Chunky Potato Soup (GF) (V) – Culinary Seasons

At our house we are bargain hunters when it comes to grocery shopping. Finding 3-4 pounds of russet potatoes in the produce markdown bin for a couple bucks is a win. Most of the time, the produce is not bad, just blemished or may just not meet the store standard for what they want to sell full price.

In this case, the potatoes turned into a Chunky Potato Soup that gets smokey notes from the Traeger Smoked Garlic Confit and Oil it was cooked in. There is no bacon in the main ingredient list for this soup but you can add if you would like to give a boost in the smokiness. And bacon, how can you go wrong. Apologies to my vegetarian and vegan friends. But hey, I wrote this as an easy recipe to convert to a vegetarian soup by substituting the chicken broth for a vegetable broth. And it is gluten free as well.

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Potatoes, where do they come from?

If I were to take a poll asking, what state do the potatoes in your grocery store come from? The answer most likely to be given is Idaho. Playing the game of percentages you would technically not be wrong.

While Idaho does come in first with the largest production of potatoes with over 1/3 of all potatoes grown in the United States. Washington, Wisconsin, Oregon and North Dakota rounding out the top 5 potato growers. To give you an idea of how many potatoes are grown in Idaho and Washington each year, Idaho grows almost 5 times and Washington grows 4 times as many as potatoes than Oregon, North Dakota and Wisconsin individually grow.

Idaho may hold the title for the most potatoes grown in the U.S. where they differ is over 60% of the potatoes grown in the state go directly to frozen french fry production. Think Ore-Ida company, which is named for the Oregon-Idaho potato production where the grew potatoes for their production. Burbank, Norkota & Ranger are the three largest varieties of the Russet potato grown in Idaho making up 97%. The remaining 3% are other types of potatoes.

Potato Introduction to Oregon

As discussed in the Southwest Sweet Potato Salad recipe, just as the Sweet Potato made its way from South America to Europe via the explorers of the 15th century so did its white counterpart. All potatoes originated from South America with many coming from the Andes Mountains of Peru. Once they made their way over to Europe and then introduced to the new colonies, it took some time to get people to warm up to the idea of eating them. Potatoes are part of the nightshade family of plants and many of the vegetables in this category were viewed as poisonous for hundreds of years.

“The first recorded planting of potatoes in the Oregon Country was made by the crew of the ship ‘Ruby’ (qv) under Captain Bishop, on an island in the Columbia River, near Cape Disappointment in 1795. At Fort Astoria (qv) twelve shriveled potatoes, all that remained of a supply brought from New York by the Astor ship ‘Tonquin’ (qv) were planted in May 1811; these produced 190 potatoes the first season and permitted the sending of a few plants to inland traders. In 1812 fifty to sixty hills planted at the fort produced five bushels; in 1813 two bushels planted produced fifty bushels. At Fort Vancouver (qv) 1,300 bushels of potatoes were produced in 1835. From the time farming first began at Fort Astoria until enough wheat was raised to support the inhabitants, potatoes were the main substitute for bread. Indian chieftains, to whom a few of the tubers were given, failed to see any advantage in what they termed “Boston Root” over their own popular Wapato root, and did not go in for potato cultivation except in a desultory way. With pioneer settlement, potatoes became a generally increased crop and a staple of diet. In the Willamette Valley, in the 1880’s, their extensive cultivation brought fame to John Dimick as the “potato king””.

Potato Introduction to the Klamath Basin

As time went by, potato growing spread throughout much of the state. While potato crops spread to the Willamette Valley in the 1880s, today the majority of the potato production is in much of central and eastern Oregon. The potato was introduced to the Klamath Basin in the 1920s. The Klamath basin is located east of the Cascade Mountains and north of the California border, it is in the top four regions of potatoes grown in the state. Even though Oregon is a large producer of potatoes and Klamath Basin being a large producer for the state, I have had conversations with people who are unaware that potatoes are grown so close to home.

In the Klamath Basin, there are many potato growers. One of the growers of potatoes in this region I became familiar with is Cal-Ore Produce, the farmers grow land in the Klamath Basin which runs on both sides of the California and Oregon border. If you head south out of Klamath Falls, you will run into miles and miles of potato farms that stretch down past Tulelake, Ca.

Cal-Ore Produce had sponsored a cycling event based out of Tulelake, CA I had ridden in a few years back. It was really fun and had great scenery, there is even a leg of one of the routes that take you up to the Lava Tubes National Monument. (A very interesting stop if you are there.) After the race they fed us by having a baked potato bar, which was appropriate for the area. The potatoes they served were HUGE plus they tasted amazing! When we were leaving they presented each of us with a 10lb bag of potatoes to take home. Man, I need to get up there again to do that ride.

I plan on reaching out to the farmers in the Klamath Basin to see what opportunities there may be for Exploring the Source of those delicious potatoes.

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Option –
This soup can be made vegetarian by substituting vegetable broth or stock for the chicken stock.

Additions that can be added –
To give additional smokey flavor add diced bacon first and cook to render the fat and make it crispy. Then add the onions and proceed with the cooking steps.

Can add frozen or roasted corn to give it a ‘chowder’ feel.