potato week

Potatoes were a common topic in Food this week.  On Monday Professor Nancy Ries visited class to help us discuss her article, "Potato Ontology: Surviving Postsocialism in Russia" (Cultural Anthropology 2009).  Professor Ries is an anthropologist at Colgate who studies culture and language in contemporary Russia.  Her article helped us think and talk about the role of food as part of our sense of personal and national identity---for Russians, the potato is a key part of what makes themselves and their nation Russian.  Many Russian families, both rich and poor, grow their own potatoes on small plots and store them in buckets in their homes for the winter.

Potatoes are also a key fall crop being harvested at Common Thread right now, and I had a chance to get out to the farm and work with the Friday crew harvesting potatoes this morning.  Farmer Asher used the tractor to dig up a row at a time, then we went through and collected the potatoes by hand.  We harvested a few different varieties of yellow and red potatoes, and got pretty dirty.  Here are a few pictures from the potato crew: