Potatoes: Facts & Recipes

Manitoba Department of Agriculture Extension Service - [1950?]

From the early decades of the twentieth century, provincial and federal government departments produced free publications encouraging women to make the most of local products. Polly Potato, whose attractive but oversized head must have been modelled on the titular tuber, offered information about Manitoba potato varieties, nutrition, buying, and storage. The book, likely produced by mimeograph, also includes recipes for “Curried Potatoes,” “Escalloped Potatoes,” “Hungarian Potato Soup,” and “Potato Bon Bons” (which combined mashed potatoes with icing sugar). The recipes for “Chocolate Snowballs” and “Potato Doughnuts” have been modified to suit the cook; in the case of the grease-stained doughnut page, the recipe has been doubled. Such annotations speak to the interactive nature of cookbooks, which are constantly edited and refined to suit the reader’s tastes, experiences, and needs. A rare book dealer site also indicates that Polly had a partner in Potato Pete, who says “Buy me wisely, store me carefully, cook me skilfully & I’m Sure to Please” (“Potatoes”).

With permission from the Government of Manitoba. Gift of Isabel Desmarais.