Mon 15 Jan 2007
I bought a big bag of “reduced for a quick sale” potatoes a few of weeks ago and despite eating a good number of the starchy tubers, there are a few left at the bottom of the bag going quite, quite green.
Potatoes are one of the few things that grow in our clay-y north-facing garden so normally I’d happy plant out old ones and wait for new potatoes to grow in their place but with the weather as it is at the moment, I don’t fancy their chances if it gets suddenly frosty - or my chances of not being blown away and/or drowned while trying to dig a hole for them.
So are there any other things I can do with them instead of planting them out/winging them into the compost bin?
(Photo by lusi)





Adam
January 15th, 2007 at 11:46 am
You could try and cut them out into some stamps to do some crazy painting with, if they’re not too mushy/smelly already :)
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Solomon Broad
January 15th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Cut them in half, scoop out the inside and put them cut side down in the garden to attract slugs.
Chop them up and put them in a compost bin/wormery.
Cut off the green bits, boil and mash them, and put them t for the bird.
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Anonymous
January 15th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
We made stamps with them as kids…
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Sjur
January 15th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
I hope you don’t live in Norway. It’s illegal to plant potatoes bought for eating (because of the danger of contagous potato diseases) here :)
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Iota
January 16th, 2007 at 4:10 am
You can make beer from them! If I were making a beer from them, I’d use them up to 20% of my grain bill, so like, 8lbs of Barley and 2lbs of cooked, peeled, and cubed potatoes. Then proceed with normal brewing proceedure–yum potato beer. Of course if you add a high powered yeast and mash the mixture out at 145 F or so, and run the fermented lot through a still, you’d have some potato vodka..
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icleander
January 16th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Put toothpicks in them and set them over a glass of water. They’ll sprout and be ready to plant when spring comes
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Dale
January 17th, 2007 at 5:09 am
Peel all of the green away, what’s left is safe to eat. Compost the green parts. Plant certified seed potatoes, Sjur is right about potato diseases.
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Anonymous
January 17th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Isn’t distilling illegal?
> and run the fermented lot through a still, you’d have some potato vodka
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deb
January 17th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Cooked potatoes sprinkled with a little salt store quite well in the freezer for long periods of time. this is a good method for any fresh food thats bought in bulk.
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Sarah
January 18th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Plant them in pots in a greenhouse.
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Rosalind
January 19th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Cooked potatoes store best as soup - make it thick to save space and thin down before eating. You can grow new potatoes from the eyes - this is common practise in America - so you could actually eat AND grow the same greenish potato. WARNING, those who are unaware: any green bit of potato or potato plant is poisonous, especially for pregnant women.
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Jenny
January 22nd, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I might have got this wrong, but I vaguely remember being told that potatoes were useful for cleaning stuff - like a cut edge of potato can clean up grubby oil paintings (just remove the slime after with a soft, clean cloth), and potato cooking water an be used to clean up silver… I think…
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Sack36
January 28th, 2007 at 7:10 am
Potatoes are basically starch. You can use them to starch cloth.
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Ryan
February 22nd, 2007 at 4:38 am
don’t sweat rubbish, it will decay in the landfill and mix well with the topsoil
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Keith
February 27th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
I put 170 pounds of old potatoes next to the furnace after my landlord negated on an ownership settlement. Brings about the smell of sweet vengeance.
Insinkerator told me one or to can be chopped and used to clean the garbage disposal……I still wonder….
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Mable
October 18th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Potato peel broth is great for restoring the alkaline levels in your body (I wouln’t try this with green potatoes, though). But, if this doesn’t sound too appetizing :) use the (cooled) water you boiled your potatoes in as a plant “pick-me-up” - a lot of nutrients are left when the potatoes cook and it’s a great way to boost their vitamin/mineral levels (not to mention recycling the water! ;)
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Phillip
December 4th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
That is a very good question. I have been looking for a recipe for potato flakes or potato flour to no avail. It seems that the process is quite complicated but wouldn’t that be a great solution.
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karen pawson
June 20th, 2008 at 1:24 am
I have put old spuds in a binliner as suggested by a top tv chef. they are growing up , very green but someone said they are dangerous to eat!! Virus’s or something!! Is this true?
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karen pawson
June 20th, 2008 at 1:37 am
Do I need to get a life? Are they poisonous? They are growing from an old bag of uneaten from a local store, Thought I would be self sufficient this year. They had eyes and looked at me asking to be recycled!!!
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asrai
June 20th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Green potatoes are not harmful unless you eat A LOT of the green stuff.
This has more details:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_055b.html
What happens is light hits the potatoes and they start doing their naturual plant thing and make chorlophyll, which ends up making solaine which is toxic (but according to some of my research if you have a heatlhy amount of vitamin C in you, you’ll be fine, plust you have to eat 4 lbs or something of straight green potatoes to be affected).
So the moral of the story is: keep your potatoes in a cool, DARK place (but not your fridge).
Only seed potatoes are considered disease free.
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clm
June 20th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Karen, they should be fine, as long as the bag is dark plastic- when potato tubers are exposed to light (such as the ones that this thread started about) produce a chemical called solanine that is toxic in large quantities… it also makes the potatoes bitter, so you probably wouldn’t eat them anyway. The virus that Sjur mentioned is a plant virus, not something that would affect people- the restriction in Norway is to protect agricultural interests, not a public health concern (unless, say, someone unwittingly introduced a potato blight- ask the Irish if this is a public health problem… heh). Enjoy your home grown potatoes!
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karen pawson
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Thanks for your comments. But does anyone else need to say anything. Only 2 peoples comments is a tad un reassuring! although they are convincing. dont want any idiot comments. only genuine replies please. may seem daft but educated to a high standard!!
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karen pawson
July 17th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
MY SPUD PLANTS ARE HUGE!! BUT NO FLOWERS YET. WHAT IS HAPPENING?
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karen pawson
July 30th, 2008 at 1:28 am
aggh yes get a life you can now google me about my spuds!!! now signing off. dont care about them anymore. My Tomatoes and parsnips are doing so much better!
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