Permies Poll: How do you obtain the majority of the potatoes you consume?

The majority of my households potato needs are met by the supermarket.

If it is worth anything, it isn't for not trying to grow potatoes! I have been trying to figure out the best style of growing and obtaining a decent yield and tuning it over the last few years. This year I feel much more confident so next year I plan on scaling it up and having to worry about potato storage.

white potatoes are one of the easiest things to grow for me, no matter where I've lived (MI, GA, CA, and now IL).  They like raised beds and lots of compost, manure, urine, or other sources of nutrients.  I try to grow enough to eat them most meals through their storage period, which for me now is from harvest in July through about now when they are sprouting.  If I had fridge space I could store them longer and not have to buy seed.  Further north they can store through winter.  Further south, sweet potatoes become even more important, right now I eat white potatoes July through now and sweet potatoes now through May (planting time for them), so that's most of a year's calories from about six 4'x40' beds, two white and four sweet...

We have had a terrible time attempting to grow potatoes in the past. Heavy clay soil is a bit of an impediment to potatoes. However, we moved to Idaho this year. Idaho is famous for…something? 😉 I’m thinking that my luck may change on this particular crop. (Provided I take care of them appropriately, of course.)

Its still from the store on sale, I get really cute tasty potatoes in my pots on my balcony, but not enough, due to space and still learning how to best maximize yield.  This was my second year growing potatoes and getting a crop, the first year provided more.  But everything is a learning curve so just still learning and growing, no pun intended.

Each year, our local senior citizen center purchases a semi-load of "gleaner" potatoes.
Large misshapen taters that are still covered in black dirt.
For $5 per #100 sack, you can get all you want.
We also like the bagged baby yellow potatoes from the store.

On the average, over the past 20 years, I grow my own.  This year was the exception. Lots of excitement in the family.  I planted no potatoes. That said, I am preparing the beds for next spring.

The last couple years we have managed to grow and keep enough to keep eating our own for 9-10 months.

We have been doing ten 30' rows every year mulched heavily with the deep bedding from the chicken coop. They store from October to June in a cold room in the basement.

Several years ago I bought a four kilo bag of spuds at our little local supermarket. They came from way down the southern end of our state and the name and details of the grower were on the bag. I gave him a call- lovely old bloke and we had a long yarn about spuds amongst other things He gave me some tips, I cut the spuds and chitted them and got 110 plants from that four kilo bag. They've kept us in spuds and seed potatoes since- there's only me and the old girl at home now. I'm careful to plant in new ground each year to avoid disease- I've lost almost entire crops to potato blight in the past.

In terms of volume, we grow enough potatoes for our current consumption. However, well into the new year they are looking tired and sprouty and are mostly suitable for mashed-with-skin. But we're not proud -- before our new spuds start rolling in, we will buy a few odd bags from the supermarket. The farmers grow them within walking distance, and they have pro-quality storage, which we don't. Yes, they're treated with chemical suppressants, but they're still magnitudes healthier than frozen/processed tater tots in a bag.

I watched a video last week of trials of different potato varieties on farms in Romania. Results were compared- disease resistance, yield and the eating qualities of each variety. Some of them sounded really good- but none of them are available for Joe Public in Australia. Bugger, I says to meself.

Potatoes and garlic are the only thing I *for sure* grow all we need of. But I also buy fast-food fries when I'm driving at meal time, so I'm not sure how that goes into the calculus.

In our sandy loam, and covered liberally in hay or wood chips, potatoes just thrive and plenty of the ones I miss each year come up the next.

I have replaced my potatoes with true yams here in Florida...

This is what they look like for me after the 2nd year...