Ever wondered how a humble potato could save your breakfast, polish your silverware, and even reduce puffy eyes? In this episode, we promise you'll uncover the multifaceted marvels of potatoes, from their intriguing history with the Incas to their surprising role in Canadian poutine. We kick things off with a lively chat about our favorite breakfast sides and venture through the historical journey of the potato, including its European introduction by Spanish explorers and a cheeky debate over its arrival in England. Along the way, we sprinkle in some fun discussions about potato-themed events, the nostalgic charm of potato guns, and the nutritional gems hidden within this starchy staple.
But that’s not all—prepare to be amazed by the various unusual uses of potatoes beyond the kitchen! We reminisce about the original Mr. Potato Head, share fascinating facts about the nightshade family, and even touch on the quirky relationship between potatoes and tomatoes. We wrap things up with some lighthearted banter about retro potato chips and underscore the importance of supporting independent broadcasting to keep things fresh and engaging. Whether you’re a potato enthusiast or just looking for some fun facts, this episode is packed with laughter, knowledge, and a hearty appreciation for the versatile potato. Tune in and celebrate this incredible tuber with us!
Ever wondered how a humble potato could save your breakfast, polish your silverware, and even reduce puffy eyes? In this episode, we promise you'll uncover the multifaceted marvels of potatoes, from their intriguing history with the Incas to their surprising role in Canadian poutine. We kick things off with a lively chat about our favorite breakfast sides and venture through the historical journey of the potato, including its European introduction by Spanish explorers and a cheeky debate over its arrival in England. Along the way, we sprinkle in some fun discussions about potato-themed events, the nostalgic charm of potato guns, and the nutritional gems hidden within this starchy staple.
But that’s not all—prepare to be amazed by the various unusual uses of potatoes beyond the kitchen! We reminisce about the original Mr. Potato Head, share fascinating facts about the nightshade family, and even touch on the quirky relationship between potatoes and tomatoes. We wrap things up with some lighthearted banter about retro potato chips and underscore the importance of supporting independent broadcasting to keep things fresh and engaging. Whether you’re a potato enthusiast or just looking for some fun facts, this episode is packed with laughter, knowledge, and a hearty appreciation for the versatile potato. Tune in and celebrate this incredible tuber with us!
Hey, what's up, bro? I was thinking. I was thinking maybe one of these times, if we went out to breakfast, we could you know what would be your favorite side? I feel like potatoes is my go-to. So I want to like go to a place out here that kind of specializes in potatoes. I feel I don't know Something like that, or a, A potateria. Yeah, I don't know, but there is a place out here that has a big potato and it's like their thing. I think it's Canadian stuff, though, Like that. What is that shit called that? You were talking about Poutine.
Speaker 1:
Oh yeah, which I actually tried and surprisingly, I liked it what is it again, so everybody else can hear. It's fries with and don't quote me 100% on this, but I'm pretty sure it's like fries with cheese curds and then gravy on it.
Speaker 2:
Hmm, yeah, that sounds right. Nothing wrong with some curd man.
Speaker 1:
All right guys. Oh, I'm pro-curd, definitely, I'm definitely pro-curd and fry, but gravy usually, like typically, it's your. I mean, I love gravy in my pocket, but actual gravy it means something's dry and you're trying to mask. It is basically what my take on it.
Speaker 2:
I get that too. I do understand that part of it. Some people just like dip it in sauces and such my friend, so they'll be so down on gravy.
Speaker 1:
Well see, I'm pro-Aju, but uh, and there is good gravy. It's just most of the time it's like I don't know, just like flop with it.
Speaker 2:
Right, I get it. Yeah, anyway, so you know. And then, if you're having a steak, what's your favorite side side potatoes, yeah, maybe some broccoli with that sometimes stuff like garlic mash I'm.
Speaker 1:
I like asparagus better than broccoli.
