- [i] Akila on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/AkilaWijerathna/status/1513343266271666176) shared this [article about controlling potato tuberization](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-022-01112-2) in response to a marketing tweet. # Potatoes I've been thinking a lot about the farming community I wrote about in my flash fiction story [The Laundress & the Fungal Growth](https://newsletter.eleanorkonik.com/the-laundress/). Specifically, I've been thinking about what they might farm, and how it might impact local trade. I mentioned beans, walnuts and soapwort, but although I came up with a fantastical fungus, I haven't done a lot of thinking about what kinds of crops would be interesting in Verraine, even though I read a whole book about [species that changed the world](https://newsletter.eleanorkonik.com/book-review-tamed/) %% ( [[Review of Tamed by Alice Roberts]] ) %%. I decided to dig deeper into some of the more interesting ones to see what inspiration I could find. ## Quick Facts - Potatoes have basically [all the key vitamins and nutrients](https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2016/03/the-uber-tuber/) (they're missing vitamin A) which is why they're considered so nutritious. - A one-acre potato farm with one milk cow is enough to feed a family of seven. - There exists a delightful folk tale about [dividing potatoes between a fox and a wolf](https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/type1030.html#scotland) that gets at the complexities of making "an even split." - The potato originally spread through Europe mostly because of the Catholic Church. %% [[elite Catholics spread potatoes]] %% - Peru has [nearly 5,000 species of potatoes](https://www.nomomente.org/post/peruvian-potatoes-from-chuno-to-french-fries). ## War Resistant One of the obscure reasons that potatoes make an awesome crop for peasants is that because it is a tuber — with the important part underground — it could survive being trampled by invading armies. For this reason, every war between the Seven Years War to WWII led to more potato fields being planted. They're also relatively [easy to hide from tax collectors](https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20200302-the-true-origins-of-the-humble-potato). %% [[potatoes are army-resistant]] %% ## Imperial Interventions The first domesticated, locally adapted, traditional varieties of potato were [developed north of Lake Titicaca](https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Pre-Columbian-societies-associated-with-the-and-of-Garz%C3%B3n/cff12f2c5ab84cb27b6e08dba637d616805d4ac9), but they didn't really spread until the the [Tiwanaku](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiwanaku_Empire) came to power. That said, [potatoes have mostly needed remarkably little human intervention](https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02859652). %% [[Tiwanaku]] %% ## God Given There is a fascinating Andean myth about [the discovery of potatoes](http://storiesfromtheamericas.blogspot.com/2009/01/gift-from-gods-potatoe.html). The creator god has a favored people and some mountain folks the god didn't bless as much — their mountain was home to evil genii. When the genii escaped, the mountain people fled and conquered the favored people of the lowlands. Everybody submits except the prince, who catches the attention of the creator god, who whimsically decides to help — by showing him where to find special seeds: potatoes. The conquerors ate the seeds and leaves, got sick, and got kicked out. Later, the lowland people discover that the tubers are delicious and nutritious. ## Tasty Taxes The Inca used chuño as a form of currency. Chuño looks sort of like a jelly donut but is basically [a potato that's been freeze dried](https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Chuno_Potatoes_17068.php) over the course of many nights and a lot of work: it's left out to freeze (repeatedly), then washed in a cold river, then stomped on (in nets) to get rid of the skins, and _then_ left in the sun to dry. Andean peasants paid their taxes in chuño, which let Incan leaders pay mercenaries and laborers; it functioned sort of like Roman grain. %% [[freeze-dried potatoes became Incan currency]] %% - - - 📗 ICYMI: If you found this interesting, you may also enjoy my previous newsletter about [[2021-10-18 Taxes]] 💚 If you learned something from this overview, consider forwarding it to a friend and encouraging them to [sign up](https://newsletter.eleanorkonik.com/membership/) for more research deep dives into obscure history and science. 📅 Next week's topic? SOMETHING If you know any SOMETHING, please hit "reply" and tell me about it.