Potatoes come in a variety of colours, shapes and textures. Full descriptions, where available, are linked to the name.
Banana potatoes are a late maturing yellow-fleshed variety, with many small banana shaped tubers. They have been grown in British Columbia for at least 90 years and are widely available as seed potatoes.
Chieftain is a mid-season variety with red-skin and white flesh. It was bred in Iowa in 1957, and is widely planted in Canada. It is widely adapted with relatively high yields.
A deep blue fleshed potato with unknown origins. It is closely related to a number of Canadian Heritage varieties, including British Columbia Blue, McIntosh Blue, River John Blue, and Sharon’s Blue.
Corne de Mouton
Corne de Mouton is a fingerling variety with creamy yellow flesh. Its origins are either in France or Denmark, possibly as early as 1872.
Likely
Likely, British Columbia lends its name to this fingerling potato. This potato survived many years outside of cultivation on the shores of Quesnel Lake, originally brought their by Russian fur traders. They were passed on to First Nations people who eventually passed them on to placer gold panners.
Mrs. Moehrle’s Yellow-Fleshed
One of the high-yielding stars of Garrett Pittenger’s heritage potato collection.
Ozette Nootka
The Ozette-Nootka potato is likely the descendent of a potato planted in Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island as early as 1791. Unlike most other potatoes grown in North America today, which arrived from potatoes grown in Europe, the Ozette-Nootka was brought directly from South America by Spanish settlers.
Russian Blue
A late-maturing, blue fleshed potato with dark purple skin which is reported to be a heritage variety from Russia.
Potato Characteristics
Twelve potato varieties were grown for the Crop-Climate Project in 2012. Key characteristics of these potatoes are found in the following table.
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