Speaker 2:
So I'm, I'm both, I'm pretty equal on that, pretty equal. Yeah, you know, nonetheless, potatoes, fucking amazing guys. Okay, hey, uh, what is a potato? Is it a fruit or a vegetable? Ellen, it's a vegetable, isn't it? Yeah, it is, thank, potato, is it?
Speaker 1:
a fruit or a vegetable, Owen.
Speaker 2:
It's a vegetable, isn't?
Speaker 1:
it? Yeah, it is, thank you. All right, it's the first vegetable to be grown in space.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I did see that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, no-transcript, I don't know. Let's ask Mr Potato Head. Yeah, mr Potato Head, what do you say? Potatoes cannot be mentioned without Mr Potato.
Speaker 2:
Head. Right Potato Head says that space is real guys. Okay, where is the potato from Owen? I think that it's the Inca.
Speaker 1:
Yes, they were the first to cultivate it. They were, and once the Spanish got a hold of it, they called it a patata. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it was cultivated in South America by the Incas as early as 1,800 years ago. The Spaniards who colonized South America introduced potatoes into Europe during the second half of the 16th century, so that's kind of the role of the Spanish in this. They do say that when they went there in about 1532 would be, technically, when Europeans discovered the magic vegetable that is potato and life-saving and all these things. So I don't know, introduced into England is. There's a big controversy on who actually introduced the potato to England as well.
Speaker 2:
The consensus that I got out of it because I don't want to get too into this potato uh conspiracy is uh, sir walter rally was the one who did it. So, uh, one story, they say, says that sir walter rally introduced a potato to england on his return from virginia in north america. Rally presented specimens of the crop to queen elizabeth. The first uh gift of the crop to Queen Elizabeth I, a gift of spuds to accompany the new colony he'd acquired for her. Anyway, that's what it says about it. But then there's also some talk that Francis Drake may have been the one who brought it back to England. The great Francis.
Speaker 1:
Drake, I suppose they could roll the potato down Cooper's Hill with a wheel of cheese.
Speaker 2:
It was a big enough one. I think potato events should be like throwing and or like shooting them, you know, like a potato gun. That's amazing. I forgot about potato guns. I remember kids build them out of PVC pipe and we'd get like aerosol cans and shoot fucking potatoes.
Speaker 1:
Have you ever done that? I haven't. I know what you're talking about, but I have not personally done so. Oh my God, I've had potatoes in duck fat, which potatoes are 99.9% fat-free until you cook them in oil and then slather them in delicious duck fat.
Speaker 2:
Thank you, potatoes. That's what I'm saying. Thank you, potatoes.
Speaker 1:
Yes, they were so valuable. In the 1890s they were traded directly for gold. Oh my God. I wonder how many potatoes I could fetch for this Cuban link oh no, probably a lot.
Speaker 2:
Now I mean, holy fuck, yeah, probably Like a truck. Would you like a truckload of potatoes, owen? Sure, why not? Hey, you know a lot of people wonder what the Irish ate before potatoes. Okay, nothing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, pretty bad.
Speaker 2:
Until the arrival of the potato in the 16th century, grains such as oats, wheat and barley, cooked either as porridge or bread, formed the staple of the Irish diet. The most common form of bread consisted of flatbread made from ground oats. Okay, there you are All right. So that's a fact, I feel. Hey, check this out, bro. There are over 200 varieties of potatoes sold, fitting into seven potato types Russet, red, white, yellow, blue-purple, finger line and petite. Hmm, this is a weird list. An average 5.3-ounce potato has only 110 calories. All right, that's not too bad. 30% of your daily vitamin C and 15% of your daily potassium, right, and that's more than the banana guys. 620 milligrams is what it usually packs. A punch of A banana only 422. And the banana is like. You know they're like if you're running and you get a cramp. You know they say eat a banana.
Speaker 1:
No, fucking get a potato. Guys. Eat a fucking raw potato. Running a hurdle, just eating a potato as you go. And apparently one can live off of just potatoes, as long as they're paired with milk or butter.
