SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  What's Your Deal!    Why can't I buy a decent potato any more?
Page 1 2 
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Why can't I buy a decent potato any more? Login/Join 
Three Generations
of Service
Picture of PHPaul
posted
I'm a Kraut. I like potatoes. We have potatoes in some form or another 5 days a week as a rule.

If I buy a 5 pound bag of potatoes at the store, we may actually wind up with 3 pounds of usable potato. The rest is sprouts, scars, bruises, and actual rot if they aren't used within a week, 10 days at the outside.

I know that some of it is the fact that the fucking tree huggers have banned any insecticide/fungicide/herbicide that actually works. I suspect some of it is that the prime stock goes to the industry for chips, fries and whatever.

Some years back I gave up growing potatoes because I could buy them cheaper than I could grow them and the goddamn Colorado Potato Bugs were driving me batshit. Now it's a toss-up: The aggravation of growing my own or the aggravation of throwing away half of what I buy.




Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
 
Posts: 15181 | Location: Downeast Maine | Registered: March 10, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Prepared for the Worst, Providing the Best
Picture of 92fstech
posted Hide Post
Yeah...I always debate about growing them every year, because they are so cheap to buy it hardly seems worth it. But then I get to eat them, and I remember why I do, lol.
 
Posts: 8417 | Location: In the Cornfields | Registered: May 25, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hillbilly Wannabe
posted Hide Post
My potato problem is that I can't buy the type I want separately .I just want five or six Yukon Gold , not a 5 pound bag. You can get the little ones in a gourmet bag but it costs the same as a bag of the regular size ones.

I did just buy a bag of Russets .The wife and I will never finish it before it goes bad but it was on sale for $3.00

Any thing I try to grow with a tuber the voles eat. Garlic, onions, potatoes,etc.

I feel your pain!
 
Posts: 2545 | Location: Georgia | Registered: July 12, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Three Generations
of Service
Picture of PHPaul
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by 92fstech:
Yeah...I always debate about growing them every year, because they are so cheap to buy it hardly seems worth it. But then I get to eat them, and I remember why I do, lol.


True. New Potatoes are a treat by themselves, and new potatoes with fresh Sugar Snap peas are nearly Nirvana. For the last 4-5 years I've planted a short row of Russets just for the new potatoes.

Some years back, a Person Who Shall Remain Nameless gave me a jug of stuff that's the only thing I've ever found that actually works on potato bugs. "You're supposed to have a license to use this, and you didn't get it from me." No idea what it is and I'm darn near out of it.




Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
 
Posts: 15181 | Location: Downeast Maine | Registered: March 10, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Three Generations
of Service
Picture of PHPaul
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by 9x18:
My potato problem is that I can't buy the type I want separately .I just want five or six Yukon Gold , not a 5 pound bag. You can get the little ones in a gourmet bag but it costs the same as a bag of the regular size ones.

I did just buy a bag of Russets .The wife and I will never finish it before it goes bad but it was on sale for $3.00

Any thing I try to grow with a tuber the voles eat. Garlic, onions, potatoes,etc.

I feel your pain!


Mmmmmmmmmmmm...Yukon Gold. Best boiling potato on the planet. Peel 'em, boil 'em, slather on some real butter and a touch of salt and pepper and eat until you founder.




Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
 
Posts: 15181 | Location: Downeast Maine | Registered: March 10, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hillbilly Wannabe
posted Hide Post
Boiled, skin on (mostly), couple cloves of garlic, then mashed with some butter and milk. Good eats.
 
Posts: 2545 | Location: Georgia | Registered: July 12, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Dances With
Tornados
posted Hide Post
I dunno either, I have a bag out in my cold 41 degree garage and they still go bad way too soon.

I just bought 5 pounds of seed potatoes. I can't plant them until probably the last week of March.

They're fun to grow as well as tasty.
 
Posts: 11812 | Registered: October 26, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of m1009
posted Hide Post
PHPaul, I have managed to keep potatoes for a decent time sonce I bought a covered, vented container. They can still go bad, but it seems in this they last a lot longer than previously. It’s a Tupperware potato storage container. I have been happy with it. Think they make bigger ones, this one holds at least 5 lbs I think.
 
Posts: 1124 | Registered: September 27, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by 9x18:
Boiled, skin on (mostly), couple cloves of garlic, then mashed with some butter and milk. Good eats.


We like to add a healthy glug of white vinegar to the water. I think its an English thing


-------------

The sadder but wiser girl for me.
 
Posts: 1055 | Location: Idaho Panhandle | Registered: July 18, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by PHPaul:

Mmmmmmmmmmmm...Yukon Gold. Best boiling potato on the planet. Peel 'em, boil 'em, slather on some real butter and a touch of salt and pepper and eat until you founder.


