ignore him but it does irritate me somewhat.

OK back to potatoes. If you find them, look for the actual potates themselves. Dig them up, write down where you found them & post them to me. I'll swop you some other variety from the collection here.

[3monkeys]

Hey Seaweed, I was down on the beach today and I saw some mint growing wild and I thought mmmmmmmmmmmmmm mint, and anyway then I went hmmm that looks like a potato AND IT WAS A POTATO. I dont know how long its been there or what sort it is or anything at all. But I did take a pic of it. I will post it soon. Anyway, its flowering too. Do you want it? If so how do you want it? Oh and I am coming to Dunedin in Feb, I have just decided to do a MSc. Scary stuff, so I will be coming to and from Dunedin quite a bit.

Anyway, do you want that potato?

[3monkeys]

In my excitement about finding AND recognising a spud I missed that. Its probably a boring old nadine or whatever but I will go and dig it up tomorrow.

[Seaweed]

wow! what colour was the potato? I found some by the beach at te rauone (sp? - near otakau ) which looked incredibly nadine-like. I would not mind it anyways. What are you doing the Msc in?

[3monkeys]

I havent dug it up yet. I didnt want to disturb it till I knew exactly what to do with it. Do all potatoes look the same from the top?

I a going to be doing Coastal Geomorphology. A beach here has really bad erosion issues stemming back from when they let the trucks go and take ALL the rocks off the beach. So I am going to be studying that. It was a toss up between that and homeopathy but since I started my MSc years ago I really won't be happy until I finish it. ANd there are worse things in life than spending all your time at the beach :) Well not all............

[Seaweed]

Yes all potatoes look the same from the top.

wow! I would so love to do something official to do with beaches. Any excuse really to go hang out on the beach here :) Make sure you PM me when you know you are coming up & we will get together.

[3monkeys]

Absolutely. I am coming up on the 25th Feb I think it is for Graduate Orientation Day. Yep, a life on the beach sounds great to me too.

I will go dig up the spuds tomorrow and post ya some pics.

[3monkeys]

http://i40.tinypic.com/a17a0j.jpg

This is a spud aye? It looks like one to me

And it was here....... that white in the background is the ocean. Bad pic.

http://i44.tinypic.com/33krhhi.jpg

[Seaweed]

Yes that is very definitely a potato. It looks kinda damp. has it been raining? I am trying to guage when to come down on holiday. Up here the best most reliable weather is usually in the autumn.

[3monkeys]

Yeah it had been raining, but the rain here most of the time is more a misty sort of rain as opposed to a pelting down sort of rain.

I dont know when the most settled weather is :) I think Feb- April is usually not too bad.

[Seaweed]

I don't mind misty rain. You can always go bush if it is raining to stay a bit drier. The weather here has not been the best over the last few days either. I had to cover the horses even yesterday & put my oilskin on in the morning. It was OK in town tho'.

I am quite excited about the potato. Where was it growing? - other than by the sea that is. I mean was it near an old house site or maori garden site?

[3monkeys]

Its out at Ringaringa. Its got houses there ATM so it could be from one of those. BUT, its also been populated for a very long time so it could be old. Also the cliff there is eroding really severly so even though its on the edge of the cliff now it may not have been 20 years ago if it was there then. I am gonna get the kids dressed soon and go out and dig it up.

Its a bit of a potato surprise :D

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

this is such an interesting thread . Love it. You go girls. Potato sistership :D

[3monkeys]

Grrrr, just lost a post.

Will start with pics

http://i42.tinypic.com/1zzqfrp.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/352mag6.jpg

http://i43.tinypic.com/6dyeqr.jpg

Anyway, as you can see they are quite purple. I have 2 stories to follow up.

Story 1, they are from the original spuds first brought to the Island. Ask so and so cause she will know. I will ask.

Story 2, they are from blahblah who used to throw his spud peelings off the cliff. BUt then they have been growing there since I moved here in the 80's so maybe as so and so because they grew up there. So I will ask that person too.

[Wonder-Full]

Oh, I wonder what type they are? Those are the same as the Maori spuds I had in my garden that have been recently dug up (a friend gave them to me from her dads collection of saved spuds from the year before and they live in northern Hawkes Bay). They have a firm stem coming out of them like that. Dark purple skin and yellow/white inside. Tasty wee things.

[3monkeys]

The were growing on a sandy/clay bank. I am doing my thesis on that beach so when I get some historical photos I will be able to see how far back from the beach the place I found them actually is.......

This potato thing is fun.

[Seaweed]

I'd love to study food archeology! The big one looks like it has a cream eye but the littler ones don't. The next thing to do for the IDing is to cut one in half to see what colour the flesh is & then cook it to see if it is floury or waxy.

[3monkeys]

Thats all I managed to dig up. I will ahve to go back and have another look. There was only one potato under the flowering plant.

Do you want me to post them up? I can go back tomorrow and have a look further down the cliff (on the track bit) for more. Gives me a good reason to go to the beach

[3monkeys]

and even then I had to dig through all this grass and stuff, but the ground was really soft so that part was easy :)

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Yup, I vote like Wonderful. Maori potatoes. I have them in my garden. Love them, but they aren't good producers. In that sense, they are a waste of space if you don't have a lot to squander...

