The potato, although not originally a British plant, is currently one of the most popular foodstuffs in the land. Every year almost 94kg (207.2 lbs) of potatoes are consumed per person in the UK, and it is farmed on an estimated 19,500,000 hectares around the world. For this reason, it is not surprisingthat it is the world's fourth most important food crop.You may not have noticed, but 2008 has been declared by the UN to be the International Year of the Potato, to glorify its historical importance to mankind; "revive public awareness of the relationship that exists between poverty, food security, malnutrition and the potential contribution of the potato to defeating hunger," and flag it up as a "hidden treasure".
But the story of the potato is not as dull as the plant may seem, and nor was it always as popular as it is now. Nearly 3000 years ago, the potato was used in America, by the Incas,
for medical purposes, time keeping, burial rites, divination, and occasionally also as lunch. The potato was also revered as a deity and, in times of bad crops, human appendages were sacrificed to appease the wrath of the divine provider of food and life. The "edible stone" was brought to Europe by the Spanish thousands of years later, and was rejected by all but for a few rare exceptions. The Irish took to it through lack of options; it grew well and plentifully during times of famine. For a short while, the increase in population growth alongside the increase in popularity of the crop led to the potato being considered an aphrodisiac. Some, such as the Scots, however, thought it unholy since there was no reference to it in the Bible, while others considered it potentially dangerous through its family connections with the poisonous belladonna.
Continuing in its tradition of being connected to appendage loss in the 1700s, Prussian farmers and peasants risked famine and were under strict orders from their King to plant the tuber or suffer the loss of their nose. The potato was considered "hog-feed" throughout Europe; in France its popularity grew first through fashion and then through food. The unlikely fashion of the potato flower was launched amongst the French aristocracy by Antoine August Parmentier, an army pharmacist and prisoner during the Seven Years' War - where he had his first encounter with a potato.
Parmentier presented King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette with a bouquet of potato flowers for the King's birthday, as part of his mission to improve its popularity. They both took easily to the delicate purple petalled present; Antoinette placed some in her hair and the King wore them on his lapel - the fashion spread quickly. But his stroke of enius was yet to come. The Frenchman planted an acre of potatoes in the countryside and ensured that it was guarded visibly and heavily but only during the daytime. This allowed peasants to believe that the amount of protection was proportional to the worth of the crop, and so during the night they stole the plants and soon not only were they fashionable, they were also popularly growing all over the country.The potato was also the first food to have ever been grown in space, when in 1995 the sprouting tubers aboard the space shuttle Columbia caused 'elation' amongst those leading the research. These days of course, the potato is not only an all important staple, but it is common in all sorts of exciting forms, from chips or 'fries' to crisps and wedges, in jackets or naked, baked or fried. Loved, revered, hated, and even worn, the potato has an exciting and unexpectedly interesting story behind it. If you feel like immersing yourself in the history of the potato and happen to find yourself in Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA), then you can visit the potato museum. However, if you feel like that may be a little too far for you, it's the Internet to the rescue once again, as websites about potatoes seem surprisingly abundant
How to say potato in other languages: Dutch - aardappel Farsi - seeb-i zameen French - pomme de terre Finnish - peruna German - kartoffel Greek - πατάτα Gujarati - batata Hindi - aloo Malay - kentang Italian - tartufo Portuguese - batata Polish - ziemniaki Romanian - cartof Serbian - krompir Slovak - zemiak Spanish - patata
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Advantages: EASY TO GROW, VERY VERSITILE, LOTS OF DELICIOUS THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH THEM! Disadvantages: NEED A BIT OF CARE AND ATTENTION AND LOTS OF WATER!
phoenixgreen 16.11.2006 ·
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