History of potatoes. How potatoes appeared in Russia
The name potato comes from the Italian word truffle and the Latin terratuber - earthen cone.
WITH potato related many interesting stories. They say that in the 16th century, a certain admiral of the English army brought an unknown vegetable from America, with which he decided to surprise his friends. A knowledgeable cook mistakenly fried not potatoes, but tops. Of course, no one liked the dish. The angry admiral gave the order to destroy the remaining bushes by burning. The order was carried out, after which baked potatoes were found in the ash. Without hesitation, the baked potato arrived on the table. The taste was appreciated and everyone liked it. Thus, the potato gained its recognition in England.
In France, at the beginning of the 18th century, potato flowers decorated the vest of the king himself, and the queen decorated her hair with them. So potato dishes were served to the king every day. True, the peasants had to be accustomed to this culture by cunning. When the potatoes arrived, guards were placed around the fields. Thinking that they were protecting something valuable, the peasants quietly dug up potatoes, boiled them and ate them.
In Russia potatoes took root not so easy and simple. The peasants considered it a sin to eat devil’s apples brought from nowhere, and even under pain of hard labor they refused to breed them. In the 19th century, so-called potato riots occurred. Quite a long time passed before people realized that potatoes are tasty and nutritious.
This the vegetable is used for preparing appetizers, salads, soups and main courses. Potatoes contain proteins, carbohydrates, potassium, ballast substances, vitamins A, B1, c. There are 70 calories in 100 g of potatoes.
About a couple of thousand years before the human era, wild potatoes played an important role in the life of the first inhabitants of the Andes. The dish, which saved entire settlements from starvation, was called “chuño” and was prepared from frozen and then dried wild potatoes. In the Andes, until this time, the Indians cherish the proverb: “Jerky meat without chunyo is equivalent to life without love.” The dish was also used as a unit of exchange in trade, since “chuño” was exchanged for beans, beans, and corn. "Chunyo" was distinguished by two types - white ("tunta") and black. The recipe for “chuño” is something like this: potatoes were laid out in the rain and left to soak for 24 hours. Once the potatoes were sufficiently wet, they were laid out to dry in the hot sun. To get rid of moisture as quickly as possible, after thawing, the potatoes were laid out in a place that was blown by the wind and carefully trampled underfoot. To help peel the potatoes better, they were placed between special crumpled skins. When black “chunyo” was prepared, the potatoes, peeled using the method described above, were washed with water, and when “tunta” was prepared, the potatoes were dipped into a pond for several weeks, after which they were left in the sun for final drying. “Tunta” retained the shape of a potato and was very light.
After this treatment, wild potatoes lost their bitter taste and were preserved for a long time. If you want to enjoy wild potatoes, the recipe is still valid today.
In Europe, potatoes found it difficult to take root. Despite the fact that the Spaniards were the first Europeans to become acquainted with this crop, Spain was one of the last countries in Europe to truly appreciate the vegetable. In France, the first mention of potato processing dates back to 1600. The English first experimented with planting potatoes back in 1589.
Potatoes to Russia came through the Baltic port, directly from Prussia around 1757-1761. The first official import of potatoes was associated with the foreign travel of Peter I. He sent a bag of potatoes from Rotterdam for Sheremetyev and ordered the potatoes to be scattered throughout various regions of Russia. Unfortunately, this attempt was unsuccessful. Only under Catherine II was an order issued to send so-called earthen apples to all parts of Russia for brood, and already 15 years later potatoes were in the territory, reaching Siberia and even Kamchatka. However, the introduction of potatoes into peasant farming was accompanied by scandals and harsh administrative penalties. Cases of poisoning were observed because it was not potatoes that were eaten, but green poisonous berries. Conspiracies against potatoes were intensified even by the name itself, since many heard “Kraft Teufels,” which translates from German as “damn power.” To increase the rate of potato consumption, peasants were sent special instructions on breeding and consuming “earth apples,” which gave a positive result. Beginning in 1840, the area under potato cultivation began to increase rapidly, and soon, after decades, the variety of potatoes reached more than a thousand varieties.
