A Potato

So what can you do with a potato? With a small bag of potatoes I could feed a family of four for a week or more.

Maybe I might find an onion, or a mushroom, or a turnip, or a carrot, or even better a beet. Soup!

Maybe I might get a rabbit or two, or a bird. Stew!

Maybe I might just find some spices. Filling meal for tonight.

From the potato liquor, I can make a sourdough starter. And then, with a little flour, sourdough bread.

For less than $0.10 I can make a meal.

Now, granted, I graduated a long time ago from the legendary National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), before they turned into a bastion of liberal tree huggers, but still. We don't have to eat sticks and bugs. There's food everywhere! Just have to know where to look.

In the store, they may be out of TP, and about everything else, but there's lots of stuff to make a nice dish with. Sardines and pasta make a wonderful dish, for less than a buck. A can of this, and that, combined with some broth, make a hearty and delicious soup!

Maybe a spice here and there, or just some weird ingredient.

And just one potato, I can make about 50 different dishes, depending on what I have, or can find.

So, how Low can you go?

Thanks for your post, S&F. I love potatoes. I could eat them every single day. They’re so versatile. And like you said, they’re pretty cheap too. I love potatoes baked, fried, boiled, in soup, as a salad, etc. And I never knew you could start a sourdough base for bread. That’s pretty cool, and I love sourdough bread.

Yeah, some meat, beef, chicken, spam, ham, could make a nice stew (not all of them at once though). I’m thinking of a cheesy baked potato soup I had at some restaurant and it was sublime.

If someone told me I had to do without meat but could have all the potatoes and veggies I want, I’d be fine with that.

I'm just gonna kill my neighbors and eat them!

Screw potatoes!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I recently had a conversation about a potato.
It was a survival conversation about how most people would see a potato as nothing,while some of us would be screaming that we have a potato to eat.
Even though it seems like just a potato, its more like the glass is always full and it is not just a potato.

I didn't actually read the thread, I just saw potato and had to opine.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
In the store, they may be out of TP

...another problem the humble potato can assist in resolving.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

For less than $0.10 I can make a meal.

I make a killer lentil soup for the same price.

Makes a good projectile.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Poteen recipe.

Boil 25 pounds of potatoes as you go.

Eat the potatoes, save the water.

Once you get 4 gallons of potato water, add a DADY yeast and an amylase enzyme and 10 pounds of sugar.

Careful... it gets pretty reactive!

Once the yeast dies off, bottle and let it sit for 18 months.

I've never had anyone figure out what the wine is...

Most guess that it's a pear or banana or peach wine... it is really fruity with no backtaste.

It's potato wine.

Poteen.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

So, how Low can you go?

Apparently some can get potatoes for free.
www.10tv.com...

Weird thing, my parents both used to eat sliced potatoes raw. I guess that was normal in their generation.

How low can I go?

You're describing a weekday. My cellar could support hundreds...

a reply to: ChiefD

That's actually how you start sourdough starter! The original way.

You can leave some tater's in the water to help it out even. And, if you want to go fast, you can add some active yeast, but the sourdough won't be as strong that way (taste wise). It'll get there over time though.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

"So  what can you do with a potato?"

"Boil em', mash em', stick em' in a stew!"

youtu.be...

I'll see myself out.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

So, how Low can you go?

Apparently some can get potatoes for free.
www.10tv.com...

Weird thing, my parents both used to eat sliced potatoes raw. I guess that was normal in their generation.

Raw potatoes are delicious! You've never had? A pinch of salt makes them even better if you have the luxury.

a reply to: 38181

Anyone who would launch a potato as a projectile during hard times is a foolish man!

Just sayin'!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Potato guns are fun....just sayin.

One day, Stan was hanging out on the beach flirting with women, but he didn't seem to be getting much attention. So, he asked his buddy Jerry what he should do.

"Put a potato in your swimsuit. That'll drive the ladies wild!"

So, he took his advice and went back to the beach with the potato in his swimsuit. However, the women laughed when they saw him instead of acting interested. Later on that afternoon, after having no luck at all, he happened to see Jerry on the beach and asked him "Hey man, I did what you told me, and I'm STILL not having any luck!"

Jerry replied, "No Stan ... you're supposed to put the potato in the front."

Hot Chips with BBQ Sauce - Yum

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: 38181

Anyone who would launch a potato as a projectile during hard times is a foolish man!

Just sayin'!

Unless it was point blank into the face of someone who had just left the store with a bag os shopping.

Or at a politician.

a reply to: Lumenari

Originally posted by Lumenari
Poteen recipe.

Boil 25 pounds of potatoes as you go.

Eat the potatoes, save the water.

Once you get 4 gallons of potato water, add a DADY yeast and an amylase enzyme and 10 pounds of sugar.

Careful... it gets pretty reactive!

Once the yeast dies off, bottle and let it sit for 18 months.

I've never had anyone figure out what the wine is...

Most guess that it's a pear or banana or peach wine... it is really fruity with no backtaste.

It's potato wine.

Poteen.

That’s a long wait for some potatoe wine lol…

Does it taste nice…?

Asking for a friend of a friends cousin who is twice removed…I think…I’m kinda hazy on the details…Anyway does it taste ok…?

- JC

originally posted by: Joecroft
a reply to: Lumenari

Originally posted by Lumenari
Poteen recipe.

Boil 25 pounds of potatoes as you go.

Eat the potatoes, save the water.

Once you get 4 gallons of potato water, add a DADY yeast and an amylase enzyme and 10 pounds of sugar.

Careful... it gets pretty reactive!

Once the yeast dies off, bottle and let it sit for 18 months.

I've never had anyone figure out what the wine is...

Most guess that it's a pear or banana or peach wine... it is really fruity with no backtaste.

It's potato wine.

Poteen.

That’s a long wait for some potatoe wine lol…

Does it taste nice…?

Asking for a friend of a friends cousin who is twice removed…I think…I’m kinda hazy on the details…Anyway does it taste ok…?

- JC

When it is first done before you bottle it is is off-tasting, slightly bitter and kinda horrible.

Like a potato version of Thunderbird.

Let it sit for over a year and it has an amazing flavor... it's like a light pear wine or a flower wine but full-bodied and without any real alcohol aftertaste.

I have a constant list of buyers that give me $50 a 750 ml bottle for it.

So to me as a winemaker it is well worth the minimal effort necessary to make it.

a reply to: Lumenari

I've never had anyone figure out what the wine is...

Poor man's vodka?