Despite having access to a huge variety of food (although some studies suggest we have a less-varied diet now), potatoes still matter to us. (Photo: Facebook) 
The other night, as I was putting some potatoes into the air fryer to bake (and regretting that I hadn’t yet read Tony Jackman on the subject) I couldn’t help but wonder: who on Earth first realised that if you heat potatoes they’re actually very good? I mean, if you happened to be walking along and tripped over a potato, your first thought would probably not be: “How nice would that be cut-up, fried in oil with a nice barbecue sauce?”
Instead you’d probably look at it and wonder how on Earth something could start ugly and if you left it for a few days, would just get uglier.
And it’s a tuber. It’s not like it comes in a shiny variety of colours like apples do. You also can’t just pluck them from a tree and eat them, like so many fruits and berries.
Just the fact that something as mind-bogglingly convenient as a banana, which comes in a useful and brightly coloured carry case, actually exists is almost enough to make you believe in intelligent design.
And yet I think that without potatoes very few of us would be here.
In Zimbabwe, the government has declared that they have the same status as maize, as part of a long-term change in that country’s diet.
The impact of the organism Phytophthora infestans would have been absolutely nil if it were not for the fact that it affected Irish potatoes from 1845. That led to large-scale migration from Ireland, lasting enmity against Britain and, to an extent, the creation of the modern US.
Now, despite having access to a huge variety of food (although some studies suggest we have a less-varied diet now), potatoes still matter to us.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/ATB-Spud.jpg "An employee watches fries being sorted in a factory at Clarebout, a French producer of frozen potato products, in Bourbourg near Dunkirk on 25 February 2025. (Photo: Francois lo Presti / AFP)")
In the UK, a nation of chip-guzzling, battered-fish-gulping, beer-quaffing foodies, a rise in the price of spuds affects their inflation figures dramatically. Heavier-than-expected rain last year led to fears that a whole nation of fish-and-chip shopkeepers would have to close (being a nation still in the grip of the tabloid news industry, this is a story that is repeated roughly once a year).
Now, amid all the things you have to worry about here – whether Teboho Mokoena’s double yellow card will ever be resolved, of if that poor man Jacob will have to pay back his legal fees, or if your local council pool will reopen for summer (hint: probably not) – now you have to worry about the price of potatoes. Because as Potato News Today (your source for no-nonsense, no-frills potato news stories from around the world) reminds us, we too have had our own weather problems with potatoes. In fact, what farmers call a “black frost” hit us just last year, leading to a rise in potato prices.
Well, dear reader, FEAR NOT! Feel free to face the future with resolve and fortitude! Because, for a complicated series of reasons, we actually currently have too many potatoes! In fact, if our market were human it would feel like it’s just had two-and-half baked potatoes with all the trimmings (including, in alphabetical order: bacon, beans, butter, cheese of about a million varieties, chives, egg mayo, guacamole, mushrooms, pepperoni, sour cream and whatever else comes to mind).
As Moneyweb explains, it’s because our farmers planted too much combined with what Potato News Today would probably call perfect potato weather.
Now, this doesn’t mean that all things are peachy for potatoes. Because, once you have them at the 2025 reduced price, you still have to cook the things. You’re probably going to have to experience Eskom’s 2025 pricing to do that (unless you can use your solar installation to power up the air fryer).
One of the most interesting trends in our society over the past decade has been that while Zimbabwe has been moving towards more potatoes, we are moving towards more noodles.
They do not have anything like the nutritional value of a potato and you can’t really fry them. But what you can do is cook them in boiling water. Which means that they are much cheaper and quicker to prepare.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AFP__20200515__1RM56I__v1__HighRes__SafricaHealthVirusFood.jpg "Potatoes at Woodstock Breweries in Cape Town used to make soup for people made vulnerable during the Covid-19 lockdown on 14 May 2020. (Photo: Rodger Bosch / AFP)")
It’s probably true right now that baking one potato in an oven will cost you more in electricity than the cost of a raw potato. Over time this might be the Achilles heel of potatoes for us all.
That tells you everything about how strange our power prices have become, and the huge impact they have on us in so many different ways.
I really hope I won’t have to give up the ugly tuber and be forced into cooking noodles. But if I am, I will be sure to consult DM’s resident foodie, Tony Jackman, first. DM