Breakfast of Potatoes

[Tom Wagner]

Skagit Valley Gold
German Butterball
Red Thumb
Redsen
Reiche
Semlo

Sometimes a breakfast can be so simple that it is complex only in the mind.

I cooked a pan full of potatoes. Two tubers each, boiled in the jackets, and sampled variety by variety with only a bit of margarine and salt. It was only about two pounds of potatoes but with just a cup or so of coffee, I feel sated and reasonably happy.

The potatoes were organically grown and were dryland grown, meaning no irrigation; depending on only natural rainfall. The choices to eat were rather random but chosen for being parental material of advanced clones of my breeding work in the same field.

The vines on these were near mature, and the lack of water for the last 6 weeks made for very solid, high gravity textures. Each variety was unique and I made mental notes to compare with each variety’s offspring (one to five generations) in the upcoming harvest. Skagit Valley Gold was my favorite of the six lines with its rich yellow/orange flesh and nutty flavors. All were good, and delightful in their own right.

Now, with breakfast and a few posts on the ‘Net, I can get to my tomato seed extraction with gusto. I have about 100 or so family lines of tomatoes to store seed from, so I’d better get busy.

Tom Wagner

[pbud]

Sounds like a delicious breakfast!
I dug these up yesterday and had a bunch for lunch.

[barkeater]

Sorry, sounds gross to me. I've always hated boiled potatoes, but love them any other way. And with margarine? Yuck.

[Tom Wagner]

Sorry, sounds gross to me. I've always hated boiled potatoes, but love them any other way. And with margarine? Yuck.

Force of habit. My maternal ancestry goes back to Graben, Germany, near the Black Forest, but close to the Rhein/Rhine River.

If you know anything about Germans, you must know that they liked their potatoes boiled in the skins/jackets, and the smaller-the better. Kids learn how to cook and prepare vegetables from their mom's mom, and on down the line. Now that tradition is probably changing rapidly in today's society. My other grandmother was older and I couldn't learn much from her past 11. My mom's mom was still teaching me things until she was near 90 and I was 34. That means I was around her style of cooking for 3 times the amount of time as the other grandmother.

I grew up on a dairy farm, and we made everything including home churned butter. But the butter would often turn rancid and I never could stand even good butter since I was about four years old. I had to have margarine as a substitute and I today I like Imperial like some people like butter.

My ancestors lived on farms that were water stops along parts of the wagon trains going through various parts of Kansas and Nebraska. I never succumbed to having to eat hedge tree bark here in Kansas or the insides of white pine bark like the Mohawks, (Algonquian-speaking tribes), who were said to eat bark when food was scarce up Vermont way.

So I guess Yuck, is a matter of taste, habit, tradition, and necessity.

Tom Wagner

[velikipop]

Tom,

I tried to buy some German Butterball this spring and the usual vendors here in the Bellingham-Mt Vernon area of Washington could not get any. Do you have any suggestions on who might carry this variety for next year. The other one that was difficult to find was French Fingerling which is usually available.

I also love boiled potatoes with a bit of salt.

Thanks,

Alex

[amideutch]

Many years ago we went over to my wifes best friend's aunt's house who was in her late seventies and was still cooking on a wood burning stove. She had this big pot on the stove simmering with a not to pleasant odor eminating from it and invited us to sit down and have some. She called it war soup and had been making/eating it since WWII. What it turned out to be was potato peels boiled in water. During the war thats what the germans ate as everything else was for the soldiers. It didn't taste that great but the way that 70+ year old lady was still getting around it must have been nutritious. Ami

[barkeater]

Tom, that would be the Adirondacks, which means barkeater in Algonquin. ;-)

I still prefer my potatoes baked though, skins and all with Cabots butter. Yum.

[ddsack]

I too, love the simplicity and freshness of tiny new potatoes boiled, with just a bit of butter and salt. If some chopped parsley or tiny bit of fresh dill is available, it's even better. Baking should be reserved for the big ol' spuds. But I love all potatoes in any way shape or form of cooking.

Due to the late cold spring I had trouble finding holding room for all my tomato seedlings, so did not start my true potato seeds this year. I have them in the freezer, so hope they will be usable next year.

[Tom Wagner]

I tried to buy some German Butterball this spring and the usual vendors here in the Bellingham-Mt Vernon area of Washington could not get any. Do you have any suggestions on who might carry this variety for next year. The other one that was difficult to find was French Fingerling which is usually available.

Alex,

Getting some German Butterball potatoes, both for eating and seed stock, in Skagit County, would be from Nate O'Neil at Frog's Song Farm; and in Snohomish County--Alden's Farm near Monroe, Washington.

Tom, that would be the Adirondacks, which means barkeater in Algonquin. ;-)

Barkeater,

For someone like me who doesn't always know why members use rather funny usernames, I could not resist having a little fun with your name while looking up the clues behind (barkeater), and in my obtuse way of making internal humor, I imagined (potatoeater) has a nicer connotation---palate wise--than (pinebarkeater)!

I left out the Adirondack name since that moniker is associated with potatoes from the NE.

The next seedling potatoes that need a name out of my Adironadacksen potato variety may have these names to choose from: Barkeater, Caboteater, Russet Bark, Black Pine Eater, Bark Baker, Algonquin Barkeater, Pinebark, and many more. I'll have etymological theorist busy for generations trying to recognize that words originate through a limited number of basic mechanisms.

What it turned out to be was potato peels boiled in water.

Ami,

Reminds me helping my grandparents down at their farm near Cummings, Kansas by stoking up the wood stove, putting on a big pot of water, washing up the smallest potatoes out of the potato cellar, and boiling the potatoes until the skins cracked open. I never thought to cook the potato peelings like your friends' Aunt. I'll bet nothing got under her skin and she probably did get around well by the skin of her potatoes. If I ever get around to eating War Soup, I will have to buy a potato peeler that wastes a lot of potato.

[OmahaJB]

Alex, If you have trouble finding German Butterball next spring, Ronnigers would be a good place on-line to buy them. (If they ship to Canada.) That's where my German Butterball and two other varieties came from. Both Carola and German Butterball have had strong vegetation this summer - will see about production in a month!

[velikipop]

Tom,

Thanks, I will look into those sources.

Jeff, you are right no US vendor will ship potatoes to Canada because of agricultural restrictions. Garlic is another one. Usually I take a trip to Bellingham or Mt. Vernon in Washington to get interesting seed potatoes.

Alex

[phicks48]

Hey Tom am German American i like boiles potatoes and butter or margarine yum Paul

[phicks48]

Potatoes served at breakfast, At dinner served again; Potatoes served at supper, Forever and Amen!

[WVTomatoMan]

Boiled? Baked? What are y'all thinkin'? Gosh darn northerners. I'm from the south and we fry everything, so it's fried taters and onyuns. Actually I like boiled and baked potatoes, I just wanted to have a little fun.

For years my wife wouldn't try fried potatoes and onions and then one day she did. Oh yeah, she's a convert now. My girl is seriously into fried potatoes and onions.

You really should try fried potatoes and onions for or with your breakfast.

Randy

[sprtsguy76]

Boiled/steamed is good, but I like them a little firm so I'm careful not to over cook them. Butter and seasoned salt is how I like them boiled/steamed.

Breakfast, its all about frying the taters. I cook them in a little butter, a little oil, garlic salt, lemon pepper and add some red onyun. Again, I like them a little firm this way too. Yummers.

Damon