Canadians sure know how to have fun!

[s1m0n]

The Great Potato Giveaway. I'm serious.

[Innocent Bystander]

Hmmm. We have something like that here in the UK but there is a charge. They call it "Pick your own".
The attraction is that you can eat all you like as you pick, because they only weigh your basket when you take it back to your car.
Works well with strawberries and raspberries.
Not so good with potatoes.

[Innocent Bystander]

Oddly enough, there was a great banana giveaway in London last year.

[s1m0n]

Mind you, this has serious potential as a new attraction for the Dublin Eurodisney theme park.

[dwest]

They do this on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with sweet potatoes, everybody really yams it up.

[Nanohedron]

Dunno about the rest of the U.S., but in Minnesota we can get these, now:



I've been telling all my Canadian expat friends. The reaction has been remarkable, and I expect Lund's has been shopped dry.

There's this, though: Yanks have been buying them by mistake because the bag looks just kinda close enough to the regular unflavored chips bag to catch the inattentive unawares. Surprise!

Old Dutch is a Minnesota homegrown company, so I don't know what to think about this at all. It's almost like we've got this dark relationship with a corporate parasitic wasp that puts out mimics of our normal food, and we are marketing vectors, doomed by a horrible irony of our own instinctive behavior. Kinda creepy to think of. They are pretty good, though, if you don't hate 'em first off and don't mind being colored red.

[Walden]

Hmmm. We have something like that here in the UK but there is a charge. They call it "Pick your own".
The attraction is that you can eat all you like as you pick, because they only weigh your basket when you take it back to your car.
Works well with strawberries and raspberries.
Not so good with potatoes.

They have that here, too, with strawberries and blueberries.

[Lambchop]

If I'd have known about this in advance, I do believe I would have gone up there just for the occasion.

Canadian potatoes are . . . excellent! At least, the ones I've had have been. There was a vegetable stand locally, the owner of which discovered that it was well worth the effort to drive to Canada and come back with a load of potatoes. These were apparently some kind of Canadian favorites, and they were truly fine eating. One would eat these potatoes for themselves, they were that good.

I've never been able to find the vegetable stand again.

[s1m0n]

Dunno about the rest of the U.S., but in Minnesota we can get these, now:

Old Dutch is available across western Canada. They do a pretty good knock-off off all the major brands.

[s1m0n]

There was a vegetable stand locally, the owner of which discovered that it was well worth the effort to drive to Canada and come back with a load of potatoes.

From Florida?

I don't believe that there's much difference in the varieties we grow here and the kinds you have there. The soil they're grown in matters, mind you. The great red mud of Prince Edward Island is the Canadian tuber Mecca.

[Lambchop]

From Florida?

Yup.

I don't believe that there's much difference in the varieties we grow here and the kinds you have there. The soil they're grown in matters, mind you. The great red mud of Prince Edward Island is the Canadian tuber Mecca.

Potatoes grown in New Brunswick:

AC Belmont Cherry Red Norland
AC Blue Pride Chieftain Norvalley
AC Chaleur Desiree Onaway
AC Glacier Chip Dundrod Penta
AC Novachip Eramosa Ranger Russet
AC Red Island Fabula Red Gold
AC Stampede Russet Frontier Russet Red Lasoda
Adora Fundy Red Pontiac
Agata Goldrush Redsen
Alpha Green Mountain River John Blue
All Blue Innovator Roselys
Andover Irish Cobbler Russet Burbank
Atlantic Jemseg Russet Norkotah
Banana Katahdin Saginaw Gold
Belleisle Kennebec Sebago
Bildstar Keswick Shepody
Bintje Krantz Snowden
Butte MacIntosh Black Superior
Caesar Mondial Tolaas
Cal White Morene Umatilla Russet
Caribe Morning Gold Warba
Cherokee Niska Yukon Gold

Potatoes grown commercially in Florida: Red LaSoda, LaRouge, a couple of white. Maybe.

Potatoes regularly available in Florida: Russet, Idaho, probably those same red ones grown here, and Yukon Gold.

No, those Canadian potatoes were special. They were really, really good.

[s1m0n]

AC Belmont Cherry Red Norland
AC Blue Pride Chieftain Norvalley
AC Chaleur Desiree Onaway
AC Glacier Chip Dundrod Penta
AC Novachip Eramosa Ranger Russet
AC Red Island Fabula Red Gold
AC Stampede Russet Frontier Russet Red Lasoda
Adora Fundy Red Pontiac
Agata Goldrush Redsen
Alpha Green Mountain River John Blue
All Blue Innovator Roselys
Andover Irish Cobbler Russet Burbank
Atlantic Jemseg Russet Norkotah
Banana Katahdin Saginaw Gold
Belleisle Kennebec Sebago
Bildstar Keswick Shepody
Bintje Krantz Snowden
Butte MacIntosh Black Superior
Caesar Mondial Tolaas
Cal White Morene Umatilla Russet
Caribe Morning Gold Warba
Cherokee Niska Yukon Gold

Those names sound like they belong on a pedigree poodle, not a ten pound bag of spuds.

[Nanohedron]

Good on the Canadians for taking the lesson of genetic diversity to heart.

[s1m0n]

Good on the Canadians for taking the lesson of genetic diversity to heart.

The potato fields of New Brunswick might boast a score of varieties, but they're all controlled by McCain Foods. Diversity only goes so far...

[dwest]

Making Real Canadian Potato Salad tonight for Oktoberfest.