June 3, 2024

TRX | S5E07 | THIS SPUD’S FOR YOU

You can add them to a stew, boil them in water, mash them, bake them, or turn them into crispy fries. Hello, I’m Leah…I’m Phil…and I’m Steve. Join us today as we pay homage to that delicious yet humble food, the potato. This is S5E7 This Spud’s For You!

INTRO AND STORIES

INTRO During September of 2023 my wife and I along with my sister and brother-in-law (I know I say that phrase a lot, but we travel together quite a bit!) were traveling through what is known as Atlantic Canada. This would include the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. We had a terrific time; the scenery was beautiful, and the people were quite friendly. One day we found ourselves in the town of O’Leary, PEI. In this town we came across an exciting attraction, The Canadian Potato Museum!

After taking a few pictures with Sir Kraken out front next to a giant tuber, we took the tour of the museum. Evidently Prince Edward Island is Canada’s Idaho as PEI Potatoes in large white sacks can be purchased in Canadian supermarkets and grocery stores, as well as in the Canadian Potato Museum’s gift shop.

They also sold large bags of Covered Bridge Potato Chips. The bag was so large that it was called The Weekender. Featured prominently on the cover of the bag were the three different flavors of chips, but these weren’t just listed, they were drawn cartoon style. Three different potatoes were relaxing on beach chairs. On the left was a sporty nautical looking potato which represented Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper flavor. In the middle was a cool dude looking potato wearing wire frame shades who represented Smokin’ Sweet BBQ flavor. The potato on the right was also wearing shades and a backwards baseball cap who represented Sweet and Spicy Jalapeno flavor. All three potatoes were sipping some kind of beverage out of glasses with little umbrellas.

After sampling a few of the chips, (I liked the sea salt and cracked pepper the best) we walked under an archway which led to The Amazing Potato Exhibit. We knew this because it was labeled thus on a sign over the arch with the word ‘Exhibit’ flanked by two oversized potatoes. I must say that the exhibit contained all of the excitement that you might expect from such a billing. There were numerous displays containing information about all things Potato. Some of what I learned there will be presented in this episode. However, for me the highlight of the museum was a special room where about a dozen decaying potatoes are displayed in little potato sized coffins. Behind each coffin was an explanation as to the fungus, insect, or disease which was responsible for that potato’s demise. Yes, it was a room of hushed tones and deep reverence in honor of the fallen spuds.

Today’s episode is all about the humble but loveable potato.

History of the Potato

It might surprise you to learn that the potato originated in South America. According to a website called vegetablefacts.net, the first people to inhabit the Andes Mountains of present-day Peru some 10,000 years ago found potatoes growing wild in the mountains. Over the years they managed to domesticate the plant, and its use spread throughout the continent.

When the Spanish arrived in the 1530’s they went into the highlands looking for gold. They found potatoes instead. The Spanish were so intrigued by how sturdy and resilient potatoes were that they brought them back to Spain with them. By the 1600s potato harvesting had spread across most of Europe.

In most places the potato was readily accepted and enjoyed by Europeans. However, in Prussia (Eastern Germany) the peasants were wary of the new plant. Potatoes are part of a botanical family which includes several plants like deadly nightshade which are poisonous to humans. (Surprisingly, another plant in this botanical family is tobacco.) Because of their resemblance to these toxic plants, many people in Prussia were fearful of eating potatoes. Some even took to calling them the Devil’s Apples. If they grew potatoes at all, they fed them to their livestock.

Enter King Frederick the Great, a k a The Potato King. Frederick was king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786 and was a proud potato proponent. (Try saying that three times!) King Frederick saw the spuds as a cheap filling source of nourishment. He always served potatoes at his royal banquets, and he also made free seed potatoes available to the public. But there is a saying in German, “What the peasant doesn’t know, he will not eat.” Frederick had to get creative in order to get the doubting public to try the sustaining food.

