UNSATISFACTORY SPUDS

I will probably have every farmer, fertilizer company and corporation on my neck after this letter. I do not care.

When I was growing up in P.E.I., we had wonderful, tasty potatoes. We had them every day and sometimes twice a day with fried potatoes and fried onions for supper. That has changed way too much over the last 20 years.

Many potato bags are paper and I cannot see the inside. Every bag of potatoes, on sale or at regular price, smell of chemicals and that is without the peeling removed. I have tried many types of potatoes from different companies but all were the same.

I would say, whether on sale or not, and no matter the size of the bag, about half of the potatoes are rotten. By the time, I am finished cutting the rot parts off, there is not much spud remaining. I then put the peeled potatoes in clean water but many brown spots show up like freckles. More paring of the brown spots. By the time the potatoes are put on to boil, minutes later some of them are very dark. After cooking, I put them in a bowl to make potato salad. Before I even get them chopped, some are really dark in colour. With the mayo, boiled eggs and chopped onion, the whole bowl of potatoes take on a grey colour. It does not look like any potato salad I ever made in my youth.

Nowadays, I would rather not eat potatoes. Do not say it is me. I have been peeling spuds for over 65 years and they have changed with the types of potato farming.

Do Islanders get the seconds, scrubs, culls or what? Flora J. Thompson, Charlottetown