WHEN I was a young bloke, potatoes came in two types - old and new. The farmers then even tossed away the tasty chats because there wasn’t a market for them. But now you can buy a huge variety of designer spuds for every cooking occasion, including chats. There are specialist potatoes for baking, mashing, making gnocchi, chips, crisps or salads.
THE humble spud is Australia’s largest vegetable crop, accounting for well over a third of our total vegetable production, with Robertson one of the best known potato growing regions in the country.
In fact they’ve been digging potatoes out Robertson way since the 1860s when the Johnson boys cleared the heavy timber and scrub with axe and fire, then planted their first potato crop by hoeing out the grass tussocks and dropping a seed potato in the hole. There have been millions of spuds dug out of that red Robertson soil since.
FORMER Wingecarribee first lady Bette Lewis remembers the early days growing up on her Moule family property near Belmore Falls.
“In the early days we ploughed the rich red soil with big Clydesdale draught horses. All of the work was done by hand, with the potatoes dug by fork. The crop was graded and bagged, then loaded into an old truck, which took them off to the Sydney Markets,” says Bette, recalling that things changed when they bought a Ferguson tractor and a potato digger.
“The boys could leave the pitchfork in the shed, but the potatoes still had to be graded by hand and then bagged.”
She reckons it was a very sad day when the horses - “just beautiful, gentle giants” - were replaced.”
The Moule boys often washed the potatoes to get a higher price.
This was done in the creek down where the road crosses at Belmore Falls.
“The work was hard, but the solid family values could not be replaced, as all us kids had to help out and do our bit,” recalled Bette.
THE humble potato is indelibly etched in my vision of food at boarding school.
It was held in such reverence, that every meal we ever had revolved around variations on spuds. When Francis Drake first brought a potato to England, he wouldn’t have had a clue what people like the kitchen staff at boarding institutions were going to do to it later on.
Deep fried whole in well used fat, which is actually very tasty. Bloody unhealthy, but ever so tasty. So were the chips.
Or boiled for ten minutes, mashed in water, then served, lumps and all, with sausages or frankfurts.
Occasionally, it was just peeled, boiled and served uncut, with a dollop of gravy and some beans on the side. What stunning comfort food for a growing lad.
POTATOES are great to grow in the backyard. Always best to buy certified seed to avoid disease and it is a good plan not to grow potatoes in the same soil in consecutive years.
And if you want to create a veggie garden on your lawn, potatoes are the way to do it.
Just dig out bits of lawn for the seed potato then cover the grassy bits with newspaper. Mulch the lot with layers of animal manure and spoiled lucerne from the produce shop.
As the potato plants emerge, continue covering with animal manure and spoiled lucerne and in no time you will have fresh potatoes and rich soil for a new vegetable garden. And you’ll never have to mow the lawn again.
AND there are some strange uses for potatoes.
Bondi Beach on a balmy summer holiday was like a smorgasbord for a couple of strapping country lads like Dudley and Clyde.
There were beautiful women everywhere, but Dudley was having no luck.
Every afternoon Clyde left the beach with a different woman, but Dudley couldn’t crack a bird. After about a week, he asked Clyde his secret.
“It’s easy, mate,” said Clyde, “all you have to do is stuff a potato down your swimmers. They get curious and can’t resist it.”
So next day Dudley found a potato and stuffed it down his swimmers, but still no luck. The women took one look at him and ran a mile.
Despondently he asked Clyde what was wrong.
“Bloody hell, Dudley, you’re a dill,” said Clyde with a wry smile, “you’re supposed to stuff it down the front of your swimmers.”
*Geoff Goodfellow has lived his life in the Southern Highlands and is well known in local sporting and social circles.
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