In the 1740s there was a food shortage in Prussia partly due to their war with Austria. Frederick was concerned about starvation among the population, and he began wracking his brain for ways to convince the people to eat potatoes. Finally, he hit upon an idea. He planted a large plot of land in Berlin with potatoes and placed a heavy guard around the property which gave the illusion that the plants were extremely valuable. However, he removed the guards during the night. This encouraged the increasingly hungry Berliners to sneak into the Royal Garden and steal some of the unguarded potatoes. His plan worked brilliantly and soon the potato was embraced by the whole population. Today potatoes make up a sizable portion of a German meal.

King Frederick is buried at Sanssouci (san sue see) Palace in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam. It is quite common today for visitors to leave potatoes on his tombstone.

In the United States the first potatoes were brought by a group of Scot – Irish folks who settled in New Hampshire in 1718. In fact, a clergyman named Reverend James McGregor is credited with planting the first potatoes in North America. But like their distant Prussian cousins, many Americans did not like the idea of eating the tubers themselves and so they just fed them to their livestock. This all changed with the 1801 election of President Thomas Jefferson. During the 1780s Jefferson served as the U.S. Ambassador to France. While in Paris he became acquainted with various ways of cooking potatoes, and he brought some back to plant in his garden at his home in Virginia. When he became president, potatoes were served at official White House dinners. Jefferson was especially fond of the way the restaurants in Paris prepared the potatoes by slicing them and then seasoning before crisping them in hot oil. He referred to them as, “potatoes served in the French manner.” We refer to them today as French Fries. Thank you, TJ!

In addition to vegetablefacts.net some information came from atlas obscura and from newenglandhistoricalsociety.com

The Irish Potato Famine

From time to time we have touched on problems between the English and the Irish. In our S4E14 titled Outlandish Artifacts we talked about the historic town of Lincoln, New Mexico and the Lincoln County War. This conflict in the late 1870s was between rivaling factions led by two local businessmen, one was English and the other Irish.

Throughout the 1800s Ireland was effectively ruled as a colony by England. Laws governing Ireland were issued from Parliament in London. Though the Irish did have representation in Parliament, these members were generally of the landowner class, most of whom had come from England in the first place. Up until 1829 Irish Catholics were prohibited from owning or leasing land, voting, or holding elected office.

The potato had been introduced to Ireland in the late 1700s by English property owners. Soon potatoes became a staple of the poor, particularly during the cold winter months. However, in 1845 a mold known as Phytophthora infestans (or P. infestans) caused a destructive plant disease that spread rapidly throughout Ireland. This disease ruined about half of the potato crop that year and about three quarters of the potato crop for each of the next seven years.

Of course, this had devastating effects on Ireland’s poorest population, especially the tenant farmers who relied heavily on potatoes as a source of food. As the situation grew worse in that first year, 1845, the Irish petitioned Queen Victoria and Parliament to take action. Parliament as a whole was slow to act, though some members individually donated enough money to buy corn from America which was shipped to Ireland. However, this did little to alleviate the suffering.

When the potato crops failed in the following years, some members of Parliament took it to mean that God was punishing the Irish for their Catholic leanings. Incredibly, in spite of the suffering in Ireland, other Irish food crops and livestock continued to be exported to England. In fact, some research suggests that exports from Ireland actually increased during the Potato Famine. Now you have a bit more of an understanding of why the Irish dislike the English.

By the time the Great Hunger (as it is known in Ireland) ended in 1852, more than 1,000,000 men, women, and children had died of either starvation or of illness brought on by malnutrition. In addition, another 2,000,000 Irish emigrated out of the country to escape the famine. The great majority of them came to the United States. Before the famine the population of Ireland was around 8,000,000 but afterward it dropped to less than 5,000,000. With continued emigration out of Ireland over the next century, the population would stay at this level until the 1960s.

It is still being debated whether Parliament ignored the plight of the starving Irish out of some type of hateful malice or just gross inefficiency. Nevertheless, the Great Hunger / Potato Famine left an indelible impact on the Emerald Isle. Those who survived and stayed behind developed a fervor for national independence. It would take another seventy years for Ireland to achieve full independence from England, but it finally did occur in 1922. In 1997 on Ireland’s 75th birthday British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a formal apology to Ireland for the U.K. Government’s handling of the crisis.

