Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Year of the Potato


I'm not kidding. The United Nations declared 2008 the International Year of the Potato. I've known it for a while, because before I had this blog, I used to read a lot more of the eclectic articles vetted by Arts & Letters Daily. There are thousands of varieties, and they all started as wild plants in Peru and the surrounding mountainous countries of South America. As for this picture, well, I was just enjoying that dappled light at the farmer's market.

18 comments:

Laurie Allee said...

This is such a great photo. I love art in the ordinary and I think you have such a knack for capturing it.

elisa said...

a potato's rainbow

Saretta said...

Are those potatos blue or black? I don't think I've ever seen any like that!

Virginia said...

I am enjoying that dappled light as well. The colors make it just a lovely photo today .

Hilda said...

Purple and pink potatoes? Oh wow! Like Saretta, I've never seen potatoes like those before.

Meead said...

Oh I heard it before. Potato is a healthy and nutritious food. Thanks for recall it.

Did you see http://tehran-dailyphotos.blogspot.com today? I'm sure you'll like it.

Knoxville Girl said...

I like that ray of light on those spuds. Boiled red potatoes sauteed in butter are one of my favorite things. Healthier without the butter, I know, but would be boring.

Dina said...

Ha, know what you mean. I used to read before I got a blog too.
Purple potatoes? Year of the Potato? Maybe because of the rising cost of rice, it's like, "Let them eat potatoes."

Laurie Allee said...

I just had to come back and look at those pretty taters. The purple ones are purple all the way through. I made the most interesting mashed potatoes with them a few Thanksgivings ago.

Sarah said...

I have not seen red and black potatos befor!
I have a suggestion for your blog Elaine,share your special food and drinks photos
I want to do that in my mom's food blog soon ;)

USelaine said...

Laurie - Thank you! I like to find a little abstract expressionism in my daily life.

Elisa - Yes! Thanks for peeking in - your photos are so inspiring.

Saretta - They are marketed as "blue" potatoes, but they have dark purple skins with mixed purple and white flesh. You'll find even more colors among all those links I put in the text. If you enlarge this photo, you'll see the tip of one broken off.

Virginia - Thank you too! The vendor was smart to display them like this.

Hilda - We have had the pink skinned, white fleshed ones in the US for several decades, and are considered boiling potatoes instead of baking. The cooked texture is very smooth.

Meead - I enjoy reading about the origins of different foods, so this was a natural thing to catch my interest. One of the articles I linked to says potatoes made possible the European Industrial Revolution of the 19th century!

KG - Don't be afraid of butter! Be afraid of margarine, because it is hydrogenated fat, not real food for the body! Butter has vitamin E, and helps slow the blast of blood sugar you get from carbohydrate rich potatoes. Sour cream is good too, in moderation. No trans-fats! [button pushed!]

Dina - Well, you don't need a rice growing climate, with loads of water, in order to produce potatoes, so they provide important survival energy for a different part of the world.

Laurie - You know, I tried mashing them once, but they looked kind of gray when I did it. I've never seen any with the flesh as dark as the skin. My favorites to come on the market in the last decade or so are the Yukon Gold yellow fleshed potatoes. Too bad the pink/red ones are just white inside. ;^)

Sara - I don't know if you have white boiling potatoes, or brown-skinned baking potatoes in Iran. All of these can be roasted/baked too. If you look at the bottom of this potato post, you will see a "label" saying "FOOD". If you click on that, you will see all the posts I have done tagged with that label. Sometime I will post more food. I always enjoy seeing the things to eat on other City Photo blogs too!

Louis la Vache said...

Great photo, Elaine! A pastel palette in soft light. Who would have thought the lowly spud could make such a nice image!? :-)

Kris McCracken said...

I very much like this photograph, and especially its subject/

I am in love with potatoes, all sorts. I’m from potato country in the North West of Tasmania. If I had to pick one, I’d go with the good old Dutch Cream, a versatile beauty: a magnificent masher (none better); brilliant roaster; quality boiler; it can even tolerate frying.

Yep, you want a good potato, don’t look past the Dutch Cream.

Bursa Daily Photo said...

you know, I never realised how much I like potatoes until I moved to a country which doesn't eat them regularly! In the UK we eat them a lot but somehow I never noticed when I lived there.

Halcyon said...

I've never seen such a colorful array of pots!

USelaine said...

Louis - Well, thank you!

Kris - I haven't seen that name on the little signs, but perhaps I should ask for Dutch Cream next time I'm there, and see what they say. Local farmers are quick to respond to local tastes.

Bursa - You might try growing them yourself, and surprise your friends. I've heard they can grow quite well under a mulch of straw.

Halcyon - There are some other shapes too. Some vendors have "Russian Fingerlings", which indeed look like fat fingers!

Louis la Vache said...

"Louis" had to stop and look at this again. It reminds him of a watercolor of pebbles in a clear stream.

USelaine said...

Louis - You are very kind. We have some streams in Willits, and now you've given me an idea...