[AT] digging potatoes

Herb Metz metz-h.b at comcast.net
Tue Jul 2 04:53:22 PDT 2013


Thanks Charlie; I googled "internal heat necrosis potato" and now know more 
about those infrequent dark spots in spuds.
And Charlie Halls "poke" is (modest sized) sack or bag, a chiefly southern 
term.



-----Original Message----- 
From: charlie hill
Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2013 7:04 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] digging potatoes

I'm sure the hay insulates the potatoes.  I always figured
it had the effect of keeping the separated and allowing some
air circulation around them too.

I know some commercial potato growers but don't see them often.
I just don't know what the curing process is.  I think it is about
keeping the temp. stable and the air dry but not a lot of heat
or cooling.

It's interesting how they buy potatoes.  Most of the potatoes grown
here in NC go to potato chip production.  When the spuds are harvested
the buyer comes by and brings a little "fry daddy" type deep fryer with him.
He slices up a few randomly selected potatoes and fries them up into
chips and eats them.  He also selects some at random and slices them in
half to look for necrosis (dark spots in the middle).  If he finds the dark
spots he reduces the price based on the percentage of necrosis he believes
is in the crop.  Then the final price is adjusted based on the taste,
crunch, etc.
of the chips he cooked.   I've never actually seen this done.  Just going by
what I was told.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: jtchall at nc.rr.com
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2013 10:06 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] digging potatoes

Glad to know what the straw was used for!

My uncle grew some sweet potatoes  one year, I think just to see what would
happen. He cured them in one of the tobacco bulk barns, don't know if he put
any heat on them or just ran the fan a few days. Nobody around here grows
them, I guess the red clay here doesn't do so hot with them.

John Hall


-----Original Message----- 
From: David Bruce
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2013 5:23 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] digging potatoes

My paternal grandfather has a darkened room in the tobacco packhouse
that was the storage spot.  The use of straw was to insulate the
potatoes from winter freezes.  Often as we were preparing to store the
current year's potatoes there would still be some store potatoes
remaining from the previous season.  Even after that length of storage
they were in decent shape.


David
NW NC



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