This information came from history.com and also from parliament.uk

--EARLY BREAK ----------------------

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head

Well, let’s shift from the sad topic of the Irish Potato Famine to some happy childhood memories. Of course, I’m talking about Mr. Potato Head! In 1948 a Brooklyn based designer and inventor named George Lerner sought to give children a toy that they could design themselves. His toy package supplied goofy looking eyes, noses, lips, and other assorted body parts for kids to use decorating potatoes or other handy vegetables. The kids had to supply the potatoes themselves.

According to an article on screenrant.com Mr. Lerner’s idea was slow to catch on, but in the early 1950s it was bought by a cereal company which included the plastic components inside boxes of their breakfast product. (Do you remember getting prizes in cereal boxes?)

After a year or so the rights to Mr. Potato Head were bought from the cereal company by the Hassenfield Brothers whose company was and is called Hasbro. They saw potential in the toy and agreed to pay Mr. Lerner $500 plus 5% of each sale. Through their successful marketing campaign of the early 1950s Mr. Potato Head became a top seller and a favorite among boys and girls. In fact, according to this article, the 1952 Hasbro commercial for Mr. Potato Head was the very first television commercial for a toy!

By the late 1950s the creators at Hasbro decided that it was not good for Mr. Potato Head to be alone. Thus, they came out with Mrs. Potato Head soon to be followed by their potato children named Spud and Yam.

Even into the 1960s children were still required to furnish their own potatoes. You can imagine the displeasure of parents as the potato toys would get messy and moldy after a while. So, in 1964 Hasbro came out with the plastic version of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head with pre-drilled holes for the many attachments. For just $2 you got two plastic bodies plus noses, eyes, mustaches, pipes, feet with and without shoes, arms etc. The deluxe version for $5 included Spud and Yam along with a model of the Potato Head House featuring kitchen appliances. The box cover featured the Mr. and Mrs. suggestively making eyes (ahem) at one another while Spud and Yam played in toy cars. A label on the box proclaimed, “America’s Most Lovable Toy!”

Throughout the 70s and 80s the Potato Head clan maintained its popularity with children. Even though the electronic age was advancing, there was something fun and satisfying about this simple concept toy. In 1986 the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Saturday morning lineup included a half hour cartoon called Potato Head Kids. This was the forerunner of the Veggie Tales which came out in the 90s.

Speaking of the 1990s, the Potato Heads popularity soared to new heights as they appeared in the Toy Story Movies. The popular Pixar series featured numerous familiar toys who were given their own voice and personalities. Mrs. Potato Head did not appear in Toy Story, but joined her husband in Toy Story 2.

By the year 2000 Mr. Potato Head was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame. Then from 2007 – 09 he was honored with a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Even today the Potato Heads remain very popular with children. According to cbsnews.com the Potato Heads have sold well over 100 million units in over 30 countries since their inception in 1948. By any definition, that is a very hot potato!

Let’s Grow A Potato

As mentioned earlier, potatoes were originally found in the Andes Mountains of South America. But this amazing plant food does not need high altitudes or cold temperatures to thrive. In fact, potatoes are grown in all 50 states of the U.S. and in at least 125 countries around the world. Potatoes are the fourth-most cultivated crop in the world after rice, wheat, and corn, making them the most prevalent non-cereal crop we have.

Today in the U.S. when we think of potatoes, we think of the state of Idaho. In fact, the phrase “Famous Potatoes” is emblazoned on Idaho car license plates. But it might surprise you to learn that before WW II, another state was the leading producer of spuds. It’s our only state with a monosyllable. Of course that would be Maine. Most of Maine’s potatoes are grown in Aroostook County which borders French Canada and maintains a strong Acadian culture. Potatoes still play a big part in this county’s economy and culture. School children still take a Potato Vacation each fall to help with the harvest.

To grow a potato you don’t plant seeds, you plant potatoes, or at least parts of potatoes. Any section of a potato that has eyes can grow a new potato plant. Thus, if one potato has multiple eyes it can be sliced up and replanted creating several new plants. Fun fact: in 1974 an Englishman named Eric Jenkins grew 370 pounds of potatoes from one plant. Another fun fact: two other Brits, J. East and J. Busby are tied for the growing the largest recorded potato weighing in at 7lbs 1 ounce. This record has been challenged by a New Zealand couple who recently unearthed what they claim is a 17 pound very ugly mutant looking potato which they named Doug. The Guiness people are still looking into this one.