Speaker 2:
Oh my God, I know, isn't that amazing Dip like a potato in the milk, I guess, I don't know how this works.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you wouldn't get cramps, you'd be. Everything would be pretty fucking bland at some point. I don't know but what it is, it's like one of the most complete foods, period, and everybody talks shit about it and acts like it. It's actually like there was a point in time I didn't look it up and I should have Son of a B word guys, but they were trying to declassify the potato as a vegetable Like it just isn't anything In America.
Speaker 1:
Potato.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, because, like they were trying to say it was so bad for us and it's like no, it is not, it's bad for you.
Speaker 1:
Maybe when it's made into vodka, yeah, or when it's.
Speaker 2:
That's bad for you, right? Or fried, like everything every other normal. It's so delicious I know it is.
Speaker 1:
But and actually sprouts and leaves are poisonous, so that could be bad for you Really, oh wow.
Speaker 2:
I didn't, Yep Did, Yep Did not know that man. That is so insane that the sprouts are poisonous. Like is it? Did it say only to humans or is that like a, if deer eat them they might get sick?
Speaker 1:
kind of shit I don't know. Yeah, I think poisonous would, but then again I guess, yeah, some things are poisonous to us that aren't really to others and Well, it's just like you know, dogs don't need vitamin C People.
Speaker 2:
I don't know if a lot of people know that I didn't for a while, but apparently that's like one of the reasons why, when you try and feed your dog like certain fruits and shit, that they're kind of like ugh, because their body makes it so they don't need vitamin C. No, thank you, Yep. All right, yeah, that's why they're cool to take on ships and hunt rats and shit like that as well, arrgh. So hey, I got one for you. Why were potatoes illegal in France?
Speaker 1:
What the fuck that, I don't know. I do know that Marie Antoinette enjoyed the blossoms so much she put them in her hair.
Speaker 2:
What the poisonous blossoms? I wonder if those are poisonous. Jeez, she's a cake-eating character. In 1748, france had actually forbidden the cultivation of the potato on the grounds that it was thought to cause leprosy, among other things, and this law remained on the books in Parmenter's time until 1772. I don't know Parmenter's, I don't know. Let's not try to say that word. It's P-A-R-M-E-N-T-I-E-R-S. I don't know why I'm having a hard time with that. Marijuana yeah, so it was actually illegal in France For a period of time. That's kind of fucking weird, huh.
Speaker 1:
So those are like potato slangers, just like Right, like you get a potato guy, like yeah, you know, somebody was trying to capitalize, like people, like potatoes oh, fucking right, they would like disguise them under piles of yams.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I'm with that, yuri, the potato hustler go all right.
Speaker 1:
So when you purchase a potato, it's still alive. What?
Speaker 2:
Dun-dun-dun what.
Speaker 1:
The fuck. So when, in 2008, a Lebanese farmer dug up a potato weighing almost 25 pounds that was larger than his head, jesus, it was a living thing.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, no, that's amazing, makes sense, because in the dark they still grow their little sprouts and whatnot? Very resilient vegetable, thy potato.
Speaker 1:
So we're committing potato murder every time we cook them basically.
Speaker 2:
Right, pretty much. Hey, check this out. You know, like that smell when you cut your lawn, that smell of grass, right, yeah, okay, okay, sorry, I was waiting for response. Gosh, all right, co-host here, anyway. So nonetheless, that smell, uh, that is basically grass screaming, like it's the equivalent of grass screaming. That's what I read, something terrifying, yeah, like in pain. Jesus christ, everything you do you're gonna hurt something, though I don't know.
