Green Potato's

[chicken stalker]

Okk my basement is a plethora of sprouting spuds (last years harvest). I know you aren't supposed to eat green potato's but what about ones that have "legs" about a foot long? And some of the "legs" are green....still edible? The potato's themselves are not green.

 

[pioneergirl]

How shriveled are they? I think if you cut out any brown spots, and cut off the legs, you should be ok.....I'd get a second opinion though, I've been known to eat things I probably shouldn't have, lol

 

[Henrietta23]

Good question. I have a good friend who insists a potato with any green is poisonous. I've eaten a lot of potatoes that I just peeled the green away and lived.

 

[justusnak]

You cant eat green potatoes?? Poisonous?? Dang!! So THATS what wrong with me?? IM DEAD!??
Henrietta23 I do the same thing...peel it away, and eat it anyways.
If those leggy taters are still firm, I say, eat em!

 

[patandchickens]

Short answer: sort of, sure, more or less, if you don't mind risking a tummyache.

Longer answer: greenness per se is not a problem, it's that appearance of the green color is usually correlated with a higher concentration of solanine which is a colorless compound but poisonous. If the potato is sprouting, it has almost assuredly got a goodly amount of solanine in it.

Solanine is not 'kill ya dead' poisonous, unless you eat a bizarre amount of potatoes. However it can make you internally unhappy, stomachache and intestinal cramps type thing.

There is really no way, short of lab analysis, of knowing how MUCH solanine is in a particular potato.

So it really comes down to what you feel like doing. Personally, I cut the sprouted end off, peel the rest, and don't eat it in large amounts (nor do I feed much sprouty potatoes to the kids), and I'd be reluctant to eat much of potatoes as VERY sprouted as you describe. But that's just me. You might well have different decisions.

(e.t.a. -- cooking, particularly HOT cooking, denatures a certain amount of the solanine, although not all of it. So another useful strategy is to cook 'em real hot, e.g. hash-browns made crispy style, if you are 'on the fence' about 'em)

If you have garden space, by far the best thing would be to PLANT the sprouty ones

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Henrietta23]

Thanks Pat! Good info.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

psss.. why dontcha just plant them? we did - even the ones with 1 ft long sprouts and it totally worked! they are now lovely plants out there. we'll have tater's galore soon!

 

[kcsunshine]

Plant them puppies! (Unless you're just starving for potatoes).