The average American eats about 124 pounds of potatoes per year. Germans eat about twice that amount. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said that a diet of whole milk and potatoes would provide almost all of the food elements necessary for the maintenance of the human body. A regular sized potato is 99% fat free and contains only about 110 calories. It is loaded with vitamin C and contains several minerals including more potassium than a banana.

There are over 5,000 varieties of potatoes worldwide. This excessively large number is evidence of the potato’s adaptability to differing climates and growing conditions. Some were also created for their unique taste. By the way, sweet potatoes are not potatoes. They are not even in the same family. As mentioned above, potatoes are in the same family as tobacco and nightshade whereas sweet potatoes are in the same family as morning glories. You can grow a very attractive plant from a sweet potato.

Generally, potatoes fall into three categories: starchy, waxy, and all purpose. Starchy potatoes have more starch, but they also tend to be dryer. Examples of starchy potatoes would be Russets and King Edwards. These potatoes absorb more fat and are best used for baking or frying. But their lack of moisture might cause them to fall apart when boiling or using them in a stew. Waxy potatoes include varieties like Nadine and Dutch Crème. They are less starchy and have a higher sugar content. They hold their shape well and are suitable for boiling and roasting as well as adding to cold dishes like potato salad. They are not as good for mashing as they are hard to break up. All-purpose potatoes like Yukon Gold can be used for almost anything. New potatoes are small all-purpose potatoes that are dug up early before their skins have set. These are delicious boiled or steamed.

When selecting your potatoes, you should look for those that are well formed, smooth, firm, with eyes, and no discolorations, cracks, bruises or soft spots. You should avoid green potatoes as they have been exposed to light for too long and will have a bitter taste. Some red and white potatoes may have been sprayed with a thin layer of colored wax to make them appear fresher than they actually are.

Speaking of freshness, potatoes can stay fresh for several months as long as you store them properly. Until ready for use, keep potatoes stored in a dark dry space. Do not wash potatoes before storing them as that speed up decay. Also, do not store uncooked potatoes in the refrigerator. Potatoes stored in cold spaces will discolor and the taste can turn unpleasant.

One more fun fact about growing potatoes. Potatoes were the first vegetable successfully grown in space. The University of Wisconsin teamed up with NASA back in 1995 to bring this experiment to life. Clippings from a potato plant were gathered by researchers and then divided into two groups. One group accompanied astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia and the other were kept in Wisconsin and acted as a control group. When the shuttle returned and the two groups were compared, there were no noticeable differences.

Some of our listeners may remember the 2015 movie The Martian starring Matt Damon. You might recall that Damon kept himself alive on the red planet by creatively growing and harvesting potatoes.

Information in this segment came from thefactsite.com idahopotatomuseum.com and foodrepublic.com

--ODDITY DU JOUR ----------------------

Potato Battery

Well now here’s something I bet you didn’t know about potatoes. They are very good conductors of electricity and can be used as a kind of battery power. According to smithsonianmag.com researchers at Hebrew University in Jerusalem have found that a potato that has been boiled for eight minutes and then cut into quarters can be part of a serviceable battery.

The potato doesn’t do this by itself, it must be sandwiched between a piece of copper and a piece of zinc which are connected by a wire. What the potato does is act as what is known as a Salt Bridge between the two pieces of metal. This allows the electron currents to move freely along the wire which creates electricity.

The researchers are excited about this discovery as a potential source of portable electric lighting in third world nations. At about one tenth of the cost of a AA battery, the potato configuration can power an LED light for as long as forty days. It could also provide power to charge cell phones or other personal electronics in remote regions without access to the power grid. Compared to kerosine lamps which are used in many developing countries, the potato kit can provide comparable light for a fraction of the cost.

On amazon.com you can purchase a potato power kit for about $16. The makers claim that the kit can also work with bananas and strawberries, but that potatoes are preferred as they do not attract as many insects as decaying fruit. Plus, potatoes are sturdier and can be stored for longer periods of time before their use.

