Potato - Ireland's love affair with the spud

A fun look at Ireland’s love affair with the humble spud with lots of contributors who tell us why!

We speak to food writer John McKenna about Ireland’s romantic connection to the food that let us down in our past and yet how we return time and time again like a faithless lover to the spud we love so well. 

Did you know the process of flavouring crisps was invented here in Ireland? That’s right and Tayto Crisps are responsible for the world famous cheese and onion flavour! We tracked down Peter Murphy, son of Joe “Spud” Murphy, the founder of Tayto who told us about his entrepreneurial dad, his Peter Pan existence and that Ah-Ha moment they stumbled across the much loved Cheese and Onion flavour combination. 

There are small farmers throughout the country growing potatoes for their local market and we speak to Maria Flynn of Ballymackenny Farm Potatoes. After taking over the family farm, they realised they were never going to survive on glowing Roosters and Queens alone, so they took a chance on growing heritage and heirloom speciality potatoes and targeting chefs with their produce. When the pandemic hit, they lost 100% of their customers overnight, so we hear their story of survival. 

Now do you think it’s possible to live on Potatoes alone? We find a man in India who claims to do just that. The Aloo Baba lives in the mountains in Pushkar, India and eats 10 - 12 potatoes a day!!!! That’s some feat, but he claims it keeps him young and gives him clarity. Vikrant Naidu, chef at The Lodge, Myrtleville, Cork steps in to translate and also gives us an insight into the culture of potatoes in his home country of India.

And finally, potatoes are far more than a carbohydrate on our plate, they also make an interesting ingredient in spirits, such as poitín. Michael O’Boyle of Baoilleach Distillery in Donegal explains why spuds were sometimes used in the mash bill of poitín makers back in the day and why he chooses to continue this tradition in his own “Mulroy Bay” poitín collection.

We hope you enjoy this spudcast full of poppy love. 

The NeighbourFood Podcast is presented by Jack Crotty and Joleen Cronin.

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