Potatofest 2006: More Potato Fun and a Potato Funny

Potato Planting

Jean Francois Millet

This is one of my favorite pieces of potato related artwork. It's a peasant couple working together to plant their potato crop. See the baby sleeping in the basket under the tree? Millet was the son of peasant farmers, and the dignity of labour (and the labourer) was one of his common themes. Perhaps you're acquainted with him from some of his more well-known works: The Gleaners, The Sower, or The Angelus. The Angelus, as a matter of interest to spud lovers everywhere, was first called Prayer for the Potato Crop because the couple in that painting is digging potatoes.

From other spud bloggers, we have these contributions to today's Potatofest party:

• Julana tells us one of the ways she uses potatoes. She bakes

  beef potpies in the oven, while boiling sliced carrots and cut-up potatoes on the stove. They both take about half an hour. Then I dump the potpies upside-down into large soup plates, and mix some of the vegetables in. Sometimes I add micro-waved peas.
  
  They get eaten.

  I bet they do. That's the perfect solution for those potpies that never have enough good stuff in them, don't you think?
• Martin LaBar has a whole post on potatoes--their history and botany--in which he asks,

  Will there be french fries in heaven? scalloped or baked potatoes?

• And the lovely MissMellifluous tells us how to plant a garden full of potatoes without breaking a sweat.
  

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Potatofest 2006 is open to everyone. Don't miss out on this exciting, once-a-year opportunity to celebrate the lowly spud as one of God's glorious provisions. You'll find all the participation instructions here.