These are all of the potatoes in Canada

June 7, 2015 8:48 PM

These are the potatoes you can have, in Canada. Everyone likes potatoes, and many people like Canada. Not everyone, but like, a decent amount of people. This ^^ is a list of the potatoes you can have in Canada. All of them. Fambo. Jemseg. Brise Du Nord.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood (37 comments total)

And this is how you have them.
posted by parudox at 8:53 PM on June 7, 2015 [5 favorites]

Really? Sounds like more of a theoretical "can" - I don't think I've seen a Desiree or Krantz at my local supermarket (unless I've missed them).
posted by cotton dress sock at 8:56 PM on June 7, 2015

We were this || close to naming the newest meeting room "The Poutinerie", in hono(u)r of one of our French-Canadian lead developers, who came to our last holiday party with a rolling cart serving cheese curd, fries, and hot gravy.

Alas, upper management nixed it in the eleventh hour.

Alas.
posted by offalark at 8:57 PM on June 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

True Blue is pretty neat. Random mutation?
posted by bismol at 9:01 PM on June 7, 2015

oh boy oh boy i love poutine
posted by parki at 9:06 PM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

So if you add cheese curds and gravy to that one, do you get bloutine?
posted by deludingmyself at 9:12 PM on June 7, 2015

There are varieties called Asterix and Obelix!

True Blue is pretty neat. Random mutation?

Ancestral potatoes come in a variety of colors; I believe blue/purple-fleshed potatoes are among them. I've had blue-fleshed ones and wasn't so impressed. The color wasn't very evenly distributed, and it looked unappetising when mashed
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:26 PM on June 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

Hm, apparently Canada doesn't recognize "Purple Majesty", one of the varieties I'm growing in my back garden this year. Probably because the name appears to be a reference to a line in a traditional patriotic USA song. (They do recognize the two other varieties I planted though.)
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:29 PM on June 7, 2015

I do not know why I am laughing so hard at the fact that you linked to the Wikipedia articles for both "potato" and "Canada."

I think there is a type of humor that is so subtle that it merely brushes my conscious mind, just beyond the reach of understanding. And that is what I will tell my coworkers when they come to investigate what that awful noise was.
posted by louche mustachio at 9:42 PM on June 7, 2015 [8 favorites]

Good, capital-C-Conservative-Canadians eat Russets and only Russets.
posted by Poldo at 9:43 PM on June 7, 2015 [2 favorites]

"These are the potatoes you can have, in Canada"

I guess it was that last KITH post but I can not stop reading that to the tune of "These are the Daves I know"
posted by AGameOfMoans at 9:45 PM on June 7, 2015 [11 favorites]

Hm, apparently Canada doesn't recognize "Purple Majesty", one of the varieties I'm growing in my back garden this year.

I'm going to tell the prime minister because I'm pretty sure that's not allowed
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 9:56 PM on June 7, 2015

So if you add cheese curds and gravy to that one, do you get bloutine?

Non, bleutine
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 10:12 PM on June 7, 2015 [5 favorites]

Potato Control Area
Planting of Potatoes
Is Restricted

Lots of these signs up north of Whistler. Don't mess with our potatoes.
posted by metaname at 10:15 PM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

There is precisely one kind of potato to be found here in Korea. On the other hand, you've been able to buy red onions in addition to the standard yellow ones for the last year or two, so things are looking up, variety-wise.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:44 PM on June 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

In Thailand the word for "potato" is man farang, which means (something like) "foreigner food". Thais can be very dismissive.
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:21 AM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

@metaname, why do they have those signs? Are they worried about other breeds crossing with the local varieties?
posted by sixohsix at 1:37 AM on June 8, 2015

They're mostly worried about disease.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:09 AM on June 8, 2015

It's sort of like "These are the Daves I Know", but about potatoes, and from an official government source, and without music.
posted by Meatbomb at 5:03 AM on June 8, 2015 [3 favorites]

Only those, if I look over the list I only recognise one of the types I have grown in the past four years and it is the desiree. This year I've got Cara, Picasso and Red Duke of York.
posted by koolkat at 5:17 AM on June 8, 2015

My potatoes are not on the list.

They just say "Prince Edward Island Potatoes." Really.
posted by pjenks at 5:54 AM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

These are the spuds I know, I know,
These are the spuds I know.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:20 AM on June 8, 2015 [3 favorites]

So Newfoundland, although it has many charms, has the dreaded potato wart or canker. Which is a pernicious form of blight. Which means that the government is very strict about keeping it from getting onto the mainland, especially since a lot of us newfoundlanders would drive to PEI. So they ask some harsh questions about if we're transporting any plant goods off the island, and when you take the ferry you get a free undercar wash.

