If you are looking to just buy purple (or blue) potatoes, check out my page on where to buy them. This post is only about where to buy seed potatoes for your own garden.
Here in America, we see the white flesh potato as the norm. The all-American Russet is white fleshed. The popular red skins are white fleshed. But white isn't the only color potatoes come in. Blue and purple are two such colors. These are some beautiful spuds inside and out. Wouldn't they look great just picked from your garden. Today I am going to tell you where to buy them and answer the question, does color matter when it comes to nutrition?
Where to Purchase Seed Potatoes
One of the cool things about growing your own vegetables is that you get to play around. How fun would it be to pull some blue potatoes out of the ground and serve them up to your friends! Here are a couple sources for these potatoes.
Johnny's
1. Adirondack Blue (5 lbs) $19.65 (I grew this variety last year)
2. Adirondack Red (a potato that is red on the inside too) (5 lbs) $19.65
Burpee
1. All Blue (10 mini-tubers) $18.95
2. Purple Majesty (10 mini-tubers) $18.95
Seeds of Change
All Blue (2 lbs) $11.00
John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds
All Blue (10 mini-tubers) $11.95
Are Purple/Blue Potatoes More Healthy?
First off, I am not a health expert, so I am only reporting what I have heard. What I have heard is a lot of debate. Dark colored fruits like blueberries and acai berries are being called superfruits for their antioxidant power. So I was wondering if this is also true for dark colored potatoes. The general consensus is that the colored flesh brings more nutrients than a white flesh potato. The white flesh potatoes lack any carotenoids including beta-carotene, which is famous for giving carrots their orange glow. But are purple and blue better than yellow or gold fleshed potatoes. The jury is still out on that one.
Health benefit talk aside, purple and blue potatoes are just fun to grow. So this summer, why not serve some homemade purple potato chips along with your Ribeye fresh off the grill.
Bruce Posch
Eric, you have a very informative site. I was searching info on purple potatoes when I came across your site. Some of your thoughts on eating match mine...I really like Nature Path's organic spelt flakes instead of corn flakes. GMO corn makes my chest hurt and my breathing is short like an allergic reaction.
I grow over 500 acres of organic buckwheat. It is non-GMO, and naturally gluten free. I also grow purple potatoes, and am trying to grow purple hulless barley this year for use in barley soups and sprouting for salads.
I wanted to tell you about my carrot growing experience We love carrots, but commercially grown (with spray) carrots burn my lips after eating them raw...organic ones never do this. I believe they have systemic pesticides still in the carrot to kill carrot worms after harvest. I grow about 12 five gallon pails per year that I keep in a cold storage we dug into a hill. I mix sterilized timothy seed 3 to one carrot seed and use a hand push seeder. The seed mix cuts down on the cost of the carrot seed and ends the need to thin the carrots.
Eric Samuelson
Thank you so much, I am glad you enjoyed the site. And thank you for sharing with me some of your experiences. I would love to do a post about your farm and about you growing buckwheat. I am always interested in what farmers are doing and sharing that with my readers.
Wayne
try the potatogarden for seed potatoes.
purple potato penn state study.
http://news.psu.edu/story/367072/2015/08/26/research/colorful-potatoes-may-pack-powerful-cancer-prevention-punch