A friend of ours sent us this photo earlier in the week, showing off shrink-wrapped sweet potatoes spotted at a grocery store in Louisiana. The potatoes seemed to contradict everything that natural food should be. See, it goes like this... Have you ever baked a potato?
The first think we learned to cook might have been the baked potato, microwave style. You take a potato, wash it, poke some holes in it with a fork, and then nuke it. Simple as that.
We now know that we should stick with organic potatoes, since they're on the Dirty Dozen list (strike one for this product). And we also know that we should avoid mixing heat and plastic, on account of the whole BPA thing (strike two). To top it all off (as in, strike three), what about reducing the packaging in our lives?
We don't have scientific evidence that this product is harmful, but it seems to us that a non-organic potato wrapped in plastic with the intention of heating it up in a microwave might fall into the "potentially hazardous" category. At the very least, it's not eco-friendly for sure.
But seeing the very same potatoes in their own natural skin, right next to a shrink-wrapped potato, begs the question: what's the point of all that plastic?
As our friend said in her email,
They went out of their way to put trash on this delicious (and compostable) meal! I was outraged. And that seems gross. Microwaving potatoes in that mystery plastic will probably turn you into an alien.
Again, we can't claim scientific proof here, but... we do happen to agree with the particular soapbox this friend stands on. What about you?
(Image: Claire Tyler, used with permission)
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The real kicker, to me, is that people are paying extra for that!
I saw this yesterday at Safeway...plastic wrapped around each organic potato. If someone can explain the point of it, please do. In the meantime, I think I'll look elsewhere for organic potatoes that are happy in their own skin.
i have to raise my hand in shame - i have tried these. my mom is japanese and we didn't eat baked potatoes much in my home when i was growing up... i don't know if that's a good excuse, but... i never knew that you could just nuke a potato w/o anything keeping the heat in, as i'm assuming that's the "logic" behind the plastic wrap. when i tried this product, it took about 6 minutes to cook. how long does it take to cook a potato w/o anything else? i'm happy to cook longer if needed, i'm just looking for the right way to correct my evil ways! =)
ladyjevra: 6 minutes in the microwave without plastic should do for a normal-sized potato (just be sure to pierce it with a fork all over before heating it up, as this allows the steam to vent). happy cooking!
Veggies wrapped in plastic is not necessarily a bad thing if it is used to extend the shelf life. In an ideal world, we would pull potato out of the earth, bake it and put it directly on the table. But, since I don't live on land large enough to support me through the entire year, I have to rely on farmers shipping their food to grocery stores. There's carbon stored in this process: from cultivation to harvest to delivery. If the potato rots on the shelf, all that work is for not. Investing a little extra waste in the form of some plastic might increase the chances that the potato gets eaten.
As far as the whole nuking of said potato in plastic, well, that's a little ridiculous.
I read on a green blog that it's possible that the plastic wrap keeps certain vegetables fresher so much longer that it's actually the greener option. The cutting down on rotten, wasted food actually offsets the plastic usage. Not sure if this applies to potatoes, since they stay fresh for a while anyway. I wish I could find that link...
And are these being sold with the intention of microwaving them in plastic? That's kind of weird, I definitely wouldn't do that. But then, I've never "baked" a potato of any kind in my microwave.
So, the plastic keeps the potato fresh for a week or two longer than without...great...except the plastic will not biodegrade for 1,000 years and will end up in the middle of the ocean with some poor animal choking on it. Hmmmmm. Plastic is never "green", people.
The ones I've seen (and tried, must say) from the grocery store are not even organic.
They're marketed as a fast "microwave IN the plastic" potato that's already cleaned for you.
To top off the ridiculousness, they're $1 each!
I cook all my potatoes with the skin on, in the crockpot (without water). I eat the skins, too. Yum.
Reminds me of packaging at Trader Joe's
Explain this cooking potatoes in the crockpot sans water. Does it make a nice crispy-skin baked potato? or more of a roasted potato? Tell me more!
I'd also like to hear about the crock pot method.
Ditto, jessicaw... the produce presentation at Trader Joe's drives me crazy. While I appreciate pre-cut broccoli florets, I also want to choose my own tomatoes. And I may only want one or two of them, not a pre-pack set of 8.
http://thesweetest3.com/
Up here in Canada I have come across a ridiculous pre-pack set of 4 "Grapples", assuming a cross-species of Grapes and Apples. I'd try them despite being opposed to GMOs, but knowing that it's storage container won't break down for 10,000 years puts me off every time.
whose brilliant idea is this...:(
I've usually wrapped my potatoes in foil when I cook them in the crock pot... hmm... that's probably wasteful and unnecessary too. But they come out with this amazing flavor and very creamy texture... the white flesh turns yellow (in a nice way). Try it and see!