Brief by Central Staff
Agriculture – May 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Baked potatoes are a fine and versatile food, but in modern America, finding some oven time is often a challenge.
To provide a faster baked potato, a Monte Vista consortium of 38 potato growers called Farm Fresh Direct has introduced “Express Bake PotatOH!”
An Express Potato is grown in the San Luis Valley, then trucked to Alamosa where it is washed and wrapped in a plastic sheath that is FDA-approved for microwave cooking. The potato cooks in seven to eight minutes, not all that much faster than nuking a regular spud, but the plastic makes it cook more evenly.
The suggested retail price is 79ยข apiece, and they should be available at City Market stores.
“They’re actually very delicious,” said Joan Toole, a microwave-cookbook author. “The steam created between the potato skin and the wrap produces a more even temperature and cooks the potato more evenly.”
However, the skin won’t be crispy, but in a few minutes a regular oven can cure that problem for those who like some crunch in their potato skins.
We haven’t tested these personally, and we seldom get to the nearest City Market in Buena Vista. So we do welcome your taste reports for this newest Colorado product.
Our winter method of producing quick-baking potatoes involved a cold day when we had a fire in the wood-burning kitchen range, throwing a lot of potatoes in its oven, shifting them about so that the ones closest to the firebox didn’t turn into charcoal, then eating some while throwing the others into the refrigerator, whence they could be removed and quickly nuked as needed.
