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Comment by NiagaraThistle | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure if my household is immune to potato poisoning or if you need an insane amount of bad potatoes to be affected, but I sadly feed my family month old potatoes quite often. I do peel them (as I do 90% of the time when I make any potatoes). I do pop off any sprouts (wouldn't this be common sense?). And I do "peel out" or cut off any blacking bits on the potato (again wouldn't this be common sense?). And if any potatoes are truly moldy I just toss them.

Who is eating potatoes that are so far gone that they are getting sick from them? When a potato is bad, you KNOW it by it's funky smell.

Oh and I store my potatoes and onions in the same container until for days or weeks.

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Potatoes keep for months if stored properly, which means in a cool, dark place and still covered in soil.

Unfortunately supermarkets prefer to sell washed potatoes in transparent plastic bags sitting around in bright lights, which is just about the worst possible way to do it.

Still covered in soil? That’s interesting, hadn’t heard that before. Kind of funny to think of keeping a box of dirt in your kitchen to store the potatoes in.

I think he's just referring to regular unwashed potatoes.

These absolutely do keep much better than the washed ones.

After 32 years in the USA, I am still amazed that I have never, ever seen what Brits call "new potatoes" sold commercially anywhere. These are typically dug right out of the ground early in potato harvest season, and not cleaned. I've searched farmers markets and food coops ... nothing.

Same in Germany. The potatoes with dirt on them are "the good stuff." Another huge difference: In Germany, it is illegal to sell eggs that have been washed. In the US, it is illegal to sell unwashed eggs.

Indeed. Interestingly, egg washing involves some tradeoffs. If they are washed, they are safe to handle but the cuticle is eroded so they must be refrigerated. Unwashed eggs can be kept unrefrigerated for some time, but the shells must be treated as a raw food item.

Sounds like as long as you're mandating one or the other you're making the right decision. Being able to know how to handle food is important.

Iirc some US states had rules about moving soil across state lines. Unwashed products packed in dirt may have once been at risk of spreading unwanted pests from one state to another. These rules may still be on the books.

When I worked for a gardening company, we charged extra fees shipping to Hawaii, because we had to wash the roots of the plants. They had regulations about mailing dirt.

My parents used to buy a huge bag of potatoes that came in a brown paper bag.

https://www.newworld.co.nz/shop/product/5045696_ea_000nw?nam...

Like this but I believe it was 10kg And kept in that bag in the pantry. They lasted forever (few months minimum).

The ones I would buy in Singapore were washed in clear bag I had to keep in the fridge that lasted like 2 weeks :(

Edit: bug > buy

Plastic bags are the worst for potato storage. If the potatoes look fresh, rip large holes in the bag and lay flat in a dark place. If they aren’t really fresh, remove them, wash them and put them in something with good airflow like a colander.

I have never tried stroking potatoes with a layer of dirt but seems plausible.

The toxic part of potatoes is the solanine.

Which starts to be present when the potatoes start turning green.

Potatoes start turning green once they're exposed to light. That's because potatoes are actually just stems of the plant and are thus capable of growing a whole new plant.

So... If you prevent the potatoes from getting green but keeping them in the darkness, then your should be good. Not an advice of any kinds, just a botanist sharing love~

Is there a name for things that grow like potatoes? I'm sure this is a horribly ignorant question, but as someone who's pretty ignorant about plant lifecycles my brain is organised around the seed -> plant -> flower -> fruit(?) -> seed lifecycle familiar to anyone growing a chilli plant or herbs like coriander. I have accidentally grown potatoes in my compost pile and I still struggle to understand how we go from "one potato" to "shitloads of potatoes". I guess because it happens underground it's so mysterious to me.

I think the word you are looking for is "tuber," but if there is a botanist in the house, hopefully they can clear it up. Now I'm curious.

Potatoes are stem tubers. Sweet potatoes are probably the best known root tuber in the US; cassava is also a root tuber and better known worldwide.

But, the term the GP is looking for is "stolon" I think.

Potatoes do have seeds.

When you cut up a potato and get 4 new plants it's like taking a cutting from a tree.

"Root vegetable" is the common (non-botanical) one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolon - they're pretty common, but yes potatoes are somewhat rarer in growing underground.

Keep in mind they also still grow "normally" from seeds; there are true "potato fruits" (completely inedible due to the solanine) produced from flowers that contain seeds which grow new potatoes. It's just not economical to grow them this way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_fruit

I'm not sure what the correct translation would be (I'm Slovenian), but it's something like differentiated stolom or just stolom. Basically it's an asexual reproduction. Thus in a way you're eating undeveloped babies. :D

Here's a pretty cool thing to think about:

An apple is a grandchild of the tree.

Thus the saying an apple doesn't fall far from the tree would, correctly speaking, mean that the person is just like their grandparent and not just like their parent.

a rotten potato isn't the same as a green potato. a green potato will look and feel fine.

Green color is blight. It is the part of a potato exposed to the sun.

Month old? If you’re in Niagara, you’re eating several month old potatoes in March.

It's amazing how much food the U.S. (and most countries) will throw away over the minuscule chance of a stomach ache or diarrhea.

Fair enough. But I meant "month old for my house"

I though this was common sense... first check if it's not really soft, and if it's not, just cut peel and remove the dark spots, and then eat the rest.

Exactly

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