Speaking of tomatoes. A few posts ago we mentioned that potatoe plans frow fruit which resemble tomatoes. Ours have now frown some so here, for your delight and amazement, (or at least to give us something to post about, Editor) is a picture of one. Enjoy.

The fruit (also called potato berries contain seeds which could have been fertilised by any other nearby potato plants so they are mainly used by breeders to create new cultivars.

The poison involved is called solanine and is the same poison found in green potatoes, the green colour is actually chlorophyll but, if a potato plant is producing chlorophyll its also producing solanine.

So how bad is it?

In an article in the QJM (https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/issue/48/2) Mary Macmillan and J.C Thompson tell the story of how…

Seventy eight schoolboys became ill after eating potato at lunch on the second day of the autumn term. Seventeen of the boys required admission to hospital. The gastrointestinal, circulatory, neurological and dermatological findings and the results of laboratory investigations were in keeping with solanine poisoning. The illness affected the junior boys and all the monitors but no other senior boys or staff. This pattern was compatible with the consumption of a relatively small number of toxic potatoes believed to have come from a bag (A) left in the stores since the summer term.

That was from a relativly high dose. Your body can break down small amounts quite quickly so it’s ok if you accidentaly consume a little, though we would’t recommend consuming it. We don’t even eat green crisps (potato chips in some countries, Ed) here at Owlbear Towers.

It’s produced if potatoes are stored in a place that is too light. So keep those potatoes in the dark.

It’s about time we started calling posts about the tomatoes “Tomatoes” especially with how big they are getting…

They have reached a nice size but we still dont have any flowers yet, so we have no tomatoes.

Fascinating (?) fact time. In China tomatoes are called  西红柿 (pronounced xī hóng shì), literally “west red persimmon”). The name denotes that they were introduced from the west during the Ming dynasty (around the 17th century) and that the chinese thought they looked like persimmon fruit.

Where are up to with the potatoes now?

As you can see they are doing well.

The ones on the right are second earlies and we are expecting them to start to die back soon as they reach the end of their cycle. We are hoping to have a nice bag of spuds soon.

It’s fascinating fact time….

The US Department of Agriculture has stated that “a diet of whole milk and potatoes would supply almost all of the food elements necessary for the maintenance of the human body.”

While this is probably true for the short term, it’s probably not going to do you any good in the long term. You would almost certainly not get enough iron, protein and vitamins A, E and K.

When most people think of potatoes they only really think of the brown potato (I guess) shaped things. But they are flowering plants.  A few posts ago we mentioned the flower buds. Here we have a picture of the flowers after they have opened.

According to legend King Loius XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France were given some potato flowers and they liked them so much the king wore one as a buttonhole and the queen put some in her hair. So what do you think, cute or ugly?

The flowers can lead to the production of fruit, they look a little like tomatoes (with them being related) but they are seriously toxic. Don’t eat them they’ll make you ill.

Unluckily it’s the 13th episode of our series “potatoes”. Here is the image for today…

It’s the tomatoes. We fancied a change, so did you. So here for you to marvel at it’s those fantastic tomato plants.

Here is a challenge for you is the dark patch at the front the shadow of a person in a hat, or is it a wet patch of soil?

Answers on a postcard, as they say.

Back to the potato plants. and here they are a few days ago.

According to our main competitor for your attention in the potatosphere, Potatopedia, there are more than 4,000 known varieties (or cultivars) of potatoes.

We have absolutely no idea as to how our blog came to be about potatoes. We hope the new Dungeons and  Dragons campaign starts soon. Lets hope it’s not about a quest to find a potato or something.

And here we are again with our increasingly cringy potato posts. Like you we wish we had something else to post about…..

Tomatoes, somebody mentioned tomatoes last time…

So here they are in our tiny poly-tunnel. Tomatoes.

Facsinating tomato fact. Most people are aware that, although used as a vegetable, tomatoes are a fruit, but how many know that botanically a tomato is actually classed as a berry?

We’ll carry on regardless of the outrageous smears about our devotion to potatoes.

Here is a close-up of the flower buds  on the plants.

According to an article in Smithsonian magazine – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-potato-may-have-evolved-from-a-tomato-ancestor-nine-million-years-ago-genetic-study-suggests-180987091/

The potato plant probably evolved from tomato plans about 9 million years ago. That is todays fascinating potato fact.

A quick update really.

No interesting facts this time, I though this one would make a challenging spot the difference against the last picture. give it a go we have found at least 15 so far….

BTW did anyone notice that we spelt “Potatoes” wrong in the title of our 5th entry in the series?

Arise my mighty triffids…..

In this latest image, though its not easy to see here. the plants have started to form flower bud so they are now at more or less their full height.

If we continue with our ludicrous humans analogy the guys are now off to college, or looking to get married or something.

While we are giving out facts about potatoes, here’s one you might not have heard before…In their paper “The Comparative Effects of White Potato and White Rice Consumption on Measures of Cardiometabolic Health in Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Features of Metabolic Syndrome” published in Current Developments in Nutrition (Vol. 9, Issue 9), The authors (Neda S Akhavan et al) reach the conclusion that…

White potatoes did not negatively affect glycemic indices, vascular health, lipids, or blood pressure compared to white rice and modestly improved body composition and vascular measures.

Now you know something you previously didn’t. You’re welcome.