Bet You Didn't Know That Potatoes Are This Useful
Potatoes
are a hardy staple of numerous dishes across a whole range of cultures.
You can eat them mashed, roasted, fried, baked, sautéed, or as part of a
salad or soup and they are the fourth most consumed crop in the world,
after rice, wheat, and corn. But as it turns out, potatoes have many
other uses outside of your cooking pot. Some of them are remarkably
useful, others are great fun to try, but all of them are bound to
surprise you! Here are some ways you can use our potatoes outside of the
dinner table.
1. Remove Stains
Foods
like turmeric, berries, and beets are fabulous additions to any meal,
but they have a habit of leaving their traces all over your hands. It
can take a lot of scrubbing with normal soap to remove these stains, and
it's really hard to reach underneath your nails. Don't fear though,
just keep half a potato back when preparing the dish and rub it over the
affected area to magically remove the blemish! Make sure you get right
under your nails too. This will work well on grass and ink stains as
well.
2. Make a Hot or Cold Compress
This
is one you might have read about in books, and it's been used for
centuries. Potatoes retain their temperature for a surprisingly long
time so if you are out and about on a cold night, keep a couple of hot
potato slices in your gloves or pockets. Similarly, if you need to keep
cool, use a frozen or chilled potato. If you want to ease aches and
pains, then make a hot or cold compress using potato slices inside a
sock.
3. Clean Your Windows
Potatoes
make for a terrific non-toxic glass cleaner. Take a raw, uncooked
potato and rub it over your windows, car windscreen, or even eyeglasses,
before wiping away the juice with a clean cloth. You will be left with
gleaming glass, without damaging your hands or leaving the smell of
chemicals up your nostrils. This works well on clear plastic like
swimming or ski goggles as well.
4. Use Potato Juice for Your Ailments
Okay,
so potato juice might not sound like the yummiest mixture in the world,
but it has been used for centuries to fight various ailments. It is
considered effective against ulcers, sprains, gout,
sciatica, heartburn and bruising. The juice is rich in vitamins and
it's dead easy to make. Just put a couple of potatoes in a blender, zap
them for thirty seconds and you're done. Add carrot or cinnamon juice to
improve the taste and you have your own homemade medicine.
5. Remove Warts
Warts
are a rather unsightly annoyance, and if you get one, you will want to
get rid of it. There's no need to go and have it lazered off though,
just treat it with a raw potato. Carefully rub the cut end of the potato
across the wart, and leave the juice on. Repeat the process every day
until the wart is banished for good!
6. Remove a Broken Light Bulb from a Socket
This
use of potatoes is trumpeted by numerous sources! At some point in your
life, you've probably faced the annoyance of a light bulb breaking as
you attempt to unscrew it. You might be wondering why companies can't
design bulbs that don't do this, but in the meantime, you have a trusty
potato to help you deal with the problem. Cut the potato in half, and
gently press the flat side on to the remainder of the bulb. When the
bulb is firmly inserted, you can simply screw it out.
7. Shine Your Silverware
If
your cutlery is cloudy and your trinkets are tarnished, why not use a
potato to restore their sparkle? You can rub a raw potato over the items
if you like, but I find it best to soak them in potato water. This also
means you don't have to use extra potatoes to perform the task, simply
use the water from the batch you have boiled for your dinner. Add any
peeled skins into the water for great results.
8. Feed Your Geraniums
The
nutrients in potatoes will help your pot plants grown. You can either
carve a small hole in the potato and plant the stem of the flower inside
it, before putting the whole thing into the soil; or you can sprinkle
some potato shavings into the soil around your already growing flowers
to give them a fantastic, natural boost.
9. Sort Out Your Skin
Potatoes
are great for your skin, so making yourself a potato face mask once a
week can reap rewards. You only need to use mashed potato mixed with
water and leave the resulting paste on your face for 30 minutes. A
couple of slices of potato can also be used to reduce the appearance of
puffy eyes and black circles, and are a great alternative to the more
widely used cucumber. The ability of potatoes to clear up minor rashes
and acne have been known for centuries!
10. Soothe a Headache
Potatoes
have been used to help ease headaches for centuries, and you will only
need a few slices. You can rub them into your temples, or for more
sustained relief, fix them against your forehead using a headband or
bandage.
11. Make Some Great Personalized Art
We
all remember making potato stamps and dipping them in paint in art
class at school. But don't for a second think that this practice is just
the preserve of children. Just draw the shape you want on to the cut
potato, carve out the shape and dip it in fabric paint before dabbing it
over your canvas. Personalize bags, cushions, walls - whatever you
like! It's a really fun and easy way to personalize your home and it's
great for kids too.
12. Relieve a Burn
If
you burnt your fingers on a hot pan or clipped your arm against the
stove while it was still on, reach for a potato. Just 1 slice of raw
potato should do the trick - apply it to the burn and fix in place using
whatever you have handy.
13. Absorbs Excess Salt from a Soup or Cooking Pot
If
you have over-salted your pot of soup or pasta by mistake, then throw
in some potato slices or cubes to restore the balance. Leave the
potatoes in while the mixture simmers for ten minutes or so, and then
scoop them back out.
14. Banish Rust from Metal
Are
your old tools or kitchen utensils starting to look like antiques?
Restore them to their former glories by chopping a potato in half,
adding a liberal amount of soap or salt to the cut end and rubbing it
over the affected surface. Rinse and dry the object thoroughly
afterward. This works great along the edge of large carving knives!
15. Power a Light Bulb
Okay, so we expect this one is
more for fun than anything else, but it's still fascinating and great
for entertaining the kids/grandkids. Did you know that potatoes contain
lots of energy, and the chemical reactions that take place between the
potato juices and a couple of dissimilar metals create enough voltage to
power a small electrical device?
To try this for yourself, you will need: 1 large potato, two small coins, two zinc-plated standard nails, three small pieces of copper wire and a small, low wattage light bulb:
1. Cut the potato in half, cut a slit in each half. Wrap the coins in the copper wire a few times, using different wire for each coin. Then slide the coins into the slits.
2. Take the remaining piece of copper wire and wrap it around one of the zinc plated nails. Stick the nail into one of the potato halves.
Be careful when allowing children to handle the copper wires as they contain a small electrical charge, and don't perform the experiment near to an open flame.
To try this for yourself, you will need: 1 large potato, two small coins, two zinc-plated standard nails, three small pieces of copper wire and a small, low wattage light bulb:
1. Cut the potato in half, cut a slit in each half. Wrap the coins in the copper wire a few times, using different wire for each coin. Then slide the coins into the slits.
2. Take the remaining piece of copper wire and wrap it around one of the zinc plated nails. Stick the nail into one of the potato halves.
3. Take
the wire that's connected to the coin in the half of the potato that
also contains the nail, and wrap it around the second nail. Stick the
second nail into the other potato half.
4. Connect the two loose ends of the copper wire to the light bulb and it will light up.Be careful when allowing children to handle the copper wires as they contain a small electrical charge, and don't perform the experiment near to an open flame.