They helped empires rise to new heights and nearly destroyed others. This isn’t about emperors; this is about the humble potato. The reliability of this magical crop allowed empires to grow to unimaginable sizes. You can see that there is much more to this starchy tuber than meets the eyes!
Let’s look at these amazing facts we discovered about the humble potato.
These Potatoes Are Actually From South America
Many people all over the globe would mistakenly identify Ireland to be the source of this extremely versatile tuber.
Ireland might have helped the potato to international fame, but that’s it.
The potato was domesticated in Bolivia from a wild species. This includes the northern part of Bolivia as well as the south of Peru.
It was not known to the rest until Spain conquered the Americas in 1600.
It was brought back to Europe sometime in the late 16th century by Spanish conquistadors. At first, it was viewed with some hesitation.
The History Of Potatoes Has Been Documented For At Most 7000 Years.
This event occurred sometime between 8,000 and 5,500 BC. However, we have no evidence of it until much later.
This evidence comes to us from Ancon in Peru, one of the most important pre-Hispanic archaeological sites dating back to 2,500 BC.
Many other archaeological artifacts are very important, including the remains of a potato tube from approximately 4,500 years back!
There are around 4,000 types of potatoes!
You can include non-commercial varieties.
This list includes many varieties of potatoes that were grown in South America. They are similar to the ones brought back from Europe in the 1660s.
The rest of this list contains all the potato cultivars that were developed over the last 400 years.
Although there are many different varieties of potatoes, most will only be found in a particular region.
There are 80 different varieties of potato in the UK.
Different Potatoes Make Great Additions To Many Dishes
People who believe that all potatoes don’t have the same genetic makeup aren’t learning how to properly use potatoes.
One thing to remember is that every variety of potato has a different amount and type of starch.
Potatoes with higher starch levels like the Russet are more floury. They are best suited for being fried, either in a French fry, hash brown, or baked in an oven.
The potato starch level is lower, making them more suitable to be eaten whole in salads and stews.
The fingerling variety of waxy potatoes is an easily available choice.
The family includes tobacco and potatoes
Most people would be shocked to know that potatoes are in the same family as tobacco and deadly nightshade.
It turned out that Solanaceae is a very large family and includes many plants that we would not have thought to be related.
This list includes varieties of vegetables such as eggplants, tomatoes, and potatoes.
It also includes smokable types like tobacco and quite a few toxic varieties such as deadly nightshade.
