Potato Facts

Its easy cultivation, widespread abundance and ideal nutrition has today, made potato one of the most loved foods in the world. It is devoured in various forms, fried, roasted, baked, boiled, curried, mashed, frozen, spiced up or spiced down.

The story or this versatile tuber begins almost four thousand years ago, when in its present form, it was cultivated by the then inhabitants of the land we now know as Peru. In the mountainous regions of this land, it must have been too cold to grow wheat or corn, so tubers were the next best thing to cultivate ..and traces of these eons old cultivation have been found in the region. The hardy tubers could be a Godsend in the cold climate; they were frost resistant, kept for long months and provide all the nourishment one needed. The known tribes of that area and era, the Mochia, Chimu, and Inca cultures are known to have developed even more hardy varieties of the potato. Since these cultures had a largely vegetarian diet, they could experiment with even stronger varieties of the tuber, and they did, thus expanding their original papa menu to include newer tastes and stronger strains. They even developed special hoes to help in cultivation of the potato, with tempered metal tips, and a cousin of this tool is still used in some countries of South America, in cultivation of potato crop.

Besides, they also developed ways and means of storing the tuber for winter months, when more often than not, the potato was their only means of sustenance. Potatoes were left out n the cold to be frozen over the night and in the morning; these were trampled to clean out the frost and moisture. The process of removing all the moisture was done over four or five days, and the result was light potato flour that could be stored for up to four years. The interesting thing is that this frozen potato flour, chuno, is still made in the area covering Bolivia, Peru and Chile, and used to make flour which is used for baking and making other foods.

So, the humble tuber was staple food for high lying areas of South America where corn, maize or wheat could not grow. They gave this staple food due importance in their literature and even poetry. Ancient Peruvian cultures had more a thousand words to describe the taste and versatility of the potato. It was said to have magical as well as medicinal powers, and they tried it in all kinds of diseases. Potato Gods were appeased through rituals and ceremonies, so their potato crop is good and make their land, a land of plenty (of potatoes).

Thus the potato lived with its silent worship for thousands of years till about five centuries ago, Spanish explorers, later conquerors, reached the coast of South America and looted the South American native settlements. Among the other things they plundered and carried away were tubers, and that is how the potato found its way to the other countries and continents. They also discovered its utility while using it to feed the Inca slaves they carried back with them and in time, discovered that potatoes could actually sustain their sailors even for long voyages, such as crossing of the Atlantic.

The first written description of potatoes is found in the logs of a Spanish conquistador, Castellanos, where he describes a typical scene of plunder. Breaking into a village home in South America, instead of the mounds of gold, silver and jewels that he was expecting to find, Castellanos found maize, beans, and `truffles’ which were actually potatoes. Whatever the extent of his disappointment may have been, the man certainly gave us an account of a hitherto unknown food source.

However, the potato did not receive much acceptance and acclaim when it reached Europe. Associated with anything tribal or primal, it was considered unhealthy, unclean, and even `unChristian’. But then sex came to the rescue, when a sudden belief started gaining ground that the potato tuber contained aphrodisiac qualities. Later its medicinal properties were added to the list of its virtues and then the Spanish started taking a liking to the taste, and in fact, became the first people in Europe to actually consider potato a delicacy. The process took almost a century. By the mid seventeenth century most European countries had accepted the tuber as a part of their diet and it even earned royal decree. King William pf Germany made it especially popular by distributing potatoes in his country and issuing instructions on how best they could be cultivated. He had recognized the fact that in times of famine or war, these hardy little tubers could feed his entire population. Very soon, potato became a staple crop in many countries of Eastern Europe. In France, the acceptance of potato took a little while longer, and it was only by the eighteenth century that a pharmacist, Antoine Parmentier , who returned from the German prison after the Seven Years War and clamed he survived only on potatoes, started to popularize it. Today we know that in fact, the leaves of the potato are poisonous because it belongs to the nightshade family. But the fact that it contains almost all the nutrients needed for sustenance, and can feed almost 10 people on an acre of cultivation, out bore all other considerations.

The potato reached Ireland in the middle of the sixteenth century and by virtue of its complete suitability to the climate of Ireland, found a lot of favor with the inhabitants of the Emerald Isle. Very soon, Irish and potato became synonymous, and still continues to be!!

In the colonies, the tuber went with the Irish- Scot settlers in New Hampshire in 1719, and in no time, the cultivation of potato plant gained ground in North America. But in the 1840s there was a disastrous potato blight that destroyed large parts of the crop and a huge part of Europe was plunged into famine. It almost cut down the population of Ireland into half and it was only about forty years later that a suitable medicine was found to get rid of the deadly fungus.

Down the centuries, the potato has seen many ups and downs but today, it is so common a part of our diet that we barely acknowledge the fact that it was unknown to us just a couple of centuries back.

The potato contains almost all the nutrients that our body needs. Itself being almost fat free, it provides a nutrient dense intake. Each medium size potato provides about 110 calories, with almost 3 grams of proteins, nil fat and almost 23 grams of carbohydrates. With this come almost 2.7 grams of dietary fiber and 750 mgs of precious potassium. Needless to say, it is a staple diet across a large number of diet conscious countries.