Parentage: Excelsior x Dunmore (?)
Origin: 1878, Charlotte, Vermont, USA by Orson Alexander
Use: Baking, Roasting, Frying, Mashing.
Classification: Floury
Have you heard? It’s the international year of the potato.
Sometimes I just walk around the store eating things. Customers look at me and laugh or jokingly suggest that I am eating the profits. “Quality control, ” I say, and I mean it.
The other day I took one of each of the potato varieties, all of similar size, cooked them in the microwave, and tasted them. I was prepared for the fluffy warm flavors of the German Butterballs and the creamy earthy tones of the Fingerlings, but what blew me away was the Green Mountains. Their flavor was sweet, rich and deep and their fluffy texture melted into buttery creaminess in my mouth.
Green Mountain Potatoes were introduced in the late 1800′s right here in Vermont by Orson Alexander of Charlotte, Vermont, a researcher at the University of Vermont. According to several old Vermonters I’ve spoken with. Green Mountains were the potato to plant in the early part of the 20th century, and were considered the standard for great potato flavor. However, the reliability and uniformity of the russet for commercial production overtook the Green Mountain shortly after World War II and the venerable old potato was planted less and less.
Try this vintage potato mashed alone or with cauliflower or turnips.
Scott, if these are the potatoes that we picked up at the farm last weekend, I totally second that opinion! I chose small ones, sliced them in half and roasted them, and we both thought they were the best potatoes we’d ever had. I thought maybe I’d just gotten them out of the oven at just the right time, but reading this post I realize now that it was the quality of the potato that made the difference. Thank you for exploring varieties that we don’t see in the grocery store!