Where have all the big potatoes gone?

[PollyRockets]

AIBU to think there is a mass, large potato shortage!?

Once a week we have baked potato night at home. There is a toppings bar, it's a hoot.

For the past 4-5 months I have not for the life of me been able to find nice, large baking potatoes anywhere. I like the ones the size of my head.

I've been to different shops, in different areas and nothing

The only offerings are tiny, 8 year olds palm sized potatoes.

Is there a national shortage? Have I just been unlucky every time I've gone in any supermarket within a 20 mile radius of my home and elsewhere (I even looked when visiting family in Southampton the other week and same issue there!)

Growing in my mulcher.... I kid you not!! The ones in the actual buckets are standard/potato salad size. The ones that took off in the mulcher done us a few meals.

Ummm it's called a drought love. Potatoes need lots of water to get to that size

I wonder if a lot of the reasons people make/eat potatoes were reduced/removed in the pandemic and that was why demand went down?

E.g. I am much more likely to eat chips if I am eating out, and much more likely to do a roast if I am having people over for dinner. Multiply that up by the whole country and it might have a significant impact on potato consumption?!

I love your use of "hoot", fab term, should definitely be used more, and that you do a potato bar! What ingredients do you put out?

I’m shocked there’s no cottage cheese or coleslaw or chives.

It'll be because of Brexit or Covid. It always is.

We don't go too fancy for the toppings (for people who consider a baked potato night a hoot I'm sure that's no surprise!)

Tuna mayo
Baked beans
Diced chicken with fajita mayonnaise (I just mix in fajita seasoning with normal mayo)
Cheese
Butter

Although someone has mentioned marmite on here so might give that a go this week!

(for people who consider a baked potato night a hoot I'm sure that's no surprise!) 😆

Good options, I'm going to do the chicken one next time we have these!

Egg mayo, too, surely. No baked potato night is complete without the eggy option.

I assume e it's because the hospitality industry was largely closed during lock down so restaurants, pubs, cafes, hotels etc....not buying produce.

Maybe they’re with the broccoli! Lidl didn’t have any at all and Sainsburys have just delivered me one only half the size of normal.

But demand moved to supermarkets. Didn't people just eat potatoes at home?

I don't think they're in season at the moment. Same with carrots, they're tiny at the moment too.

I went to buy cauliflower today, to make cauliflower steak for 4 of us. I went to a couple of different shops and had to make do with 2 caulis which were so small and not at all sense, that I ended up using the whole lot. Usually, I can get one that's big enough to make 4 large steaks and have some florets left over. It must be the lack of rain.

I don't think people eat spuds at home so much anymore.

we had spuds every single night as children. Boiled mostly. Occasionally mashed as a treat. Sometimes chipped,
sometimes fried. But whatever it was was served with potatoes.

my kids eat them maybe once a week, if that.

This was DP's biggest ever jacket potato, in a pasta bowl to give you an idea of size. He still thinks fondly of it. And he ate it all.

Mind you, I still have memories of the best potato I've ever had - in the cafe at our local Boots- topped with cold curried chicken.

Now I want a potato!

As another poster said a lot of people don't eat many spuds at home. And takeaway deliveries skyrocketed rather than cooking meals at home.

@OliveHenry Wow! I bet he was regular after eating that bad boy!

It's been small spuds round here for above 12 months now.

But they didn't have takeaways every night and this was during lockdown so it was eat at home mostly, plus weren't the takeaways closed during the first lockdown?

So people might have had a roast and a jacket potato at home fairly often. Plus a lot of the fruit and veg wholesalers were selling direct to the public because they'd lost their restaurant and cafe trade.

Possibly but I still think a lot of people don't eat spuds on a regubasis as home. They have pasta, rice etc... I mean those were the products that were short on the supermarket shelves, not spuds.

Potatoes are one of the most bought/eaten foods in the UK. The average amount has fallen significantly but still much higher than e.g. pasta by weight.

I'm hearing 'where have all the big spuds gone' to the tune of 'where have all the cowboys gone' now

At uni there was an independent baked potato shop that did a filling with garlic butter ( loads of it ) and prawns in a slightly sweet tomatoy garlic sauce ( think sweet chilli sauce ) consistency.
Amazeballs
30 plus years later I still lust after one
And they were ginormous

Just had a Tesco jacket potato formed in Pembrokeshire. It was a little small, but tasty nevertheless. I had tuna mayo and coleslaw.

Ummm it's called a drought love. Potatoes need lots of water to get to that size

You do realise that a lot of potatoes you eat go into cold storage and aren't from this year's crop.