Potato Sale

Potatoes are very important here in North Dakota, that's a given.  You knew that.  But I never knew that they were treated similarly to new cars in terms of sales and when it's a good time to buy them.  The local potato company Ryan Potato Company (check out their website and tell me if you can guess what their founders' background is) in East Grand Forks, just over the river, was having a model closeout sale on the 2010 models to make room for the new 2011s.  And boy what a sale it was. 

There was a small ad in the Grand Forks Herald that they were selling 50 pound bags of #2 red potatoes this Thursday and Friday only.  #2 potatoes are apparently the second grade of potatoes and for the price they were selling at, I expected them to dinged, nicked, or at least horribly misshaped.  Nope.  They were nicer, better shaped than many of the bags of taters that I've bought from the local grocery store. 

"They're probably caked in dirt and really filthy", Alycia hypothesized when she saw the price they were being sold for.  Nope.  They'd been washed, and were as clean as you'd expect a potato to be.  So how much were they selling these 50 pound bags of potatoes for?  Go ahead, take a minute and guess.  I would have guessed $20.  That seems pretty cheap.  Nope.  They were $5 a bag.  Yup.  The $20 I paid bought 200 pounds of potatoes (Alycia's parents wanted a bag) and I now have 150 pounds of potatoes in the cellar.  Mmmmm. 

The cellar stays cool, even in the summer, so this will be a little experiment to see how they keep.  We eat quite a few potatoes (trying to fit in and all) and usually go through a 10 pound bag in a week and a half to two weeks.  This haul probably represents 3-4 months of potaoey sustenance for us.  If you think this is excessive, the guy in front of me bought 12 bags - 600 pounds of potatoes, and loaded them onto a pallet in the bed of his pickup.  And he only paid $60 for it all. 

This is what a 50 pound sack of potatoes looks like.  After lifting a few of these, you can get to be as rugged and burly as I am.  And you can thank the mighty, versatile, and nutritious tuber that is the potato. 

Shaak Ti inspects one of the sacks of taters. 

A shot to give you a little perspective,  Where else can you buy 2 Shaak Ti's worth of potatoes for only $5?  I think North Dakota is the best place on earth....