Featured Article
The Potato
Humble Beginnings in South America
Spanish Farmers of the Andes Mountains first harvested potatoes in 1535, and had little use for them. Right off, these lumpy eye shores were deemed “peasant food” fit for invalids in hospitals and prisons. Columbian Farmers were encouraged by the ruggedness, storage quality, and nutritional value exhibited by the potato and continued to grow them. It would then take three decades before the potato reached the shores of Europe, landing in the Emerald Isles of Ireland.
Sir Walter Raleigh was an experimental botanist who began to study the nutritive values of the tuber in 1625. His campaign to dub the potato as the “all perfect” vegetable, the plan met with severe adversity from upper-class citizens. Also, speculations of its dangers also warded off curiosity. It is a well-known fact potatoes are a member of the nightshade family, and the foliage can be poisonous. A potato left too long in the light will turn green. The skin contains a substance called solanine, which causes the potato to have a bitter flavor and can even cause illness in humans. Even though Raleigh knew of the dangers, he still believed this tuber would one day help the people.
The Emerald Isles of Potatoes
In 1780, the people of Ireland adopted the potato as the all encompassing “super food” because of its ability to produce enough food for ten people per acre. This fact was the initial reason for the population explosion in the early 1800’s. The people of Ireland became so dependant on this crop, its season of failure in 1845 meant feminine and devastation for all as a fungus, phytophthora infestans swept the potato fields. Ireland’s population was virtually cut in half by starvation and emigration to other countries. Over one million people died during the famine and produced over 1.5 million immigrants to other countries; especially North America. An effective fungicide was not discovered until 1883 by French botanist Alexandre Millardet. This remedy was too late for some who would live and die by potato crops.
Today's Potato in North America
As time passed, the “super food” evolved into the most recognized food source spanning the globe right there with cattle and other grains. As immigrants from Ireland sought refuge in the North in 1850, potato production increased at an alarming rate. At its peak, a person could eat ten pounds of potatoes per day.
From this high demand, now fifty states grow some variety of potato with Idaho producing the most familiar variety of all-purpose baking potato. The Soviet Union is the world leader of spud production, feeding most of Europe with their harvest. Numerous varieties and styles of potatoes formed as crossbreeding and biological metamorphosis have taken place around the world. Through these changes, 250 varieties of potatoes are grown in 130 countries.
Learning more about the history of the potato and how its widespread usage around the world affected population growth, scientific break throughs and immigration to other countries, truly makes the potato a “super food” that brought the world together.