[Seaweed]

I have maori potatoes that produce as well as modern ones. In the case of feral potatoes they have often persisted in poor soil & pick up immensely when back in cultivation. If they are a modern escapee, they could be Heather. Otherwise they could be the same as a purple potato I have here at home which I have found wild in a few places around here. There are also a few variants of the same potato which I have been given but I would have to look at it & maybe even grow it on to make sure. I'm actually off out the door to dig up my garlic crop & also some potatoes for dinner but I will PM you my addy later :D

ETA If you go to http://www.koanga.org.nz/pages/solonaceae.html Check out the te maori. It is not a brilliant photo but it could be a variant of that one. Note how their Stewart Island looks well different.

[Seaweed]

:elephant:yay the potatoes have arrived. Thankyou so much :D I will give you some potatoes from the collection when you come up next month.

I'm almost sure they are not te maori or one of the variants as the eyes are too deep on the big potato. The big potato had a rotten bit in so I cut it out. IT had quite bad wireworm & the inside was very glassy ( feral potatoes go like that sometimes ) but there was no sign of any purple streaks in the flesh. All my Te maori look alike potatoes, bar one, can have purple streaking around the inside of the skin. Kind of like a purple line. It is also lacking the ghost spotting they can have. So I am thinking we have found a new variety of potato. I will take it tomorrow to see my friend who collects potatoes to see if she thinks it is a heather - just to make sure.

[3monkeys]

Oh how exciting. I really hope its a new variety of potato. That would be cool, and if its a heather its still cool anyway.....

[Seaweed]

I am hoping for a new variety too. All those old potatoes are so tasty compared to the new ones so it is always good to get a different one. Particularly if it grows on cliff tops over the southern ocean as it has survived in a feral state in conditions similar to ours here.

I can't find a picture of the Heather potato on the net anywhere either or an obvious description. Purpley blue or purple skin, oval shape & good flavour could be pretty much half my potato collection!

Forgot to say btw I bet you do a mean pass the parcel at kid's parties. The kids had great fun opening it all. Thankfully they are into gardening too so finding a few purple potatoes as the prize was very exciting :)

[3monkeys]

It must be pretty strong to grow there regardless of its variety, lol. It was tucked well in to the grasses etc around it, but thats a really open easterly facing coast so when it takes a hiding it takes a real hiding.........

:rofl: at pass the parcel. I took my 5 year old to Fiji to avoid having to host a birthday party.. bad aye. Plus I didnt mind the tropical holiday either :D My youngest 2 are not aware yet that such a thing exists. Glad the kids enjoyed my spud wrapping.......

[Seaweed]

I saw my friend & she says Heather hasn't got deep eyes & also it is a relatively new variety - like 5 years or so old. I very much doubt then it is that. WHich means it is something I don't already have.

[3monkeys]

Yay, thats so exciting. You are going to have to grow it :D

[Seaweed]

I've already got them stashed & labelled with my seed potatoes for next year :D

[jul511riv]

say, hypothetically, of course, that im a beginner and I want to plant potatos, in the middle east...how would i go about it...speak simply, i dont even know what a "seed" is.:o:alien::confused::rolleyes::giggle:

[Seaweed]

A potato seed is literally just the potato. The eyes develop sprouts & these then grow under the ground as roots & above ground as the plant. The roots get tubules off of them which turn into more potatoes.

What is the weather like generally where you are ?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

say, hypothetically, of course, that im a beginner and I want to plant potatos, in the middle east...how would i go about it...speak simply, i dont even know what a "seed" is.:o:alien::confused::rolleyes::giggle: I would contact your nearest farming settlement and ask them first, what grows best in the area, whether they have grown potatoes, and whether potatoes do okay.

[jul511riv]

Thanks,

well not much water...only in winter, and even that is scarce. Hot summers and cold winters, but no snow. Lol. I don't know the first thing about gardening. Am I giving any good information? It's the North of Israel. Maybe there are places I could look this up?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Any farming kibbutz communities which could advise?

[jul511riv]

ug, I was trying to avoid that. :) But you are right. It's high time I get a mentor here on these issues. I'm just so used to teaching myself...

[Seaweed]

You could just improvise. Potatoes are incredibly tolerant. Just plant them with lots of manure, keep them watered if it is too dry & you should be sweet.

[Seaweed]

Potato time again :) Has anyone found any exciting potatoes recently? I've got my hands on nga oti oti & kereopa. When we went away for a few days recently, I found some beautiful purpley pink skinned potatoes growing wild all over this little town.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

What size and shape were the purply pink you found? Taste? Are they floury?

[Seaweed]

They weren't that big. 4" long max? Some were in pure sand & the rest were growing with bracken on the roadside. They taste nice & aren't overly floury. I boiled some with some waxy maori potatoes I took with me & they stayed together fine ie I didn't end up with a sludge to go with our potatoes for dinner. I still think they are maybe te maori as it was a potato which has been grown around here for a very long time. They've obviously been feral there for a long time as there were variations in the populations depending on which bit of the road they were on. I also found a few white potatoes of almost teardrop shape too. I will get my act together & take some photos later.