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Health & Fitness

From French-fried to Twice Baked - the History of the Versatile Potato

By Meara Hayden, Penn State Extension Intern

 

Storage potatoes are one of the few veggies you picked up from your local CSA that are still around in the winter, and will continue to last until spring. They are a staple of our diets, and can be found growing in huge monoculture farms in Idaho, or small CSA style organic farms here in Pennsylvania. It is one of the most widely grown and consumed crops in the world. But how did this starchy tuber become something we expect from our local markets, and readily consume at our dinner tables?

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Most people, when asked about the origin of the potato, will reference Ireland. The Irish seem to have a monopoly on the image of the potato. But the tuber didn’t come from Ireland, or anywhere in Europe at all, and the Europeans unwise handling of it is what lead to the great potato famine, and the beginning of the pesticide industry we know today.

The potato is found naturally growing in the Andes, and most wild varieties are poisonous, especially in their raw form. Wild vicunas (wild relatives of the llama) will lick clay before consuming any part of the potato plant, because the clay sticks to the harmful substances and passes safely through the animal’s system. The native people of the Andes (Including the beginnings of what would be known as the Aztec civilization) emulated this behavior, and ate potatoes with clay powder. Over time, they selectively bred certain varieties to be completely safe to eat. In addition to eating them mashed, boiled, and baked, these ancient people would leave sliced potatoes out to freeze overnight, then dry during the day. The continuing freezing and thawing process produced long lasting, if bland, food that sustained the Aztec armies.

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The Aztec people grew a huge variety of potato plants, with every village having ten or twelve diverse varieties. And a village relatively near, but at a different altitude, would grow another ten to twelve varieties completely different from the first village. When the people of the Andes planted their potatoes, they would use the seeds that came off the top of the plant. This ensured that their potatoes remained diverse and resistant to disease.

When the Europeans came to South America and brought the potato back for planting, they replanted using a “seed potato.” They would just take a potato from a mature plant, and put it back in the ground, growing a new plant. This method creates a plant that is genetically identical to its mother plant. When the potato eventually caught on in Europe, their entire fields were a monoculture. This made the new crop especially susceptible to disease, because the bacteria would not have to adapt to hop from plant to plant at all. This problem was not apparent until Europe, and especially Ireland, had a complete dependence on the potato for food. By the late 1790’s, about 40 percent of the Irish ate potatoes as their only solid food. In potato country, a 2,000 mile band in northern Europe where potatoes thrive, famine had almost disappeared.

It was at this time that disaster struck the farmers of northern Europe and America, where the potato had been brought as a staple. They were using guano, imported from South America, for fertilizer. The guano brought disease with it. Phytophthora infestans, a type of water mold, is what caused the great potato famine. By the time the symptoms appear as purple to brown spots on the leaves, it is too late to save the plant. The first blight struck in 1845, and did not cease until 1852, after it had wiped out more than a million Irish.

But the first potato blight was not as industrially important as the second, which came in the form of the colorado potato beetle. These black and orange bugs frustrated American farmers beginning in about 1860. Nothing seemed to kill them. One desperate farmer threw some leftover green paint on his plants. This worked. The bright green pigment was paris green, which is made mostly of copper and arsenic. Farmers began mixing it with water or dusting it as a dry powder.

The use of paris green in agriculture interested chemists. Are there other chemicals that could solve agricultural problems? In the 1880’s a french chemist discovered a solution of copper sulfate and lime would destroy Phytophthora infestans. If farmers sprayed this solution along with paris green, they would be rid of both the blight and the beetle. Potatoes marked the beginning of the modern pesticide industry.

Late blight and the Colorado potato beetle are still challenges for growers today, but over the years growers have learned how to manage them by growing resistant varieties and carefully monitoring pests.  Today, the United States produces more than 4.2 billion pounds of potatoes annually on around 1.1 million acres!

 

Support your local potato farmer!

 

Bucks – None Such Farms

Lehigh - Lichtenwalner Farms

Northampton - Clear Spring Farm

Berks – Burkholder Farm Market

 

Resources:

 

Smithsonian Magazine “How the Potato Changed the World” http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-potato-changed-the-world-108470605/?page=6

 

Penn State Extension “Potato Production” http://extension.psu.edu/business/ag-alternatives/horticulture/vegetables/potato-production

Check this out if you’re looking to plant potatoes in your garden in the spring!       

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