This weekend is our annual Fake St. Patrick's Day celebration, when we converge on Ryan's Daughter a week before actual St. Patrick's Day. (Backstory: Six years ago, I screwed up the date of the parade...and we realized that it's actually more fun to celebrate before the crowds hit.)
In honor of the day - which is one of my very favorite all year - I was planning to write a post about Irish drinks.
But then I came across this article about an Irish potato farmer who's re-cultivating the "lumper" - the strain of potato that was wiped out in the potato famine.
He's like an Irish Sean Brock! (Except a potato farmer, not a chef.)
Apparently the potatoes had a nasty reputation for bad flavor and soapy texture. But now that they're back in the ground, thanks to Michael McKillop of Glens of Antrim Potatoes, the people of Ireland have discovered that the lumpers actually taste pretty good.
Last year's yield was too small to sell, but this year's will make it to market.
Maybe one day they'll even make it across the Atlantic. So we can eat like our ancestors did. For a while, anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment