The Loved Potato
Solanum after latin sol = sun. Tuberosum = with many bumps, lumpy, after latin tuber = bump.
This is about the only bump that I don’t want to get rid off. I love this bump with all my heart. Well, except for the green ones, they’re poisoned, never eat the green ones!
They say that modern DNA-analysis shows that all potatoes has the same ancestor specie in the southern Peru. The name potato comes from the spanish patata which comes from quechuans papa.
The potato were brought to Europe in the 17th century by the spanish. In the beginning we just appreciated it as a flower, until we realized that the bumps were eatable. Then we classified it as a medical plant.
In Sweden it was cultivated in the botanic garden around year 1660, but it wasn’t until 1724 as the now wellknown Jonas Alströmer did his best to make us Swedes to grow and eat potatoes in any bigger amount.
Under the poor years around year 1770, the Swedish government started to spread propaganda about it because it gave a more reliable harvest than the grain. When Eva de la Gardie on top of that discovered that we could make alcohole from the potatoes it was no longer any difficulties to convince the farmers to cultivate them…
Today it’s cultivated over the whole Sweden, but the largest cultivations is in the south. People grow it everywhere, even in the citys in pots at the balcony. It’s considered as a part of the Swedish culture.
There are so many potato varieties. I read som where that we have annual harvests of one million tonne potatoes in Sweden!
Did you know that you can get as much as 33% of your recommended daily dose of vitamin C from only 100g of potato? And 14% of the iron. Among other vitamines. Freshly harvested potatoes (non peeled) retain more nutritional value than stored potatoes.
Potatoes can be eaten in so many ways, that I find it excellent with most food. What do you say about a very creamy Potato Gratin? There are too many recipes with potatoes to choose between, otherwise I had posted some of them here.
It’s a real pity though that people tend to eat more of chips and pommes stripes than real homecooked potatoes.
A potato dish from Spain that I ADORE is the traditional Canary Islands wrinkly potatoes, Papas arragudas with that delicious sauce mojo picón. *drooling heavily now*
They say that if you throw a dinner party and it’s no left overs of the potatoes, you’ve had guests with farmer blood.
So I’m definitive a farmer descendant :-)
