In Praise of Idaho's Most Precious Commodity

I was at a stoplight on Kimberly Road. Waiting to hang a left turn onto Eastland Drive. A rig came along and it was hauling potatoes. After I made my turn I passed a second potato hauler. There are three foods I can think of that I would call great for universal purposes. Potatoes, eggs, and tomatoes. The latter is great with the other two and sometimes all three on a plate are what I call breakfast!

Potatoes feed the planet. Idaho is the capital of potatoes.

I had fries with my lunch Monday. This morning, I had mashed with my breakfast. There are chunked potatoes in my lunch. It’s not just me. Potatoes feed the planet. Idaho is the capital of potatoes. Especially the russet, which is what creates the best fries. Last week I went shopping and bought frozen scalloped. I hadn’t had potatoes scalloped in ages. I had almost forgotten the definition of comfort food. Now I remember!

Last week I heated some potato soup in the microwave oven at work. I ate it while writing for the website. Over the weekend I had Amish potato salad. It comes from the Walmart deli and is out of this world. It contains sweet pickles.

In the span of one week, I’ve eaten spuds prepared half a dozen ways and there are many more. I like them baked with dill week, Old Bay, and some sour cream (and often a variety of toppings).

I did a poll last year on social media where I asked people to pick their favorite way to eat the treasures from our fields. Most people selected “all of the above”.

See How School Cafeteria Meals Have Changed Over the Past 100 Years

Using government and news reports, Stacker has traced the history of cafeteria meals from their inception to the present day, with data from news and government reports. Read on to see how various legal acts, food trends, and budget cuts have changed what kids are getting on their trays.

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.