Potatoes

 Interesting ABC Landline program last Sunday on Potatoes and itbeing
Internatinal Year of the Potatoe. About 1,700 varieties exists.

Podcast from ABc if interested. Very informative about potatoes role to
solve hunger. china apparently double production last year and becamethe
worlds biggest produce,with Russia now second.

Interesting question; where did the spud originate from?

 

More interesting  why do they only seem to sell 4 varieties in WA and
persist in selling crap Nadine variety. More work should have been done to
increase the yields and strength of Delaware.

We have a Royal Blue variety which is excellent but you have to use them
within a week or they sprout. The supply line of these isn't that crash hot
either where some weeks marble sized potatoes hit the shelves.

Now I know they grow sebago here but never ever do these get sold in fruit &
veg shops. I wonder where they go to. I guess the Potato Marketing board has
it all tied up. Meanwhile we dip out on decent white potatoes.

 

south america, along with their relative the tomato.

<loosecanon>

there are literally thousands of potato cultivars out there. as with other
"supermarket" veg, commercial growers tend towards a handful of varieties
only, to suit supermarket purposes (ripening time, transportation, long
storage etc).

further to your comment on nadines, different potatoes cook best in
different ways (find yourself a list). there is personal preference & there
is right cooking method for the type - there aren't really any "bad"
potatoes. i'm pretty sure desiree & pontiac sell so well commercially
because they are all-purpose & you can't really go wrong with them.

diggers club (no doubt, amongst others) is promoting more potato types every
year for home growers, so try them. iirc they sell perhaps 15 kinds (which
is still only the tip of the iceberg).


see above - not everything is suitable for mass commercial sale.


in nsw you can't get away from bloody sebagos! which are not at all my
personal preference. however, they're pretty good in & of themselves - they
keep growing in one patch of my garden despite all my efforts, so from that
pov i can't fault them ;-) if you really like sebagos, get some seed
potatoes & go for it! or move to nsw <g>.
kylie

 

Eastern states companies could sell 100 different varities none would get
past quarantine into WA. The AG department and the Potato Marketing board
have it sown up.

Royal Blues are not sold as certified potatoes. The Delaware they sell are
not the same as 30 years ago, I reckon there was a sneaky cross sometime.

As for moving to Sydney nah....

The Landline story was interesting as the Peruvians grow these spuds at 3000
ft above sea level. Not many potato grows at that altitude here.

 
 ;-) if you really like sebagos, get some

"Move to nsw" does not mean the same as "move to Sydney"

As a rural New South Wales rural dweller, I feel very ticked off to have my
State reduced in status to equate with that boring cesspool located on the
central NSW coastline.