What the heck is it with the potatoes? Where to buy good ones?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just cut the sprouts off...is that ok?

I think so. I am talking about rotting, black spots, small dots on the inside, under the skin, holes with brown and blackish spots in the middle, you name it I saw it on a potato.

OP, I have been experiencing this, too! Alrhough not for past 10 years, more like the past few years. But it baffles me as I tend to think of potatoes as indestructible.

Thanks for posting! I mean, I can't say it has been every bag of potatoes for ten years, but enough to make me think it is a major problem that costs me money.

[Anonymous]

The quality of food in the states is subpar to Europe and elsewhere across the world. American taste buds are inferior which is why they allow pesticides and all kinds of food processes in production when it comes to meats and veggies that Europeans would never allow.

Can you import your potatoes from Europe ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, as the title says, for the last 11 years, I have been running into awful, rotten potatoes wherever I buy them. Sure, it is the humidity in MD, don't buy too much, ok. Buy red, buy yellow, buy Idaho. They have the black spots on them, in them, and are rotten as soon as you buy them. I've tried every supermarket, and it is the same story. I've lived worldwide and never had this issue until I moved back to MD in 2011.
I travel between MD and Ontario (for the last year) a lot and thought, ok, potatoes in Canada will be good. So, I bought a Canadian Yukon from "Yukon" (ok, not really, just being sarcastic), red, white, purple, all rotten. I come home and start cooking and throw away half of them.
So, that the heck is going on with potatoes? Where do I buy potatoes that are not black inside and out with rot?
Sorry about the rant; I love potatoes.

I see this post is a few years old. I currently live in CT and I am having this same exact issue whenever I buy bagged potatoes “fresh” right out of the bag the same day I bought them. The majority are rotted. I am a 100% Irish man who loves potatoes. It is a shame.

[Anonymous]

I don’t buy potatoes very often. When I’ve purchased small or tiny yellow potatoes from Whole Foods and from Trader Joe’s, they’ve been fine. I get sweet potatoes from Rodman’s, and they’ve been consistently fine too.

[Anonymous]

I have the same problem with apples, onions, peppers, heck just about any produce in the dc area. I go to Whole Foods, it’s increased my success rate to 75% from about 30%. I sont know why gnats hovering over the produce at giant and Safeway is acceptable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much do you buy and how long do you keep them before you eat them?

I haven't noticed this but I don't keep them around for long. Probably try not to keep them for more than 2 weeks.

I have tried all sizes. For a long while, I would only buy the smallest bag, 5 lbs. But then kids came home from college and I needed more. Last time I bought a huge bag, 50 lbs, in Canada at business Costco, and that same day they were full of black all over them. I separated them all put them in a cold place, we have a large basement here too, and it is not humid, heck it was below 25C outside, and within a week I threw all but 5 away.
There was a period, in MD, when I bought only those potatoes that were not in bags, and those were good for the first few days, that is true.
I am from Europe and when I was young, we used to buy 50 kgs of potatoes, put them in the basement and none rotted. None had black spots. They might have shriveled up a bit but that is about all. Now I get it some of it inside is bruising, but I have run into rot outside and rot inside and then the dark spots in the middle. The problem with the dark spots outside is that they rot fast. I am storing them properly, the issue is I am buying them already rotting on the outside, which means grocers are storing them and transporting them improperly.

Canada. . . is it possible they got touched with frost? That's death to potatoes.
From farm country. One year when I was unemployed I worked on a harvester. You'd stand on the machine and watch for rocks, lumps of clay, and rotten potatoes as they came up a chain conveyor. This would be well into the fall of course, and if the temp was 32 in the morning or a bit below we'd have to wait in the field till the sun was up enough to get the air temp warmer. In the ground they'd be safe, but one brush of the surface with cold air and its bad news.

I can imagine that since they have to be stored cold but not too cold, wonder if refrigerated trucks sometimes have temp control problems?

They can also get bruised, plus the hand sorting that was still common at the time I speak of (mid-80s) may not happen so much (hand sorting would continue in the farmers' potato warehouses when bagging or loading for shipment). Or not get aerated enough in bulk storage. Once the bad stuff gets going, it gets really bad.

My mom bought 50 lb bags but we were a family of 7 and we ate potatoes almost every night.

[Anonymous]

I've noticed not only are potatoes often bad now, but bags of potato CHIPS are too! I've tried different brands and just about every bag we've bought has had chips with black, brown or green spots on them.

This "rotten potatoes" stuff used to be a rarity. Not anymore.