Description
Rosywood potatoes are beautiful through and through. On the outside, our skins can be colourful and lively, and on the inside, they are beautifully enriched with nutritious vitamins, potassium, copper, manganese, phosphorous, niacin, fibre and pantothenic acids. Plus, they are low in calories and are gluten free. How can you top that? Well, you can with other vegetables and loads of other ingredients that can turn your Rosywood Potato into a gourmet meal.
However, not all potatoes are created equally. Always ask your grocer for local Rosywood Potatoes where ever you are in Zimbabwe. And if you’re living and eating in the Manicaland, remember to buy Rosywood Potatoes; food miles have a tremendous impact on the environment – and on your budget – so buy close to home.
Rosywood is the home to the health of potatoes, a potato grown utilizing best practices in integrated pest management and water conservation. That’s how far our Rosywood Mahemu Estate will go to great length to protect the environment.
Not only does our potato food chain have a purpose, it also has a conscience. Rosywood is committed to providing Zimbabwean families, restaurants and institutions with the highest quality potatoes on earth. In order to succeed with this ambitious goal, Rosywood Mahemu Estate understand the significance that superior agricultural practices have on the land and on the crop. We are comprehensively trained in food safety and produce traceability initiatives, and attend regional, national and international education conferences to keep current on the science of agriculture.
Rosywood Mahemu Estate do all of this because we have a conscience. We live and work by way of a “do the right thing” approach to agriculture. Rosywood don’t take short cuts and we have the deepest respect for the land they farm. In the end, that respect finds its way to dining tables across Zimbabwe and the region.
STORAGE OF POTATO
The purpose of storage is to maintain tubers in their most edible and marketable condition and to provide a uniform flow of tubers to market and processing plants throughout the year. Four variables to determine storage losses are the potato variety, pre-storage conditions, storage conditions and storage duration. It must be realized that storage losses cannot be avoided even by optimal storage. Good storage can merely limit storage losses in good product over relatively long periods of storage. Storage losses are often specified as weight losses and losses in the quality of potatoes, although the two cannot always be distinguished.
Storage losses are mainly caused by the processes like respiration, sprouting, evaporation of water from the tubers, spread of diseases, changes in the chemical composition and physical properties of the tuber and damage by extreme temperatures. These processes are influenced by storage conditions. All the losses mentioned above depend on the storage conditions and therefore can be limited by maintaining favourable conditions in the store. However, the storability of potatoes is already determined before the beginning of storage, by such factors as cultivar, growing techniques, type of soil, weather conditions during growth, diseases before harvesting, maturity of potatoes at the time of harvesting, damage to tubers during lifting, transport and filling of the store (Rastovesky, 1987 and Burton et al., 1992).
The four main outlets for stored potatoes are: seed potatoes, household consumption, the processing industry and potatoes as raw material for the production of starch or alcohol. Choice of storage method must be considered by the requirements for each purpose, but for all uses wound healing is essential immediately after harvest.
Good storage should prevent excessive loss of moisture, development of rots, and excessive sprout growth. It should also prevent accumulation of high concentration sugars in potatoes, which results in dark-coloured processed products. Temperature, humidity, CO2 and air movement are the most important factors during storage (Harbenburg et al., 1986 and Maldegem, 1999).
Varns et al. (1985) investigated the potato losses during the first three months of storage for processing. It was observed the sampling of three respondent groups includes a local storage region, the processing industry, and the federal inspection service (USDA). Questionnaires indicated that 64 to 150 thousand metric tons were annually lost during early storage from the total crop stored for processing. This constitutes a range of 5.6- 13.2 million dollars lost in production costs.
M.Eltawil, D.Samuel and O.Singhal “Potato Storage Technology and Store Design Aspects” Agricultural Engineering International: the CIGR Ejournal. Invited Overview No. 11. Vol. VIII. April, 2006.
Rastovsky (1987) has reported the approx. values of storability of potatoes at different temperatures (Table 1) and ideal storage temperature for potato as per different uses (Table 2). In addition to this, the atmospheric humidity must, in general, be as high as possible, in the range of 85 to 90 per cent. The warehouse potatoes must be treated with sprout inhibitors at storage temperatures above 4°C.
Purpose
Fresh consumption
Chipping
French frying
Granulation (mashed potatoes)
Traditional Storage Practices
Storage temperature, °C 2-4
Storage methods, which were in vogue in the warm plains of India till recently, are described by many authors and are as follows. i) Storage in cool dry rooms with proper ventilation on the floor or on bamboo racks and ii) Storage in pits. The former was generally followed in the plains for seed potatoes during the period from Feb.- March to Sept.-Oct. Storage in pits was adopted in the erstwhile Bombay state from Feb.- March till the onset of monsoon season in June (Kishore, 1979).
In Egypt, the bulk of potato storage takes place in traditional structures or nawallas made of mud bricks. Nawallas are typically privately owned and are concentrated in the northern governorates with lower average temperatures. Walls are typically from 2.5 to 3.5 m high and 30 to 60 cm thick. Storage period is normally for 5 months, May to September. Roofs consist of bamboo matting, rice straw, and mud supported by wood or bamboo frames. Seed potatoes are dusted with SEVIN and CAPTAN (brand names) and arranged in piles 1.5 to 4 m across and 0.8 to 1.0 m high. The piles are sorted every two weeks and infested, diseased, or damaged tubers discarded. Rats and Tuber moth are major problems.
Temperatures within the nawallas are not much lower than the ambient temperatures in the shade outside, although within the heaps temperatures may as much as 10 ̊C lower. Losses from tuber moth infestation, dehydration, excessive sprouting, and other causes average about 20-30%, although losses of up to 70% have been reported. The need for improving storage facilities and practices for warehouse as well as seed potatoes has been noted by several authors (Geddes and Monninkhoff, 1984).
M.Eltawil, D.Samuel and O.Singhal “Potato Storage Technology and Store Design Aspects” Agricultural Engineering International: the CIGR Ejournal. Invited Overview No. 11. Vol. VIII. April, 2006.
From the farm to your plate – Recipes