Pringles

In our S4E1 called New Beginnings we talked about the great Cincinnati manufacturing giant Proctor and Gambel. You may recall this company began in the 1830s when two brothers-in-law teamed up to share source materials for their respective soap and candle companies. Well in the late 1950s a P&G researcher named Fredric Bour began working on a huge problem that was plaguing Americans in that decade. No, not the Cold War, rather the problem of greasy broken potato chips. Bour led the team that invented Pringles. And the people rejoiced!

Oh, but wait a minute, not everyone was happy. According to buzzfeed.com the makers of other brands of potato chips claimed that Pringles weren’t actually potato chips as they are made from a slurry of rice, wheat, corn, and potatoes and then pressed into their distinctive shape. They took P&G to court in an attempt to prevent them from using the term ‘potato chips’, After several years of court rulings and appeals the Food and Drug Administration stepped in. In 1975, the FDA ruled that P&G could label Pringles "potato chips"...but they had to also add "made from dried potatoes" to the label...and it had to be written in a font that was at least half as large as the size of the largest font used to write "potato chips."

While P&G won this battle, in 2009 they reversed course and claimed that Pringles weren’t potato chips but just snacks. They claimed this in the UK where potato products are taxed but snacks are not. The case contained some truly wild arguments concerning the “essence of a potato.” In the end, the UK court ruled that Pringles were in fact potato chips and that P&G owed $160,000,000 in back taxes.

While we are here, let’s enjoy some Pringles Fun Facts courtesy of pringles.com.

Pringles has 25 flavors in the U.S. and even more internationally. Of all the varieties, the top selling flavors are Original, Cheddar Cheese, Barbeque, and Sour Cream & Onion.

The top of the Pringles chip has more flavor than the bottom, and thus many people prefer to eat them upside down for that extra flavor burst.

The shape of a Pringles chip is called a hyperbolic paraboloid.

One Pringles chip contains about ten calories.

When inventor Fred Bour died, he was cremated, and his ashes were buried in a Pringles Original can.

Potato Parcel

One of our most beloved features here on Remnant Stew is our annual holiday gift buying guide. In case you missed it, you will definitely want to go back and check out our holiday episodes as they contain some terrific weird and crazy gifts for that quirky person on your list. And, yes, one of these gifts involved potatoes! In our S3 E25 one of the featured gifts was called the Potato Parcel.

What is a Potato Parcel? According to their website, potatoparcel.com a Potato Parcel is exactly like a post card, only the picture and message is on an exciting potato rather than a dull piece of card stock. Through the use of space age technology, they will imprint your picture on a potato and then mail it to your distant friend or relative. You can even accessorize your potato photo with a funny quip. They have some stock suggestions like “I just wanted to starch your day off with a laugh.” Or “Did you hear about the potato that got its head chopped off? It was decap-potated.” Their website claims, “100% laughter or confusion guaranteed!”

To make your gift potato extra special, you might want to consider one of their potato bundle packages. These include the Potato Birthday Bundle, The Burlap Sack and Potato Face Bundle, or the Potato Love Bear Bundle which is recommended for Valentine’s Day or anytime you are hoping to get that special someone in the mood.

And how much does it cost to send a Potato Parcel? For just a Potato Post Card it is $21.99, but the Potato Bundles range from $26.99 - $29.99. So as soon as you finish listening to this podcast, click on over to potatoparcel.com and surprise someone with a spudtacular gift.

Pot8to or Potoooooooo The Racehorse

My original home state of Kentucky is famous for many reasons including bluegrass music, sipping whisky, and college basketball. But perhaps Kentucky’s largest claim to fame has to do with horseracing. The Kentucky Derby has been held on the first Saturday in May since 1875 and is considered the first jewel in horse racing’s Triple Crown. But as old and famous as the Kentucky Derby is, we are going to travel back a hundred years further and to England to learn about a famous racehorse with an interesting name.

