Please Check Out My Holiday Mash Potato Warning

It’s disputed who invented mash potatoes, but we do know recipes started appearing in cookbooks around 1774. You probably don’t go through the trouble of making mash potatoes except during the Holiday Season. I come from a giant Irish family and mash potatoes were not taken lightly during Thanksgiving or the Christmas dinner. Only my mother was allowed to make them, because she had a second sense about how to get them perfectly creamy, yet light and fluffy, with no embarrassing lumps. No one would trust the gravy to anyone else but my itty-bitty blind great grandmother. So old she was literally carried to the kitchen and set in front of the stove to make the gravy so that it could be ladled on top of the mash potatoes once the whole affair made it to the table. A lot of fuss went into this ‘side-dish’ but it was considered a loved tradition, and traditions make precious memories.

We all know we have to tread lightly when it comes to holiday desserts, but it may come as surprise that you have to add potatoes to that awareness. According to the U.S. Pesticide Data Program, conventional potatoes are exposed to 35 pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, including 12 that are suspected hormone disruptors, 7 neurotoxins, 6 known carcinogens and 6 reproductive or developmental toxins. Conventionally grown potatoes have one of the highest pesticide contents among all fruits and veggies.

As a root vegetable, potatoes sit in the soil for 70-120 days absorbing all of those pesticides, herbicides and insecticides that are sprayed above the ground and then eventually make their way into the soil. Because the potato is 80% water, it’s like a living sponge. Before harvesting they get sprayed again to kill off the vines, and after they are dug up then sprayed once again to prevent them from sprouting. This is a truly unsafe food.

Do You Have To Give Up Mash Potatoes During The Holidays?

Absolutely not!!!! All you have to do is purchase organic potatoes. In the past you may have been tempted to buy un-organic potatoes because One: they look so harmless in the fresh food department; and Two: because you may save a few dollars. I hope I have convinced you to stay clear of toxic conventional potatoes and stick with only purchasing the chemical-free organic variety……

Buying organic also sends a message to Big Agriculture. We refuse to eat foods that are a danger to our health and that of our family and friends. WE REFUSE-WE VOTE WITH OUR DOLLARS. Voting with your hard earned dollars is more powerful then you may realize. This movement of shifting to organic is why we do not have to hunt high and low for organic potatoes. We can find them at Costco, Walmart, Trader Joe’s…..etc.

When buying organic potatoes it’s important to know that they are still a live food. They will try to sprout in their bag because they have not been sprayed with pesticides to remove the little sprouts. Best to store them in a cool dark place. When you go to prepare them, be sure to remove the little sprouts by hand or with a peeler.

When preparing organic potatoes, you know you are serving your family safe food for the holidays. A healthy holiday is a gift beyond measure and teaches our children and their children what is really important…..