This week's shout out goes to Solomon Yilma, Senior Faculty Research Assistant in the College of Agriculture Sciences at OSU. In my career, I’ve seen few people rock an interview right out to the gate like Solomon! I’m jealous!
Coordinating with the producer at from scratch., they wanted to source most any potato still left in the ground in Oregon for their television show. Working with Kachka Restaurant in Portland the host, actor, producer, and explorer David Moscow (think Josh Baskin, aka the young Tom Hanks, in Big), has a week to identify, source, harvest or otherwise procure the necessary ingredients for the selected menu item in the restaurant.
Lucky for us, potatoes are on the featured menu (not a huge surprise for post-Soviet fare) and Solomon may just be the last man or woman standing in Oregon with spuds still in the ground. Kudos for the assist to Sagar Sathuvalli! He did a fantastic job and repeatedly sang the praises of the Tri-State Breeding Program. We’ll see what makes the final cut for the show, but the host was very intrigued by the vast state, regional and national cooperative network that goes into breeding and producing a better potato for consumers in America and around the world. Solomon didn’t miss a beat either regarding the health and nutritional benefits of potatoes, highlighting that one man in Europe ate potatoes for a year; and that conservatively, some 1/3 of the nation’s potato production comes out of the Northwest.
We are told the show is set to air in March 2024. Watch for it on Direct TV, Roku, Samsung TV Plus, Fubo, Philo, Plex, Sling, Xumo, Vizio, RedBox, Vudu, and Tubi TV, as well as Tastemade+ and YouTube. From Scratch is also available for purchase on Amazon Prime. In addition, From Scratch is broadcast in 17 countries — Australia, Belgium, Greece, France, Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Turkey.
Again, Solomon just did a fantastic job……As one of the film crew said, “The camera loved him!” See photos below…….😎🥔
Cheers!
Gary