Speaker 2:
Um, so let's see here, the time it takes to harvest potatoes after playing depends on the variety of potato, but one thing that's pretty cool about them is they are kind of a sit and sit and plant vegetable as well, very low maintenance. Um, the longest ones were like 80 to 100 days, and those are like the blue, red and red goldish ones I've seen and it seems oh, whoa, no, sorry, that's wrong. The russets are the longest, those are the second longest and then the quickest to uh from plant to um cultivation, or whatever you want to say is, uh, the Yukon gold, irish cobbler and early roads. All right, guys. So if you're just wondering, I'm just telling you kicking potato facts. All right, to my friend, and that's just really where I'm at here. Um, do you know any uh, weird uses for potatoes?
Speaker 1:
I do not really, other than McDonald's using 19 ingredients for fries.
Speaker 2:
I know, and they're tasty, I'm not going to lie, no, they are, but how bizarre, anyway. How bizarre. Well, this is taking a dark turn. Potatoes, my friend, which a lot of people seem to spell wrong. I don't know. There was a thing where it was not O-E, it's just O at the end or something.
Speaker 1:
There was that whole Dan Quayle thing at the spelling bee when we were little kids. I don't know if you remember that. Yeah, holy shit Dan Quayle. Yeah, he corrected the kid. What the fuck? National treasure.
Speaker 2:
Jesus Christ 80s. Owen man, you have some things like that. I forgot about that guy. I think it was the 90s. Oh it was. You're probably right, because who he'd been like Bush's like first.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, he was Bush's toady. I think he was the vice president.
Speaker 2:
That's what I'm saying yeah, the first Bush and the first toady, apparently Papa Bush Wow.
Speaker 1:
Papa Bush, there's lots of Bushes, prescott, anyway, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, there's lots of Bush, Especially in the 80s. Oh, whoa, dude, I didn't. Oh, I want dude I didn't?
Speaker 1:
Oh, I'm like Michael, I live next to a gay Apparently.
Speaker 2:
So, anyway, speaking of unusual things, the unusual uses of potatoes that I found on the internet, which is scary to look up weird things to use a potato for, you know. But nothing weird came up that I thought of, like that was not or not, that I thought of, that I was like scared of I guess would be the thing. So, anyway, polishing agent the water left over from boiling potatoes can remove tarnish from silver without abrasives. A rust remover the acid and potatoes can remove rust stains from metal. Mix salt, detergent and baking soda. Then rub a half potato into the mixture and rub it on rust for a few minutes. There you are. Fog prevention rubbing a potato on greenhouse glass can stop it from fogging up. Apparently it's really good for puffy eyes. Yeah, I know. Amazing, that's for our weed farmers. Here's for the ladies puffy eye reducer raw potato slices can reduce puffiness around the eyes. Okay, and then arts and crafts. As you brought up earlier, mr Potato Head back in the day was actually a fucking potato, like they sold arms that you stuck in a potato.
Speaker 1:
That was the thing? Wasn't it like a turnip or something? I think so.
Speaker 2:
It's a bit disturbing looking, you know. So it's a bit disturbing looking, you know. So I think that that might right.
Speaker 2:
Well, it must have an Irish origin, though right, because if it was a turnip. Do you remember the Halloween episode, my friend, where the original Jack O'Lantern was not a a pumpkin, it was a turnip. He carried around with the eternal flame from the devil. That stingy Jack, motherfucker Right, so turn. That stingy jack, motherfucker right, so turnips and Irish people guys. Mr Potato Head, is it a conspiracy? I don't know, but nonetheless, non-food products. Potato starch is used as an adhesive binder and filler in many industries, and oil drilling companies use it to wash boreholes. Potatoes can also be made into glue, animal feed and fuel-grade ethanol.
Speaker 1:
All right, my friend, potatoes Damn. And then, yeah, revisiting the Dan Quayle deal, it was a sixth grade spelling bee in New Jersey in 1992, and he corrected the child. He had an inaccurate card a teacher had prepared, but the 12-year-old William Figueroa spelled potato correctly on the board. And then Quail made him add an E which is like Right. Yeah, it was wrong on the card, but still you should have been like uh, that checks out. I don't know still Right?
