Potato Blight (and solanine toxicity)

[Walkie]

It might seem a bit perverse to post about this, straight after posting about that delicious potato dish I made the other day. But it's playing on my mind, and I thought it might be worthwhile warning you guys. And truth to tell , that;s the first tme I've dared to cook potatoes in the past couple of weeks ( so my  potato starvation might have contributed to the deliciousness).

Last month. I had a load of Jersey potatoes delivered and bunged them in a dark cupboard  along with my baking spuds. They were very disappointing for Jerseys ( I've found out since that Jersey's potato production has been screwed over , this way and that,  by all kinds of unseasonal weather, this year) but looked healthy enough, and tasted OK. But , whilst back was turned, they rotted ridiculously  fast,  some of them -p my horror-  actually liquefying and giving off a really noxious smell.   I had to chuck out all of my potatoes, as the bakers had now clearly been infected with whatever-it-was and  clean out the cupboard, where they'd leaked all over the floor.  I received another delivery in the meantime. these, again looked OK, but when I sniffed the potstoes, i caught the exact  same noxious smell (albeit a lot more faintly) instead of the usual earthy scent,  so they went straight in the bin .

Once I'd finished cleaning up and shuddering , I did a bit of internet research, and it looks like a surefire bet that these potatoes were infected with "late blight"" , the same disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine. and which continues to plague farmers, being horribly difficult to contain.  There's an alert system set up for it, which pretty much goes into red whenever weather conditions are mildand wet  (ideal conditions for the blight) for two consecutive days .   Blighted tubers should not make it onto the market, ofc. They are toxic.  But after reading about all the painstaking procedures the growers have to follow to ensure that desn't happen, it's not hard to understand why blighted tubers  sometimes get through the net; especially when were talking of hard-pressed Jersey farmers, who might well be verging on bankrupcy áfter all the shit that the weather's thrown at them since last Autumn.  And , yeah, Jersey was on red alert for this  blight.. which can strike any time from June onwards in the UK (but a bit earlier in Jersey where its warmer). And it's certainly not confined to the UK,  it's just that the UK was the focus of my search for info , ofc. 

Oh! and the exact same blight affects tomatoes too., but not other members of that family (no need to worry about bell peppers, for example) That's interesting . You might recall me complaining that I find  tomatoes and potatoes occasionally trigger a pretty dramatic allergic reaction , almost the moment i taste them?   I've been vaguely thinking that i must be super- sensitive to solanine, but that doesn't quite make sense, beacause there's always some solanine in potatoes and tomatoes, and I'm usually fine with eating them.  So maybe I'm sensitive to the presence of the actual blight itself, rather than the toxins these plants release to protect themselves from the blight and other stressors ? And yeah, I did have a couple of those nasty potato reactions not long ago, come to think  .  That didn't quite deter me from eating potatoes, but I binned those particular batches (thankfully!) and switched variety.

  Just don;t tell the farmers.  I don't wanna be captured and enslaved for use as a " blight sniffer ".  I know, i know, we spazzes are advised to look for "niche"' employment. but that's a real  bummer of a special sodding talent to have.   

Here are a few relevant articles:

http://www.aafarmer.co.uk/news/changing-weather-pattern-puts-potato-growers-on-high-alert-for-blight.html
https://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/potatoes/potato-blight/
https://www.uvm.edu/sites/default/files/Extension-Master-Gardener/lbfaq_001.pdf  (US article)
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/08/14/girl-8-orphaned-after-gas-from-rotting-potatoes-killed-her-entire-family_n_7360976.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/horrific-tales-of-potatoes-that-caused-mass-sickness-and-even-death-3162870/
https://www.nature.com/news/pathogen-genome-tracks-irish-potato-famine-back-to-its-roots-1.13021

[Walkie]

FFS, thought I'd try a bit harder to get ho;d of  Cyprus new potatoes (my favourites when i can get ém, cos they're generally  big, and easy to prepare, besides being remarkably versatile and much tastier than old potatoes) and found this article:
https://www.potatonewstoday.com/2020/01/08/cyprus-80-of-potato-crop-wiped-out-by-rains-in-famagusta-district/

Huh. Looks like a really bad year for potatoes everywhere; and yet another little environmental disaster in progress.  I wonder when we start running out of food?

