Getting Schooled in Organic Potatos

The Great Potato Search is on…and it’s pretty much already fizzled.

This morning I was up before dawn, schlepping the kiddos out to the larger Farmer’s Market in our area. The mission: buy as many organic, non-jacked with potatos as possible and find a source for more.

If I could have come home with 1,000 pounds of potatos today, I would have.

Instead, I learned that in our area, potatos are harvested in JUNE. So I’m 4 months too late.

If I had bought out all the organic potatos available for sale from every single farmer there today, I would have stocked my pantry with safe potatos for a whopping 3 weeks.

Yeah. I’m ecstatic. Can’t you tell?

On the plus side, one of the farmers discussed in detail the acceptable “applications” used in organic farming. (He even showed me his “Certified Organic Farmer” license/certificate thingie, too.)

According to him, pretty much the harshest thing organic potato farmers can use is called Pyrethrum Spray, and it is basically dried flowers soaked in water.

Pyrethrum spray, and ALL applications used in organic farming, are (according to him) all biodegradable within incredibly short time frames. Like 12-24 hours after application, they’re completely gone.

Plus, none of these applications are systemic. Meaning, they might be present topically, but they are incapable of infiltrating the actual plant.

Now, there is still no guarantee that corn (or some other trigger) is not present in one or more of the applications used on the potatos I’ve been using, but the information I learned today makes me feel better about the whole thing.

Maybe if I scrub the potatos really well and peel them, we might be okay?

It’ll have to do. I don’t have much choice right now, apparently.

Until next June, that is. Come March, Darrel and I will be planting a field of potatos to last us for next year.

For now, I have calls in at the two sources of organic potatos at my health food co-op and hopefully they will report that any applications used are non-corny.

And I’ll be scrubbing and peeling my little brains out.

While we were at the market, Jed found a friend. A little 4 year old boy was running around (at 7am in 40 degree weather) and the two quickly became “buds”.

Thankfully, our Farmer’s Market is visited by indulgent, amused people who thought two little boy terrors running amuck was adorable, not annoying.

Zac was in the Ergo, squirming and shrieking with delight in his desire to get down and run with them.

Since I’d struck out on the potato front, I figured I’d let Jed run and play for a bit as a reward for being such a good sport about getting up so early and braving the cold on our potato search.

I started a conversation with the Dad of Jed’s new friend, who, it turns out, raises free-range chickens and non-GMO fed pigs.

This was serendipitous, as I’d brainstormed the next potential meat trial for us and finally settled on pork. Only, I had no idea where to find a pig that hadn’t been fed corn and soy.

Turns out, this guy didn’t know either. He said it would be incredibly difficult to find.

But in our conversation, he asked if we’d ever heard of the GAPS diet in regards to how it might help Zac.

Where on earth (besides the FPIES message boards) are you going to bump into some random stranger who knows about the GAPS diet and how it can be used to fix digestive troubles? I was highly amused by this.

Finally it was time to go. Our pediatrician had called to let us know she was faxing over the orders for the blood work our GI asked us to have done in lieu of an appointment, so I needed to get the boys to the hospital for some blood draws.

That went fairly well, actually. Both boys were very brave and only cried a little. The staff were nice enough to wrangle one boy while I held the other still for the blood draw, so it wasn’t even that stressful for me.

Now we just wait for results.

I did learn one very important thing today; since the loss of my beloved potato chips, I’m woefully unprepared to leave the house.

I ate some steak this morning for breakfast before leaving, thinking we’d be back quickly. After the call from the doctor, though, I ran another errand that needed to be done to avoid another trip into town.

Consequently, we didn’t start home until about noon. By that point, I was not doing very well at all.

Standing up with Zac at the hospital, getting ready to go, I felt like everything from my knees to my mid-back lost all control and strength. I had to plop back down in the chair, weak and dizzy.

Driving home, I felt woozy. Shaky and spacy.

I drove extra slow – at least ten miles under the speed limit. In case I lost it or passed out, I didn’t want to be traveling at high speeds.

Yeah. I was NOT safe to drive. I had no other option, though.

Obviously, I need to get some beef jerky made for trips to town, and plan to make potato strings to carry with me before I leave. On this diet, especially, I can’t afford to go too long between eating or my body wigs out terribly.

I’m just grateful we made it home in one piece, and that Zac was nice enough to give me ten minutes of sitting quietly in his carseat when we did get home so I could stumble through cooking some burgers and fries for myself.

Not a pleasant experience.

So, that was my morning. Not exactly the success I thought it would be, though I did learn some new things.

Does anyone else know much about organic farming? How much of what I learned today is accurate, and how much was a load of horse manure?