More about Taters

Perhaps it’s our Scotts-Irish ancestry, but potatoes are more than a staple food on the mountain.  Most local folks would tell you that you can’t live without potatoes and the bounty of the fall potato harvest is the number one measure of the kind of winter we’re about to face.

I grew up with potatoes on the table every day, often more than once.  One friend who grew up in especially hard conditions remembered often having just potatoes for supper. 

Uppity people might sneer at our affinity for ‘taters, but they are popular across America as chips, fries, baked, a ’gratin… there are so many ways to enjoy them. 

We so universally refer to this food as ‘Arsh Taters that I have had to lookup the proper name for them.  It seems they are Russet or White potatoes; however, it also seems to me that people off the mountain don’t put Sweet Potatoes in the same class as White potatoes.  Certainly, their origins are vastly different.

Historically, white potatoes are thought to have first been cultivated in Peru, and sailors carried them to Ireland in the mid-1500’s.  Once the crop took root there, it became essential, History Magazine reports that “Many Irish survived on potatoes and milk alone – the two together provide all essential nutrients…” So it’s easy to see the devastation wrought by the Potato Blight that hit the island in 1845 and brought on mass starvation.

However, in those early days, potatoes were considered a food only for the lower classes of society.  Sweet Potatoes, however, once discovered in the South America, graced the tables of kings. 

In America, Sweet potatoes were most popular in the southern states, no doubt because they are more difficult to grow up north.  I’ve been reading that you have to cover and warm the soil in June in order to provide a suitable environment north of Kentucky.  However, they have grown in popularity across the country as their nutritional benefits have been exploited.

I adore sweet potatoes, simply baked or fried with a little brown sugar, they are delicious and as I mentioned very nutritious.

We have so much more access to foods these days, but if you see a garden plot on the mountain, you’ll just about always see a patch of potatoes among the other vegetables.