For reasons I have yet to figure out, two of my children think potatoes are evil things, put on earth only to vex them, personally. They’ll eat fries, chips and hashbrown patties, but simply putting potatoes in food is a war crime.

Well, I frequently commit first degree potato. Premeditated and with malice aforethought. Partially it is because, having spent time in 2nd and 3rd world countries, the degree of privilege that would refuse a meal because of a single ingredient infuriates me. It is one thing if there are allergy or sensitivity isses. It is something else entirely to just say ‘you put potato in that somewhere. I won’t eat it.’

In part, though, it is pure practicality. We have all seen supply chain issues over the last few years. We have all seen the cost of food skyrocket. Potatoes have almost all the necessary nutrients for life. If you can add milk, you’re golden. This was the food that kept societies alive for very long stretches of time. This is potato country. They grow well here, and the return is usually significant. There are also many farmers here who allow post-harvest gleaning. If that is an unfamiliar term to you, it means that regular people are welcome to enter the field after the harvester has gone through and pick up the too-small or overlooked potatoes for free.

Potato patches also dont necessarily scream “look, a garden”. They can be sort of tangled and messy and a casual eye might overlook them. So they are a crop that can be grown in a semi-stealthy way. One hopes, of course, that the need for stealth gardening never arises, but the chances are far higher now than they used to be.

In any case, the humble spud is a food that won’t be going away any time soon in our kitchen. And so, I shall continue to commit first degree, premeditated potato.