Potatoes take center stage at garden presentation

Four members of the Central Peninsula Gardening Club will spend today's meeting behind pots of boiling water. When the meeting is over, gardeners will evaluate approximately 100 pounds of potatoes, noting taste, texture and appearance.

"(There will be) no salt, no pepper, no butter, no sour cream and no chives," said Marion Nelson, Gardening Club vice president and program chair. "It's not to make a meal, it's just evaluating them for survey purposes."

Dr. Jeff Smeenk, horticulture specialist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension's Palmer state office, will bring the potatoes and survey forms. Nelson said his research involves potato variety and how people react to their looks and tastes.

She said the club will start setting up at 4:30 p.m. today, boiling the potatoes using propane tanks, burners and pots. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Building on Kalifornsky Beach Road.

For many Alaska gardeners, the potato is a staple of vegetable growing.

"It's huge," Nelson said.

A wide variety of potatoes thrive in Alaska, and even though there are a few tricks to help avoid problems, it isn't hard work to be successful with them, Nelson said. Even kids can do it.

"It's a vegetable we can grow easily, and we can grow it very well," she said. "It certainly has been one of those staples that got many an early homesteader and native (family) through winters. Potatoes and moose meat. They're great fun."

Some potatoes may look and taste the same, but Nelson said those grown by gardeners can be nutty, sometimes sweet.

"Some are easier to mush up and some are a little firmer," she said, adding that this characteristic can be seen in the commercially available varieties. "The properties of a given potato indicates a better use for one over the other for different recipes."

The taste test will allow Smeenk to gather data on the different variety of potatoes gardeners use in order to try to make them available to commercial growers. In addition to taste and texture, Nelson said potatoes varieties also can come in blue and purple.

"They're just an easy plant to grow, and we happen to have good growing conditions for them," she said.

Last month's subzero temperatures prevented a potato taste test at the club's previous meeting.

Nelson said she had to put a local potato grower's panel together at the last minute, but 85 people still attended, despite the change in plans. Often club meetings will draw such a large crowd that there's standing room only at these events, and Nelson said there may not be enough potatoes for everyone who shows up.

"We'll have what we have, and we'll do the best we can," she said. "We encourage car-pooling and people parking as efficiently as possible and getting there early. We can't feed the world and the room can only accommodate so many."

Jessica Cejnar can be reached at jessica.cejnar@peninsulaclarion.com.