To spud or not to spud? That is the question this winter

Although we’ve successfully grown potatoes in the past, a new potato catalog landed in the mailbox the other day, so we’re taking another look at them for this spring.

The potato choices are bewildering, and it made me realize how little I know about the tubers.

Thousands of types of potatoes are native to the Americas, but the tubers most of us eat (Solanum tuberosum) originated in Peru and Bolivia.

They were first cultivated between 7,000 and 10,000 thousand years ago and fed the Incan Empire.

Spanish colonizers spread them around the world. Today, China is the No. 1 potato producer in the world.

As a child in the 1950s, I was only familiar with the two potatoes found in the local grocery store.

Idaho potatoes were for baking and the brown potatoes sold in bags were mashed or made into potato salad.  

All of this pales beside the more than two dozen choices in my catalog.

What to order is the question.

That depends on how they’ll be used, and that means understanding starch.

From what I can figure out, it all boils down to the amount of starch in each kind of potato and whether amylose starch predominates.

Tubers with more than 20% starch are classified as mealy and are best for au gratins and mashing.

Less-starchy potatoes are considered waxy, better for dishes that require the potato to keep its shape when boiled or used in salads and stews.

That seemed straightforward, but my catalog lists “in-between” varieties and then breaks those down in moist and dry mealy and waxy categories.

My head is spinning, and the only thing I have really discovered is that all I’ve ever eaten are in-between potatoes.

We really aren’t even eating many potatoes any more because despite having necessary micronutrients and vitamins, potatoes and foods like rice and pasta are currently out of favor with the healthy-eating set.

They release the sugar in their starch rapidly after being eaten, and that leads to spikes in blood sugar levels.

That’s important as more people are alert to the health hazard of developing diabetes.

But new research shows cooling potatoes, rice and pasta before eating them can triple the amount of resistant starch — starch that’s slowly broken down in the large intestine and which feeds good intestinal bacteria.

Even if the food is warmed again, it retains the resistant starch.

That limits the sugar rush into the body.

We’re trying to decide whether to give homegrown potatoes another try.

My husband leans toward gold potatoes that are supposed to have a buttery flavor.

I probably should have tossed the catalog in the recycle bin since potatoes were off the radar this year.

But we have a lot of time until planting season rolls around to decide to spud or not spud.

Just a reminder that the Port Garden Club’s Feb. 8 keynote speaker is Richard Hawke of the Chicago Botanic Garden.

He’s talking about the best plants he has trialed and plants that fit our gardens.

Hawke is Wisconsin-born and educated at the University of Wisconsin and is aware of local soil and weather challenges. I hope to see you there.