For another taste treat if you like horseradish mix a spoon full in addition to the butter.



I'm alright it's the rest of the world that's all screwed up!
 
Posts: 1363 | Location: Southern Michigan | Registered: May 30, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Three Generations
of Service
Picture of PHPaul
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by m1009:
PHPaul, I have managed to keep potatoes for a decent time sonce I bought a covered, vented container. They can still go bad, but it seems in this they last a lot longer than previously. It’s a Tupperware potato storage container. I have been happy with it. Think they make bigger ones, this one holds at least 5 lbs I think.


I'll have to look into that, thanks!




Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
 
Posts: 15181 | Location: Downeast Maine | Registered: March 10, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of pasound
posted Hide Post
I remember when I was a child - six decades plus ago - we'd buy a bag of potatoes, and they'd be dead in under a week unless we cooked and ate them all early. New containers, and the refigerator help, but fresh is just short term.


Old, stubborn, heavily armed.
 
Posts: 27 | Location: Charleston, WV | Registered: January 30, 2021Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of m1009
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by PHPaul

I'll have to look into that, thanks!


You’re welcome! I got mine thru a co worker who was selling them, but Amazon has them too I just found out.
 
Posts: 1124 | Registered: September 27, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Prepared for the Worst, Providing the Best
Picture of 92fstech
posted Hide Post
quote:
Some years back, a Person Who Shall Remain Nameless gave me a jug of stuff that's the only thing I've ever found that actually works on potato bugs. "You're supposed to have a license to use this, and you didn't get it from me." No idea what it is and I'm darn near out of it.


I use child labor. I pay them a penny a bug. Learned that trick from my dad...he did the same thing with my brothers and me growing up. They bring me a jar-full, they get paid, then they get to smash them. Keeps them from fighting with each other for a good while, too Big Grin.
 
Posts: 8417 | Location: In the Cornfields | Registered: May 25, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I Deal In Lead
Picture of Flash-LB
posted Hide Post
I gave up on the potatoes in a bag a long time ago for the same reason as the OP. A lot of wastage.

I now buy potatoes by the pound and pick each one individually. I get 6 at a time and now I don't have any wastage.
 
Posts: 10626 | Location: Gilbert Arizona | Registered: March 21, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Three Generations
of Service
Picture of PHPaul
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by m1009:
quote:
Originally posted by PHPaul

I'll have to look into that, thanks!


You’re welcome! I got mine thru a co worker who was selling them, but Amazon has them too I just found out.


That doesn't look significantly different than the way we're storing them now. I suspect part of the problem is we're leaving them in the original bags, either plastic or paper. The bags are ventilated in various ways, but perhaps putting them in the bin loose is the answer.




Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
 
Posts: 15181 | Location: Downeast Maine | Registered: March 10, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of mcrimm
posted Hide Post
We grow about 30 pounds of reds every year that do very well in our sandy soil. Down the road is a guy who grows hundreds of acres of potatoes. He's given me a number of bags in the past. We don't eat many potatoes any more. Doing the Keto thing.



I'm sorry if I hurt you feelings when I called you stupid - I thought you already knew - Unknown
...................................
When you have no future, you live in the past. " Sycamore Row" by John Grisham
 
Posts: 4214 | Location: Saddlebrooke, Arizona | Registered: December 24, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of smlsig
posted Hide Post
PH don’t know if you have a Sams Club near you but we have found the veggies bought there tend to last quite a bit longer than those bought at our local Kroger. We usually buy Yukon Golds in a large bag (8#?)and store them outside in the garage this time of year.


------------------
Eddie

Our Founding Fathers were men who understood that the right thing is not necessarily the written thing. -kkina
 
Posts: 6309 | Location: In transit | Registered: February 19, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of ShouldBFishin
posted Hide Post
I've noticed the potatoes we get from the store tend to go bad fairly quickly - but the potatoes I get from Dad seem to store better. He swears it's because he leaves a bit of the soil on them and based on my observations so far, I think he's right.
 
Posts: 1799 | Location: MN | Registered: March 29, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Rev. A. J. Forsyth
posted Hide Post
quote:
Peel 'em


Blasphemy you say! The skin is the best part, where a majority of nutrients are found.

I grow about 70lbs or so of redskins every year. I just leave them in the ground and dig up as needed until the first frost. I have found that taking store bought spuds out of the bag and storing in a cool, dry place works the best. I keep mine in a big, flat whicker basket lookin thing that resembles a sombrero. It resides in my front hall closet right by the front door. Nice and cool.
 
Posts: 1639 | Location: Winston-Salem  | Registered: April 01, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata Page 1 2  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  What's Your Deal!    Why can't I buy a decent potato any more?

© SIGforum 2024