Processing “Green” potatoes

General Gardening
1

Hi Folks,

A whole bunch of potatoes we harvested this year have one side green or green-ish. It’s harder to see this for dark skinned varieties and even harder for dark skinned and dark fleshed ones but I can still make out one side being darker than the other.

I was wondering what the collective experience is here.

I found a lot of conflicting advice online but it seems to come down to - don’t eat the green parts - which makes sense.

So my question is, do folks usually keep these kinds of potatoes and just cut off skin and cut off parts of the potato that look green and go ahead and eat the rest? Or would you recommend I compost it all. It would be very sad to do the latter but I will do it.

We’ve eaten the potatoes 2 times so far by doing the deep cuts and processing I mentioned above to no obvious adverse effects but I’m still worried.

Thank you!

2

I’m not a potato doctor, but I’m under the impression the green is just chlorophyl which is just a possible visual indicator that the poisonous alkaloids, which also taste bitter and disgusting, may be present. I’d cut off the green parts and not eat them if they taste bitter or otherwise nasty after cooking.

Unless they’re cooked “composting” potatoes is just pre-planting next years. :wink:

2 Likes
3

Green in potatoes means solanine, a toxic compound best not consumed. You need to cut away all that is green

1 Like