In 1773 a horse was born on the estate of Willoughby Bertie, the fourth Earl of Abingdon. Bertie decided to name the horse Potatoes and he instructed a stable boy to paint the name on the colt’s feed bin. The stable boy who was a bit of a goofball decided to have some fun with the name. He painted Pot followed by eight Os. Fortunately for him, Bertie had a good sense of humor and was quite amused by the boy’s stunt. Thus, the horse ran under the name Potoooooooo for his first few races. Eventually the name was shortened to Pot8os.

I know this sounds like an urban legend, but the documentation is still intact showing that Pot8os was sired by a famous 18th century racehorse named Eclipse. Furthermore, Pot8os went on to have a very lucrative racing career himself. Between 1776 and 1783 Pot8os won more than thirty races, many of which were at the Newmarket Track which is more than four miles in length. That is more than twice as long as most horseraces today.

Pot8os retired in 1783 and spent the rest of his life as a stud horse. He died in 1800 was buried at a racetrack called Hare Park. In the early 2000s a tree blew over and exposed Pot8os resting place. Rather than rebury him, his skeleton was reassembled and is now on display at the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket which is just north of London.

This information came from horsenation.com and Wikipedia

--LATE BREAK -------------------------------

Potato Cannon

The comedian Jeff Foxworthy became well known in the 1990s for telling Redneck jokes. If you are not from the U.S. and are unfamiliar with what a Redneck is, well an exact definition is somewhat vague depending on who you ask. But among other things, I think we can define a Redneck as a generally rural person who has developed a continual pattern of acting without thinking. In fact, thinking plays an extremely miniscule role in a Rednecks life. As the name might suggest, we have a nice assortment of Rednecks here in the greater Cut & Shoot area. A popular local joke goes like this. What are a Redneck’s last words? “Hey Y’all, watch this!”

A while back I happened to stop by one of my Redneck neighbors, and he said he had something he wanted to show me. He soon emerged with a long piece of PVC pipe, a can of hairspray, a box of matches, and a bag of potatoes. I should have sensed danger immediately and left, but my curiosity got the best of me, and so I asked him what it was. “That there is a potato gun!” he said proudly. “How does it work?” I asked stupidly. He stuck a potato into the end of the pipe and shook it down until it stopped near the base. Then he sprayed a liberal amount of hairspray through a small hole near the bottom of the pipe. Finally he lit a match and stuck it through the small hole. PHOOMPH The potato shot out of the end of the pipe and flew into a nice ark over the top of his mobile home clanging against some piece of metal on the far side. I must say it was impressive, and remarkably no one was hurt. But my senses returned to me and I knew that the law of averages would soon catch up to me if I stayed longer, so after complimenting him on his ingenuity I politely said my goodbyes.

According to Wikipedia, potato cannons as they are called are a popular pastime hobby with many people. The potato cannon can trace its origin to the World War II-era Holman Projector, which was a shipboard anti-aircraft weapon. I don’t think that one used a potato though. The Wikipedia article notes that potato cannons can be dangerous and can cause cranial fractures and blindness if the potato misfires, so we don’t encourage using them.

Potatoes in Pop Culture

From a website called digit.in we find an article titled 18 Times Potatoes Invaded Pop Culture. This is an interesting read, but for brevity’s sake we are not going to cover all eighteen, but we will be cherry picking, or should I say potato picking from the more interesting.

Are you familiar with a movie from 2005 called The Ringer? In it, actor Johnny Knoxville plays a character named Steve Barker who tries to earn some extra cash by participating in a Special Olympics event for adults. Only one problem, there is nothing “Special” about Steve. But to convince the judges he comes up with the phrase, “I can count to potato!” This has now become somewhat of a catchphrase and a dubious meme.

You may be familiar with an app on Google Play called Plants verses Zombies. This is a game where Zombies are attacking your home, but they can be thwarted with well attuned and properly aimed plants. Evidently one of the favorites is the Potato Mine which explodes when the Zombies step on them.

You have probably heard of kickstarter, the website where people post ideas that they want to develop and are hoping to attract financial backers. Back in 2016 a guy named Zach Brown went on kickstarter as a joke and stated, “I want $10 to make some potato salad.” He further stated, “With your help, we'll be on our way to a successful potato salad. You will get a 'thank you' posted to our website and I will say your name out loud while making the potato salad.” He was surprised when a few people went along with the fun and chipped in and the total rose to $35. “Wow! Now I can make 4 times as much potato salad!” he glowed. But then a news outlet did a feature on him, and the resulting exposure netted a total of over $55,000. “Now I can hire a chef to make the potato salad for me!”

