Are Potatoes a Superfood?

When we think of Superfoods, we think of brightly coloured, zippy, crispy foods perhaps even from exotic locations.  We don’t think of the lowly dirt grown, staple, the potato.  Yes they are carbohydrate rich, bland, and they do raise your blood sugar.  So if you must be careful of your blood sugar, or are on a carbohydrate restricted diet, maybe not.

For the rest of us, potatoes make us feel full, and they provide us with vitamins C, A, B3, B6, B4,B9 and lots of protein.  Potatoes have low levels of phytic acid, which means that the iron, zinc, copper, potassium, calcium and magnesium are more easily absorbed by your body. Potatoes have been shown to provide us with the quercetin, which is said to have anti-cancer properties. Some potatoes, particularly red potatoes provide us with  theantioxidans zeaxanthin and carotene.

Lately I’ve been serving my spouse a lot of potatoes, as he suffers from IBS.  It seems that when he consumes potatoes his abdomen area is not as uncomfortable.  It could be because potatoes have amylose – which helps the good bacteria in his digestive track, and butyrate which helps the colon cells.  Or it could just be that potatoes are bland and soothing.  Who knew that a bland, filling food could be a super food.

Planting Potatoes in the Garden

I did not plant potatoes in my new smaller garden, but I am planning a potager for next year. This year I mostly worked on expanding my floral perennials, adding an herb garden, conserving our sloped ground from eroding, and starting a blooming hedge. My few vegetables were grown in pots, or in my sloped herb rockery.

Potatoes are easy to plant – either from seed potatoes, or from potatoes from the grocery store which have produced eyes. Using the grocery potatoes creates a bit of a risk of introducing potato diseases to the garden, but as this is not my food staple I’m Ok with that. I enjoy taking a few different varieties of potato from my kitchen, slicing them up and then planting them in a raised bed.

As I have limited space, I am considering trying some of these potato grow bags;

Do any of you have any thoughts or experience with using grow bags or do you have a favorite product? The pictures are a tad misleading – they make it look like you get a pile of clean potatoes out the bottom end! I prefer the look of this wooden planter though- https://www.notonthehighstreet.com/plantabox/product/personalised-potato-planter-crate

So perhaps I will build something over the winter. I am happy being a couch potato for today though.

Here is link for our version of the Vegan Scalloped Potato recipe that we made. https://gardenlove.food.blog/2019/11/16/vegan-scalloped-potatoes/