Readership Response

I want to start this month’s column with a letter to the editor I received about my column last month regarding smaller, more convenient packaging:

As a mother of six and now an empty-nester, I can relate to all those people who need smaller packages. However I want reasonable prices too. Is that too much to ask?
I can almost use a 5-pound bag of potatoes before they start growing in my basket, but last week I was forced, by my conscience, to buy a 15-pound bag of lovely Russets because they were on sale for less than half the price of the 5-pound bag that I’d normally buy.
Now I’m getting some very strange looks by everyone who enters my house as I ask them if they could use some potatoes. I’ve managed to “farm” some of them out, but it looks like my husband and I will be eating a lot of spuds in the next few weeks. It’s a good thing they’re so good for us!

When I talked to the writer of the letter who happens to be my mother later that same day, she updated me on her potato situation. My brother has promised he and his kids will eat all the potatoes at his house so he can use some of my mom’s 15 pounds. And my mom, who also operates a daycare out of her house, said she will help her daycare kids enjoy potatoes in more than just their stomachs. Though she typically doesn’t like to waste food” on craft projects, she said she and her group of under-5s will make potato stampers and do some other potato arts and crafts to make use of her potato surplus. She said, “I’m sure the potato growers won’t mind if we do projects, as long as we’re buying potatoes.”

Though Mom wrote this letter, the sentiments she shared about the pricing of potatoes are ones I’ve heard numerous times from friends, strangers at grocery stores and other family members. I’d love to hear feedback about this issue from our readers. Please e-mail me at [email protected] to tell me where you think the potato industry should be headed in terms of packaging.

Readership Survey

This month’s focus for Spudman is planting. Planting is a great word it can be used in so many different contexts to mean the same thing: to place something so it can grow. A seed. An idea. A settlement.

To help us grow our publication, we’d like you to help us plan our future issues by taking our Spudman Readership Survey, which can be found on this Web site at www.spudman.com/pages/survey.php. And, for those who need a little extra push to take the survey, all who respond will be entered in a drawing to receive a Spudman Carhartt.

We take your suggestions to heart and will use the information we gather to better create a product that will help you in the end. And, if you have any additional suggestions that aren’t answered on the survey, please feel free to e-mail, call or fax me.”