We all enjoy YouTube, but sometimes those comments can be cruel. It takes no courage whatsoever to sit behind your keyboard and crank out snarky insults. One common statement that is used to criticize a low quality video is, “Looks like it was recorded on a potato! Ha!” Man, people are the worst.

Of course we also love The Bard, William Shakespeare. In his play The Merry Wives of Windsor the character Falstaff who is somewhat of a cowardly knight, puts on a deer’s head and yells, “Let the sky rain potatoes!”

I love old cartoons, don’t you! Well, in the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Steamboat Willie, the captain of the boat punishes Mickey for all his misbehavior by throwing him into a potato bin and making him peel all the potatoes. Mickey is rather passive/aggressive about this, and “peels” the potatoes by cutting away most of them.

Remember the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind? In this movie Richard Dreyfus plays an electrical lineman in Indiana who develops an obsession with UFOs. In one scene he makes the Devils Tower out of mashed potatoes to the horror of his children.

Potato Terrorist

For our final story, we are going back to where we started at the beginning. Steve, you mentioned earlier about visiting the Potato Museum on Prince Edward Island in Canada. But I wonder if you had heard about the Potato Terrorists which were plaguing the farmers there back in 2014?

Potatoes are a billion-dollar industry in PEI, but in October of 2014 someone was intentionally trying to harm potato farmers by randomly inserting needles and pins in potatoes that were being shipped to markets. The altered spuds were discovered at a processing plant in Cavendish. However, several other potatoes with needles or pins were discovered in grocery stores in four different Canadian provinces. This has been described as the most serious crisis to hit PEI since the British conquest of Acadia in 1710.

“It’s food terrorism,” said potato farmer Alex Docherty. “The people doing this are cowards, lower than a snake wearing snowshoes. These are really evil people.”

The PEI Potato Farmer’s collective offered a $500,000 reward for the capture of the perpetrator. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were called in to investigate. Suspicion was directed towards members of an environmental group that had opposed the potato farmer’s plan to dig deeper water wells. However, no one was ever arrested.

The Canadian government stepped in with funding to install metal detectors at the potato processing plants. This appears to have helped as no more pins and needles have been discovered.

By the way, here is a fun fact: What tourist attraction in Cavendish PEI is related to a beloved children’s story? Anne of Green Gables Farm and Home.

This information came from theguardian.com and vice.com

O U T R O

Phil here reminding you to check out our Facebook and Instagram pages @RemnantStewPodcast. Drop us an email at StayCurious@RemnantStew.com just to say hi or to let us know about any topics you would like to hear us cover in an upcoming episode.

Remnant Stew is part of Rook & Raven Ventures and is created by me, Leah Lamp. Steve Meeker researches and writes each episode that we then host together. Our audio producer is Phillip Sinquefield. The Oddity Du Jour is brought to you by Sam Lamp. Theme music is by Kevin MacLeod with voiceover by Morgan Hughes. Special thanks goes out to Judy Meeker. For a complete list of sources for this episode please see this episode’s transcript, there’s a link in the show notes.

Before you go, please hit the FOLLOW button so you won’t miss an episode, head over to Apple Music and leave us a review. Share Remnant Stew with your friends, family,

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Until next time remember to choose to be kind…AND ALWAYS STAY CURIOUS!

--SOURCES ----------------------

http://www.vegetablefacts.net/vegetable-history/history-of-potatoes/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/grave-potato-king-frederick-the-great

https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/potato-the-noble-sput-seven-fun-facts-2/#google_vignette

https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/irish-potato-famine

https://screenrant.com/toy-story-pixar-unknown-facts-mr-potato-head/#a-voice-that-lives-on

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hot-potato-mr-potato-head-turns-60/

https://www.foodrepublic.com/1294946/things-you-didnt-know-about-potatoes/

https://www.idahopotatomuseum.com/potato-facts/

https://www.thefactsite.com/potato-facts/