Humble spud the centrepiece of thrifty plates

Potatoes are thought to date back about 2500 years and have been a staple part of the diet of many civilisations for centuries. Fortunately, modern households are less dependant on spuds than once was the case, so a potato crop failure in your back garden is not likely to have the dire consequences of old.
There are endless ways to serve potatoes - so many, in fact, that the family feasting off the smell of an oily rag could have a different and delicious potato dinner every night of the week for months on end.
Unfortunately, the retail price of this staple has been on the rise recently. Apparently potato supplies have been affected by disease, and that has contributed to the normally frugal potato price rising 11.4 per cent in January. That's another reason why those living off the smell of an oily rag should be growing their own.
Many oily-rag gardeners would have already harvested their crop or will soon do so. Planting of early varieties starts from July/August, so it's something to think about for the other side of winter. Potatoes are easy to grow in a bucket, containers or old tyres.
Here are some interesting facts and tips from the potato industry's website, website www.potatoes.co.nz:
Ninety-three per cent of households cook potatoes at least once a week, 83 per cent at least two times per week and 44 per cent at least four times per week. The majority of people mash, roast or boil their spuds.
Most people buy their spuds in 4kg or 5kg bags.
In the past year, the average New Zealand household purchased frozen potato products nine times.
Households spend three times more on fresh or frozen potatoes than any substitute (ie, rice, pasta or kumara).
Eighty-two per cent of consumers shop for fresh potatoes at supermarkets; 43 per cent at fruit and vegetable stores.
Consumers say they buy from supermarkets because of the convenient location and the fact that everything is in one place. They buy from fruit and vegetable stores because of the low price, freshness and quality.
Because oily raggers use lots of potatoes, they tend to have lots to say about growing and cooking them. Here are a couple of suggestions:
A recipe from KW of Auckland: 6 large potatoes, 1 pkt cream of chicken soup mix, 250g sour cream, cup grated cheese, cup melted butter, 1 cup milk, cup chopped spring onion, salt and pepper to taste. Partly cook, then grate potatoes. Mix butter, soup, milk, sour cream, onions and grated cheese. Combine with seasonings and potatoes. Pile into a lightly greased pie dish, top with a thin layer of breadcrumbs and a little more grated cheese and bake for about 45 minutes at 180C.
Lil from Whangarei: If I need to bake potatoes fast, I pre-cook them in boiling water for about 10 minutes. I coat them with cooking oil before placing in a roasting dish. It reduces the baking time to less than 10 minutes. Another trick is to put a metal skewer through the potato. The skewer acts as a heat conductor that delivers heat to the centre of the potato.

Frank and Muriel Newman are the authors of Living Off the Smell of an Oily Rag in NZ. Readers can submit their oily-rag tips online at www.oilyrag.co.nz