“Betcha can’t eat just one!”–teased ads from Lay’s Potato Chip Company Circa 1960—the ads popped up everywhere! We all tried it, some were successful. I don’t know if an official contest was ever launched, but go ahead and admit it–you ate two …or more. I did, and still do. The once-lowly potato is not lowly now, not only because of the potato chip, though that helps a heap—maybe the catchy “Betcha can’t eat just one!”—jingle also helped.
The infamous Potato Famine hit Ireland circa 1845; a fungal disease infected the main crop staple, potatoes, killing over a million Irish people and creating a devastating famine. Many Irish natives immigrated to other countries, including the United States. Earlier Irish immigrants had brought the potato to the USA, and Thomas Jefferson had supported the potato. When the Potato Famine hit in Ireland, the potato, as food, grew in popularity.
Jeremie Pavelski is a fifth-generation farmer in Wisconsin’s Central Sands region, produces 1.2 billion chipping potatoes. with most of his potatoes going to Lays. While Pavelski does not call himself an environmentalist, he does talk the talk and walk the walk. He looks to long term cultivation, unlike corporations that always focus on the quarterly bottom line.
What is a church dinner without potato salad, or a fast-food restaurant without French Fries (they aren’t really French), and of course, a picnic without, well, potato chips!? My mother at certain times used to ladle a serving of mashed potatoes onto my plate, making a nest in the middle; she filled it with snow peas. Maybe it was to entice me to eat my vegetables—I simply loved that dish.
I have always enjoyed potatoes; in salads, mashed potatoes, in soups, baked, potato-skin appetizers, fries, whatever. However, I did not enjoy de-bugging potato vines. When I was growing up, my dad would give me a can with about two inches of kerosene in it. I had to go down each row of potato plants—hand picking each potato bug dropping it into the kerosene, killing the bug. I didn’t mind the bugs so much but the kerosene was stifling.
One interesting aspect of growing our own potatoes was the “sets;” our own source of a new crop next year. A set is a slice of a potato that includes the eye, the little skin-dimple where—if a potato is left out in the air, a sprout develops. We would take each set, and space them in a row in the garden, cover them well, and in time add fertilizer to each plant. When harvested, a plant could have several potatoes on it to be dug, used, or stored.
Our world is a marvelous creation! When we are good stewards of our planet, we can be joyfully filled with the fruits of its abundance . God placing us in this garden of earth made it The potato is a generous part of that creation, and for our sustenance. .
©Copyright Willis H. Moore 2025
Some like gravy and others like butter, not margarine. For some reason I can never get mine at home to taste like the one I get a the Longhorn Restaurant.
Interesting. Just read Potato report. 2/1/25