Mmm, pommes de terre. Delightful, delightful dirt apples.
posted by Lemurrhea at 6:53 AM on June 8, 2015

I used to buy Maris Piper, not on the approved list you will note, at a local farmer's market from a guy who knew a guy. Anytime I would buy them, he told me to keep it hush hush and he told me if word got out he'd be shut down. In fact he kept them below the table and would only pull them out for "special" customers. I think to most people they'd just look like any other potato. Hilariously, he was also the guy I bought contraband dairy products from as well. The butter was awesome. Sadly he retired.

There's a guy in St Lawrence market in Toronto who told me he grows about 90 different varietals! The French Fingerling potatoes were my favorites.
posted by Ashwagandha at 7:06 AM on June 8, 2015

The potato signs remind me of the signs I saw all over Florida when I moved here twenty (20!) years ago ... "No backyard fruit beyond this point" in above trashcans at the airports, and fruit-sniffing dogs, and quarantine signs at the county lines. I visited Eastern Washington in the early 1980s, and they had similar signs about them apples, too.

I've got to plant some potatoes this winter, before I disassemble my raised bed for the last time ....
posted by tilde at 7:34 AM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

Suddenly...

And a friend of mine recently made up a batch of potato salad only to discover she had accidentally bought blue potatoes. The results, while perfectly tasty, were horrifying.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:21 AM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

> Potato Control Area Planting of Potatoes Is Restricted

Once the first group sings the first line, everyone on this side of the room starts with "Apple maggot quarantine area, do not transport homegrown fruit." Three times around, it'll be beautiful. And... go!
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:22 AM on June 8, 2015 [3 favorites]

do not transport homegrown fruit

Doo dah, doo dah.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:41 AM on June 8, 2015 [6 favorites]

Potatoes are quite susceptible to disease. So we have the Pemberton Seed Potato Area, where seed potatoes are grown in disease-free conditions. Of course, if someone were to plant diseased potatoes in the area, the soil might become contaminated and could produce a diseased seed crop in the future. So potato planting is controlled in that area (which is geographically isolated from other potato growing areas by mountains and wilderness on all sides).
posted by ssg at 8:53 AM on June 8, 2015

Potato Control Area

dot tumblr dot com
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:34 AM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

do not transport homegrown fruit

Doo dah, doo dah.

We don't think that it is cute,

Oh, doo dah day.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:57 AM on June 8, 2015 [4 favorites]

This is a hardcore post.
posted by Kabanos at 1:44 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm a native Floridian from the family of same. No one has/d ever seen a sign pertaining to backyard or homegrown produce being contraband.

California searches cars like limes are terrorists, though.
posted by syncope at 4:26 PM on June 8, 2015

I was in South Florida when I saw the signs at MIA and in Browrad.

Went to Home Depot last night for piping & they have seed potatoes out. Isn't it too hot for root veg?
posted by tilde at 3:07 AM on June 9, 2015

Alright I started googling. It's not too early for potatoes, so maybe I'll pick up some of those seed potatoes next Home Depot run. Also some tidbits on there on why you should use seed potatoes and not random store bought potatoes.

Here's what I have for International "Don't Pack a Pest" signs (Puerto Rico) but I remember specifically one for no backyard fruits, big blue and white sign.

Temporary Quarantine medfly signs that were in Palm Beach and Broward counties ... The article mentions Palm Beach but I remember them off of Commerical as well (which is Broward).
posted by tilde at 6:16 AM on June 9, 2015

ssg: "So we have the Pemberton Seed Potato Area, where seed potatoes are grown in disease-free conditions. "

This is reminding me of the Alberta rat control post.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:28 AM on June 10, 2015

Okay, you guys have sprouted my interest. Eye will take these seed potatoes (yes, dear reader, I bought them) and put them in the crisper for now, and then sprout and cut them mid-july.

The research I'm seeing says it's still too hot around here until August, but I figure if I put them in well-drilled and gravel-drain 5-gallon buckets rich with compost and soil, I can start them near the end of July and put them outside when I get home at night (about 5:30) and bring them in in the morning before I head off to work (about 7:30) until we hit back to school time (then I'll look at the weather and consider if I can just start leaving them out).

Also, the Home Depot here has a trio of tipped tuxedo cats that are just the sweetest things ever ...
posted by tilde at 10:06 AM on June 10, 2015 [1 favorite]