Surprising Uses for the Humble Potato

Potatoes are productive and easy to grow. They keep for a long time without processing and fit into any meal plan. Serve them for breakfast (hash browns), scalloped, mashed with roasted garlic, in a shepherd’s pie, or even a piecrust. Cook up a potato dessert to rival anything the zucchini can serve up.

Despite their bad rap for fueling the obesity epidemic (french fries comprise one-quarter of the “vegetables” Americans eat each day), potatoes are nutritious, especially served skin and all without gravy or other fatty toppings.

They offer a good source of potassium, vitamin C, some B vitamins, and antioxidants. And though they don’t contain much of it, potatoes boast very high-quality (complete) protein.

Potatoes: More Than Good Nutrition and Taste

You can put potatoes to many good, if unusual, uses around the home. To list a few:

• Remove a broken light bulb from its socket safely. Make sure the power is off to the light fixture. Then cut a thick slice from one end of a large, raw potato and press the cut surface of the remaining potato into the jagged glass. Twist to unscrew and toss into the trash, potato and all.
• Remove excess salt from a soup or stew. Just cut up a raw potato or two and add to the broth. Then remove the potato.
• Reduce puffiness under the eyes. Lay a slice of raw potato over each eye and lie back for a few minutes.

• Remove stains on clothing, carpets, and upholstery. Grate a couple of raw potatoes into a cup or two of water and allow to soak. Squeeze out the potato shreds and dab the water on the stain. Alternatively, try rubbing the stain with the cut edge of a raw potato.
• Remove stains on hands that come from working with berries, beets, and other plant materials. Just rub hands with the cut surface of a raw potato.
• Hold decorative arrangements (flowers, branches) in place. Poke holes in a large potato set at the bottom of a bowl and arrange your flowers, herbs, or branches in the holes to keep them in place. Add water if needed.
• Remove tarnish from silverware and other items by soaking them in potato water (left after boiling potatoes). Of course, if you don’t have any tarnish to remove, add the potato water to a soup stock. (Or soak your feet in it. Many swear by this folk remedy for tired, aching feet.)
• Power a clock (or other small electronic device) on potatoes. 
• Maybe even power the batteries of the future.
• Make potato prints. Potato printing is an old art that is fun for children and adults. Use simple stamps cut from raw potatoes for homemade note cards, wrapping paper, T-shirts and other fabrics, even door frames, mantels, and floors, depending on which paint you choose. Clicking on many of these potato images will take you to a page of instructions for one or another potato-carving or printing technique. 

• Folk medicine. Most parts of the world that grow and eat potatoes also use potatoes for a wide variety of traditional medical applications. Raw, juiced, cooked, applied externally, or taken internally, potatoes have been used to treat conditions as diverse as burns, infections, various cancers, constipation, and acne, as well as to soothe pain, treat migraines, and ease mild to moderate depression.

20 potatoes a day. Here’s an interesting interview with Chris Voigt, executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, in which he describes his personal quest to raise awareness of the health benefits of potatoes by subsisting entirely on potatoes for two months. Here’s a follow-up interpretation of the clinical results of Voigt’s all-potato diet.

Love your potatoes? Grow them! Check out the Almanac’s Potato Growing Guide.