Week of September 27th – Idaho

Now let’s be honest, do you think of anything but potatoes when Idaho is mentioned? And since Idaho is the number one producer of potatoes, the source of nearly one-third of the potatoes grown in the United States, we can’t pretend that this won’t play a major role in our celebration. But there’s way more….

OK, seriously, Idaho is the Gem State; do I need to go further? Yippee, 72 gems to choose from. This is a celebration in itself. Couple that with the fact that one of my favorite stores, Coldwater Creek, is headquartered in Idaho (Sandpoint) and I’m doing the happy dance.

But first a random fact that I came across while researching Idaho: The Fosbury Flop, a high jump technique that sends the jumper backwards over the bar, was invented by Dick Fosbury from Ketchum, ID. I mention this because, even though I was only 13 during the ’68 Olympics, the introduction (and debate) of the Fosbury Flop is the single most significant memory I have from any Olympic games and a piece of trivia I’ve carried with me for over forty years. And now I finally get to share it.

Now back to the important stuff. This place is not called the “Gem State” for no reason. Agates of every type can be found here, along with garnets, amethysts, opals, jade and different varieties of chalcedonies and jaspers. I’m not going the list all the gems here but if you’re a closet rock hound Idaho is your oyster (but no pearls here). So I took my list of Idahoan gems (available from the Department of Lands) and picked out an assortment that I think would make a great statement piece. I picked out chotua and picture jaspers, rhodonite, thulite, candy agate (the seller claimed that he had personally mined it last summer in southern Idaho) and zoisite focal pieces and selected beads of garnets and yellow opals to bring it all together. I haven’t actually finished the piece by this posting but it’s going be grand.

If your intent is to sample every variety of potato in a week, you better start early. We covered chips on Monday, baked on Tuesday, French fries and mashed on Wednesday. We enjoyed potato salad on Thursday and new potatoes on Friday. Saturday was a perfect day for latkes (potato pancakes) and we finished out the week with curly fries on Sunday. The following Monday we started diets. We couldn’t fit in hash browns, potatoes au gratin, potato soup or scalloped potatoes but not for lack of trying.

Another 50plus2 coincidence occurred as we were finishing up the last of the potatoes. “Twelve Mile Road”, a typical Lifetime Movie starring Tom Selleck as an Idahoan farmer aired, followed by “Georgia Rule”, a classic mother–daughter (and granddaughter) drama starring Jane Fonda as the Grandmother who wears a t-shirt most of the movie that reads Hull, Idaho and Lindsay Lohan as the troubled teen (imagine that). Lifetime was having its own Idaho celebration.

Color in Idaho with a classic potato icon and travel to the sweet potato capital of the world, the Tar Heel State – North Carolina. 45 down – 7 to go.