Speaker 2:
no, I get it Breaking news from 1992, people, You're good at that. Hey, I seem to have lost this, but the team was throwing it at me beforehand and apparently potatoes and tomatoes are part of the same family, like they're the same thing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I saw something about that, but it was like half, Right, Was it like tomatoes half or potato?
Speaker 2:
one way or the other, I'm trying to Hold on Like, yeah, I don't know. Oh, my goodness, I know. It's so confusing guys, you know. And if it adds an E on the end, what is it then I don't know. So apparently potatoes, my friend, belong to a small family, the nightshade or solanacea family. The other members are tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Potatoes resemble tomatoes more than the other family members and often share the same disease and insects, isn't?
Speaker 1:
that crazy yes.
Speaker 2:
This article I found. Actually, I went on to read some more and I'm just going to kind of paraphrase it, and I'm not an expert. But apparently there's garden magazines that sell a half tomato and potato plant, but they don't yield much and they're kind of a novelty, like it's a grafted plant. Also there is uh, the article is written in response to a bunch of gardeners writing in because there is, like all of a sudden, a bunch of tomato looking plants popping up where they had once planted potatoes. Damn it, but nonetheless, you understand what I'm saying with all that stumbling.
Speaker 2:
So, and what it turns out is that some potatoes at times produce a fruit that looks like a tomato, and that's usually what would happen here and there. So the potato that we eat is the root, so it's not even. You know what I'm saying. So it does produce a fruit, which answered a question in my fucking head, which is how can you classify a vegetable if it doesn't have seeds? Well, apparently it does when it grows the fucking fruit. But who knows that? Right, I didn't, I mean, and I'm a genius, guys.
Speaker 1:
Did you know that? I do know that Joe chips, retro potato chips are delicious. Oh, probably with some hop water, I'm imagining. Oh, definitely Good, but yeah, currently eating this.
Speaker 2:
Barbecue flavor, which Fantastic. Yeah, the first ingredient is small batches of select potato select potato than any ordinary. Here I immediately imagine, like a club line setting Only select potatoes get it. Nope, not russet, you're a little lumpy looking.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's not shot at anything. I just sorry about that, guys. I'm leaving it in though. Um, nonetheless, my friend, potatoes are amazing. Okay, that's what I'll tell. I hear it. I tell stories, which, by the way, you can follow us on Instagram and check us out at pitlocksupplycom, and also in the notes of this. If you click on the episode, you'll see show notes. There's a support the show link and you can support the show for, I think, as low as three dollars, guys. So if you were to do that, three, five or whatever it may be I mean, if you find us hilarious and you support independent broadcasting, which I hope you do, because otherwise that's how we end up at the fucking Kardashians over and over again, guys. So if you're anti-Kardashian, I want you to go to our notes, click the support the show link and click a button. Man, that's all you got to do. Help us out here. We'll keep it rolling.
Speaker 1:
We'll do some cool things right, Owen, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:
I mean, we know we're not going to get rich, guys, that's not the goal. We want to pull money up and like, do cool things for people or communities and stuff like that. So if you'd like to be a part of that, you you're doing. I mean, I don't know Whoever you are. What kind of subscriptions do you have that nobody knows about that? You could cancel for an I Tell Stories one. That's all I'm saying. And if you love potatoes, yes, you know, we're bringing you this knowledge of potatoes. It's worth five bucks a month, I don't know. Just saying, guys, and we have cool shirts and stuff and Owen has a shop. Now we're moving on up, we're trying to, we're enjoying our uh, our honky version of Curtis Mayfield, you know, moving on up, so we're giving it a shot and uh, and we can only hope that they revisit the Jefferson, oh my god, fantastic.
Speaker 2:
Yes, please do, yeah, yeah, anyway, I think that about wraps up the potato, my friend, good talk. I hope everybody out there in podcast land has a great day or evening and we'll be back soon.