blue french fries

[Smart Red]

I did get those planted rather early. For our wonderfully wet and (relatively) cool summer these have done very well. I hope the main crop does as well.

I think it works best to start with children (or grow them for children) when it comes to trying different colors of common veggies. Red, yellow, white carrots are great! The Grands like them as much as orange ones. Gold and white beets taste great once you get the color past your head and mouth. Since we love beets, I figured trying the other colors wouldn't be problematic. The Grands and the grandpas eat them, the son and daughter do not.

Those colorful tomatoes in white, yellow, orange, green, and BLACK are all eaten by the youngest and oldest ones here. The middles? Not so much favoring any tomato other than red. Sigh!

 

[Smart Red]

One year for Thanksgiving I made red, white, and blue mashed potatoes. The Grands loved them. Even the middles tried the colored mashed spuds. This time it was my DH who was the fuddy-duddy and didn't eat the red or blue potatoes.

I had them in three bowls. I didn't want to risk getting them mixed up and being left with muddy brown mashed spuds.

 

[Nyboy]

My friends son wouldn't eat eggs,no matter how they where prepared. I had 3 hens who layed blue eggs, I told him they where from the Easter Bunny. He loved blue eggs LOL, small children are so easy to fool !!!!!!

 

[Smart Red]

How do you potato gurus clean the potatoes after digging? And sweet potatoes, too? Is it OK to wash with a lot of pressure, then dry in the shade?

I actually don't clean them after digging. I let them dry in a shady spot and brush the dried dirt off with my hands (or perhaps with my glove) before storing them for the winter. I don't wash potatoes until I'm ready to prepare them for a meal.

I don't know if that's how others do it or not. I don't have any reason for why I do it that way other than I've never washed any of the corms, tubers, or roots that I overwinter in my basement.

 

[digitS']

How do you potato gurus clean the potatoes after digging? And sweet potatoes, too? Is it OK to wash with a lot of pressure, then dry in the shade?

Not a guru but I believe that is the correct way to do it, @so lucky .

However, my spuds have tender skins, right now.

For good storage and tougher skins, we need to wait for foliage die-back, cut foliage 2 or more weeks before digging, or spray with some commercial chemical to kill foliage ...

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

Not a guru but I believe that is the correct way to do it, @so lucky .
. . . . . . .or spray with some commercial chemical to kill foliage ...

Steve

Steve, I am aghast! Commercial chemical to kill foliage! That might be okay for the big corporations but for the family gardener, waiting for foliage to die back, cutting the still-greenish foliage off, or stealing potatoes from beneath the plant are all preferable. Of course, you do live in Potato Haven/Heaven out there in Idaho, so your experience is certainly different from me.

so lucky, freshly harvested spuds don't have much of a skin. That paper thin layer can be washed off with a gentle scrubbing and eaten as NEW potatoes. However, I've been trying for years to convince my family that potato skins contain the best of the potato -- in vitamins and minerals -- so peeling them is a sacrilege.

It is true about the value of potato skins, but in truth, I just hate peeling potatoes. Always have; always will.

 

[Carol Dee]

I am too lazy to peel all of those tiny potatoes.

No need to peel them, just a good cleaning and prepare them with the skins on.

 

[Smart Red]

That's the Red Way!

 

[catjac1975]

I do not wash anything until cooking time.. Just dry them and store them.

 

[journey11]

@so lucky , they keep much better if you don't wash them at all. I do like Steve and don't harvest until foliage dies back, then let them lay in the rows all afternoon, bring them in at evening, spread them out in a single layer on the basement floor (or some other cool, dark, dry place) and let them cure for about 2 weeks before I pack them into crates for long-term storage, also in a cool, dark, dry place. I don't have a cellar, so I haven't figured out a way to manage the correct humidity, but if you do, they'll last even longer. Small potatoes won't keep for long at all. I can those or use up quickly. Some varieties are better keepers than others. I don't wash until I use them.

Most always with my homegrown potatoes, especially if thin skinned, they just need a good scrub. I like to keep all those nutrient rich peels on them. No need to peel unless they've been sprayed with some chemical like store-bought potatoes are, or if they just happen to be ugly and scabby.