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Crazy
Chips
Potato Planting
Planting is an act of faith in the future, one of the more pleasing ones we know. It is a ritual of careful preparation, precise steps taken at the right time, whether the planting is done by hand or machine.
We recall the fancy footwork of a Dutchman we met in the north of Holland where the main potato crop is grown for industrial use.
We asked him to demonstrate for us a wraparound seed bag, for want of a better word, worn over the shoulders and around the back at the waist. He wasn't sure he could remember how. The farmer walked down the row, making a hole for the spud with one foot, dropping in the potato, and tamping dirt down over the earth over the potato with the other foot as he moved rhythmically across the field. He took the potatoes with alternating hands. Delighted that his feet and hands had remembered what his mind had almost forgotten, he told us he had not used the planting bag in about 40 years. Farmers have come up with hundreds of ingenious devices to aid in planting, baskets attached to tubes, cones and funnels. Foot operated planters from the Acme company. Spades called spuds and dibbles which vary from region to region and country to country. And, of course, machines. At a handsome Water Mill, Long Island New York USA data form we visited one cloudy day years ago, it was one man, machine and faithful hound. The dog trotted along close behind a four row mechanical planter moving up and down the rows as his master monitored the seed potato cylinders at the rear. "Oh yes," said the former, "he's part of the team. And when he gets tired he rides in the cab." Click here for our full exhibit on potato planting. One PotatoTwo: treasures from our collection
Cinematic Potatoes: Starring Spuds! And the Oscar for the Best Line About Potatoes in a film goes to: Empire
of the Sun Tubers and Tinseltown share a long history together. It probably starts with a little known 1924 D.W.Griffith film called Isn't Life Wonderful? Spuds play a starring role here - publicity stills featured the leading lady and man smiling at each other over a tin basin of dirt-covered potatoes. The plot concerns an impoverished German family, driven from their homes, who live in two rooms in Berlin. They can only afford to eat a potato a day each. Continue our exhibit on this film starring spuds here. Belgian
Fries
VVVisit our new exhibit here.
Growing Potatoes:
The Colorado beetle is a serious crop pest of potatoes. The potato beetle is an example of one of the most successful animal migrations is history. In less than 100 years it has spanned the globe. Planting
Potatoes by John Robert Quinn
I'm
a careless potato and care not a pin Featured
Exhibit
Save Our Spuds
Preserve
Planet Potato So, what has the potato done for so many? Not so much--just repeatedly saved entire societies from chronic malnutrition and starvation. Click here to visit the exhibit.
View more exhibits from The Potato Museum library here.
Potatoes: New Orleans Style We're all recalling visits to New Orleans these days---many years ago we discovered some of the best potato cookery ever in what was then the Big Easy, and reported on it in a 1980's issue of PEELINGS, The Potato Museum's newsletter. "We started our day with breakfast at the Tally Ho on Chartres Street. Their hash browns are made from spuds baked in advance and grated on a clean griddle at time of order. The cook adds a dollop of butter to each pile before he turns them over for final browning. For lunch, we trekked over to Antoine's early for a look at their "pommes de terre souffles", a restaurant specialty conceived in France in 1837. The spuds are sliced in thin rectangles and deep fried in black iron pots until they puff. They are served hot as hors d'oeuvres in baskets made from woven strips of, yes, potato. Back to Chartres for dinner at K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, one of the few places where tiny boiled Red La Soda potatoes are standard fare, especially superb with Paul's "blackened redfish." Paul also made a mashed potato 'po boy, as well as sliver-thin shoestring potatoes." For more on pommes de terre souffles and Antoine's Restaurant click here. Buy our book...the first chapter
is about the potato! No one else delivers you this kind of book, food-lovers, packed with colorful photos from our trek and from The FOOD Museum's collections. We traveled over 10,000 kilometers around France (someone had to do it) to bring you the backstory of French food. Who is “we?” Meredith Sayles Hughes and Tom Hughes, founders of The FOOD Museum. Rémi Krug, chair of the Institut des Hautes Études du Goût, writes of Gastronomie! Food Museums and Heritage Sites of France: “ We are delighted that the book is shining light on what is at the very heart of French culture and art de vivre. The Hughes’ guide explores the historical background behind the rich cuisine and taste of France today. It artfully illuminates the creative spirit, dedication, and high professionalism that are preserving gastronomic history in sites across the country.” Where in the
World Is our Potato Museum shirt Now?
Where in the world have you been photographed wearing The Potato Museum logo? Send us a photo, tell us where you were, and we will add it to an exhibit under construction. People who bought a Potato Museum logo shirt when we offered them a twenty years ago, tell us it has always been one of their favorites. Visit our Potato Museum logo shop here. So, support The Potato Museum, a non-profit organization, by buying and wearing our logo with pride. Visitor
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