[Conspiracy Nut]

I went to my folks house and they served me these tiny nasty looking baked potatoes that were just full of mould when I cut into them. I think society will collapse in about 4 months.

[Conspiracy Nut]

I don't eat vegetables. just meat and supplements. some synthetic, some from plants. but eating plants directly is out. except for caeser salad, which is ok, because it actually tastes nice.

[Gopher Gary]

I don't eat vegetables. just meat and supplements. some synthetic, some from plants. but eating plants directly is out. except for caeser salad, which is ok, because it actually tastes nice.

Do you like fruit smoothies?  They're a good way to add vegetables without the flavor, plus other things missing like dairy or grains. 

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

I knew a guy in the US, friend of my ex, he refused to eat anything that came from a plant. He was likely on the spectrum. He wouldn't even use ketchup because it came from a plant.

[Dirty Big Yoke]

We don't really call it the "potato famine" (rather the Great Famine) in Ireland as it was a bit more than the spuds becoming rotten that made it a famine. The reason why is because most other food was either exported from Ireland or deliberately overpriced beyond most poor farmers could afford.

Some historians would argue it was a deliberate famine caused by the British to "punish" the Irish which could be argued as a genocide, while others point out it was laissez-faire economics utilised in its extreme by the Liberals (whigs) running as government in the UK. Personally I think it's a mixture of both factors.

[Gopher Gary]

I knew a guy in the US, friend of my ex, he refused to eat anything that came from a plant. He was likely on the spectrum. He wouldn't even use ketchup because it came from a plant.

I can't help but wonder if he was perpetually constipated.  I once was friends with a gal who didn't like fruit. I've never known anyone else who didn't like any fruit at all. I mean none. 

[Walkie]

We don't really call it the "potato famine" (rather the Great Famine) in Ireland as it was a bit more than the spuds becoming rotten that made it a famine. The reason why is because most other food was either exported from Ireland or deliberately overpriced beyond most poor farmers could afford.

Some historians would argue it was a deliberate famine caused by the British to "punish" the Irish which could be argued as a genocide, while others point out it was laissez-faire economics utilised in its extreme by the Liberals (whigs) running as government in the UK. Personally I think it's a mixture of both factors.

 I should know better than to oversimplify an issue on a Spazz forum shouldnt I? 

:But yeah,  for an interesting and politically relevant (as opposed to relevant to the OP) snippet of history .

Are you Irish? Ooh. i didn't know.  I like Irish folk.  more literate, more cultured, more authentic and more fun that we English oiks.  Or am I biased by my teeny little fraction of Irish blood? and my pints of self-loathing Scottish blood? and my little bit of self-mocking  Jewish blood? and ...well ,  almost everything but Anglo Saxon , and hopefully no Norman whatsoever.  ( I'm the most forgiving person in the world, according to some of my mates. But I still haven't forgiven the Normans  for Hastings and all that  ) , However,  hate to admt it, but was born and raised entirely on English soil. So,  English i am. 

[Dirty Big Yoke]

My partner is English, so you're grand. 

[renaeden]

Long ago, when I lived by myself in my first flat, I bought potatoes with the weekly groceries. My kitchen cupboards had a gap between them and the floor so that's where I put the potatoes as I didn't have a lot of pantry space. I forgot about them.

Some time later I kept catching whiffs of something nasty. I thought it was coming from outside. Then I noticed some brown liquid on the kitchen floor next to one of the cupboards. I investigated further and pulled the bag of potatoes (or what was left of them) out into the open. Omg, I had never smelt anything so bad. I almost threw up on top of the bag.

One of my neighbours chose that time to visit and when I opened the front door she wrinkled up her nose straight away. I told her that my place never usually smelt this bad and she was welcome back when I was finished cleaning.

I remember I used a fair bit of bleach. I bagged the mess into another bag so my outside bin wouldn't stink more.

I don't think there's a worse smell than rotten potatoes.

[DirtDawg]

I don't eat vegetables. just meat and supplements. some synthetic, some from plants. but eating plants directly is out. except for caeser salad, which is ok, because it actually tastes nice.

Do you like fruit smoothies?  They're a good way to add vegetables without the flavor, plus other things missing like dairy or grains. 

Don't forget nuts!
Just ordered my wife a new "NutriBullet"  for her smoothie works.
It is used daily, roughly and the old one lasted five years.