I’m researching some potato variates and there is a designation of ware potato. What is the significance of this designation?
I might be one…
When there’s a full moon, I sit on the couch and post to a message board.
Sorry–What I meant to say was “I wish I could help you, but I’m not familiar with the term, or potatos”.
It’s a potato (for commercial markets) that isn’t early. Specifications for early and ware potatoes.
ETA: Oh, and it also means that it’s an eating-type of goods (e.g., “said Simple Simon to the pieman, let me taste your ware”) rather than a seed potato.
Ware doesn’t specifically mean something is edible - it just happened that the pieman’s wares were edible.
‘Wares’ is just another way of saying merchandise or goods.
Thanks for the answer. I thought it was some variety characteristic I would want to know about. It’s just a quantitative label for grading for sale.
You are Dan Quayle and I claim my £5.
Right in general, but in the specific case of potatoes the term “ware” does signify that the goods are edible: i.e., potatoes to be sold for eating rather than for seed.
And I’m not sure somebody named Mangetout should be regarded as any kind of an authority on edibility anyway. 
Potato production: Rural Northern Ireland
The Irish have generally had good luck growing ware potatoes. Well, there was that one year where they planted were-potatoes because of an unfortunate typographical error. What the Harvest moon saw that year was not a pretty sight, but we try not to talk of such things.
In this context, yes - but only really because nobody sells throwing potatoes, architectural construction potatoes and jewellery-grade potatoes - their retail is limited to seed and eating - so ‘ware’ does mean eating potatoes, but so would ‘commodity potatoes’, if that term happened to be common.
likewise in the pieman cotext, ‘wares’ only means things for eating because pies happen to be edible. you could, for example, ask to see the wares of a sillversmith (silverware) or of a glassblower (glassware), but don’t eat either of these.
[Marty Feldman]
There potato.
[/Marty Feldman]
“ware potatoes” …
It’s a rather archaic warning that someone is about to attack with a spud gun …
Even a man who goes to church by day
Und says his prayers by night
May become a POTATO
When the moon is full und bright!
And you can’t blind them, because they have a thousand eyes.
The only way to kill them is to cut them up and fry them, then cover them with ketchup. Or vinegar. Or mayonnaise, if you’re Canadian.
Next time you’re in Twin Falls Idaho, stop in the museum next to the gorge where, in addition to learning all about Evel Knievel’s fateful jump, you may purchase a beautiful potato necklace for your wife, as I did for mine. Matching earrings are also available.
It’s a potato which is vewy hard to find because there awen’t vewy many of them.
The Death’s Head hawk moth is associated in large numbers with potato fields. That’s about as scary as reality gets with potatoes.
:dubious:
That potato obviously had plastic surgery.