The latest super food to hit the high street is the ‘purple potato.’ So for this weekend I thought I would buy a few to try them. Thankfully, the most colourful and unusual varieties of potato are finally spreading throughout the world from South America. They are easy to grow either in the garden border, vegetable patch, tub or any container that can hold a fair bit of soil to house the potato crop. Whenever peeling potatoes always save any large potato eyes on the outer skin and bury them somewhere in your border – the chances are they will produce a lovely crop of potatoes for you without any expense or trouble.
Purple potatoes are packed full of anti-oxidants as well as a wide array of vitamins and minerals. They are noted for helping to maintain healthy blood vessels. Most importantly, they taste wonderful and are inexpensive to buy.
Some of the special ingredients packed into these wonderful super food potatoes are claimed to be: zinc (helps to ward off both bacterial and especially viral illness and used for around two hundred different enzyme processes many of which are linked to the immune system. Zinc also helps in the production of insulin, healing of wounds and eruptions on the outer skin, sperm formation. Zinc is required for aiding the body digest protein); iron (good for enriching the blood, helping the body make red blood cells to transport oxygen to keep the brain alert and keep organs healthy); magnesium (required for stress busting and good quality sleep. Magnesium aids the body in the digestion of carbohydrates. It is also used by the body to help the brain clarify information. Magnesium is required by the body to help the absorption of calcium to strengthen the bones); phosphorus, potassium, vitamin c, vitamin B6 (helps to convert protein foods into energy, keeps a balanced mood, helps with repair and healing), riboflavin, thiamine, folic acid (required for building anti-bodies, folic acid also has the capacity for lowering homocysteine levels, preventing anaemia), etc.
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4 comments:
I have never seen nor heard of purple potatoes. Obviously they are quite good for you but I'm curious about the taste. Do they have a different flavor than a regular potato? I also found it quite interesting about planting the large eye from the peelings. I'll have to try that
Ann, they taste like potatoes used to - an old fashioned rich flavour. So far I have tried them baked, steam roasted on a hot pot, roasted and boiled and they are excellent. I must admit that when slicing them they tend to look a little like a beetroot. They are quite lovely.
Regarding growing potatoes from their eyes - my uncle's mother used to do this in the middle of Birmingham. This was quite remarkable as she only had a small back garden. It had rather a large mint patch as she loved mint. Every time she peeled a potato she would automatically plant any eyes that she found. This meant that all year round with the exception of the Winter - she had the most lovely and of course organic potatoes. She planted an eye and waited until the plant began to flower then she would dig up the roots and there below would be a mound of beautiful potatoes. In the Spring the skins would flake off her crop and the potatoes were babies rather like Jersey Mids (which sadly have disappeared from our English greengrocers shelves - we now have medium sized potatoes called Jersey Royals which I have stopped buying as they do not taste as nice as the baby versions the Jersey Mids).
If you have never planted potato eyes before then I can tell you that it is well worth the little effort of wriggling a hole in the soil throwing the eye down it then pulling back a little earth over the top. You have a 99% success rate with such plantings - your crops are free - your seeds cost nothing - and they taste wonderful. You could say it's a win, win, win situation. I would recommend anyone to try this method of growing potatoes if they haven't tried it yet - and if they have tried it then please give it another go!
I have seen these at the grocery but haven't tried them. You have me convinced to try them. I also will try planting the "eyes".
Great post, Polly!!!
I bought some purple potatoes to try just recently. It was my first time seeing purple potatoes so I had to get them. :P
I made potato salad with it. The kids were fascinaed with this purple coloured potato. It tasted like potato, it wasn't spectacular. haha...
The purple potatoes that I bought were expensive because they were imported from USA. :(
I didn't think of planting potatoes or I would have saved the peelings! I'll try potato planting soon....
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