The Andes - the birthplace of potatoes
It is said that the outline of South America resembles the back of a huge animal, with its head located in the north and a gradually tapering tail in the south. If so, then this animal suffers from obvious scoliosis because its spine is shifted to the west. The Andes mountain system stretches along the Pacific coast for many thousands of kilometers. On the western spurs, the combination of high snow-capped peaks and cold ocean currents creates unusual conditions for the circulation of air masses and water precipitation. Rainy areas are combined with desert areas. The rivers are short and rapids. Rocky soils almost do not allow moisture to pass through.
The Western Andes seem absolutely hopeless from the point of view of agricultural development. But, oddly enough, it was they who became one of the first regions of our planet where agriculture originated. About 10 thousand years ago, the Indians who lived there learned to grow pumpkin plants. Then they mastered the cultivation of cotton, peanuts and potatoes. Generation after generation, local residents dug winding canals to stop the rapid flow of rivers, and built stone terraces along the mountain slopes, to which fertile soil was brought from afar. If they had draft animals that could carry heavy loads and produce manure at the same time, it would make their life much easier. But the Indians of the Western Andes had neither cattle, nor horses, nor even wheeled carts.
Potato flowers on my summer cottage
Charles Darwin, who visited the west coast of South America in 1833, discovered a wild potato variety there. “The tubers were mostly small, although I found one oval-shaped, two inches in diameter,” wrote the naturalist, “they resembled English potatoes in all respects and even had the same smell, but when cooked they shriveled greatly and became watery and tasteless, completely devoid of bitter taste." Bitter taste? It seems that cultivated potatoes from the time of Charles Darwin differed from wild ones in about the same way as from ours. Modern geneticists are confident that cultivated potatoes originated not from one, but from two crossed varieties of wild ones.
This is what dry chunyo looks like
In Peruvian and Bolivian historiography there is a real battle over which region of the Andes should be declared the oldest place where potato cultivation began. The fact is that the oldest discovery of tubers in human habitation dates back to the northern Peruvian region of Ancon. These tubers are no less than 4.5 thousand years old. Bolivian historians rightly note that the tubers found could have been wild. But on their territory, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, an ancient potato field was found. It was cultivated in the 4th century BC.
One way or another, by the time Europeans arrived in the 16th century, potatoes were well known to many Andean peoples. They made chuño - white or black starchy balls - from potatoes. They made them as follows. The collected tubers were carried to the mountains, where they froze at night, then thawed during the day, then froze again and thawed again. They were crumpled periodically. During the freezing-thawing process, dehydration occurred. Unlike regular potatoes, dry chuño can be stored for many years. At the same time, it does not lose its nutritional qualities. Before consumption, chuño was ground into flour, from which flat cakes were baked, and added to soup, boiled meat and vegetables.
The difficult conquest of Europe
In 1532, a detachment of conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire and annexed the Andes region to the Kingdom of Spain. In 1535, the first written mention of South American potatoes appeared. It was the Spaniards who brought potatoes from South America to Europe. But when and under what circumstances did this happen?
Until recently, it was believed that the first potato tubers appeared in Spain around 1570. They could have been brought by sailors returning from Peru or Chile to their homeland. Scientists suspected that only one variety of potato came to Europe, and the one that was grown on the coast of Chile. A 2007 study found that this is not entirely true. The first potato plantings outside the Western Hemisphere began in the Canary Islands, where ships sailing between the New and Old Worlds stopped. Vegetable gardens in which potatoes grew have been mentioned in the Canaries since 1567. A study of modern varieties of Canarian tubers has shown that their ancestors actually came here directly from South America, and not from one place, but from several at once. Consequently, potatoes were delivered to the Canaries several times, and from there they were brought to Spain as an exotic vegetable, well known to the Canarians.
There are many legends about the spread of potatoes. For example, the Spaniards attribute the delivery of the first tubers to a special order of King Philip II. The British are sure that potatoes came to them directly from America thanks to the pirates Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh. The Irish believe that Irish mercenaries brought potatoes to their country from Spain. The Poles say that the first Polish potatoes were presented to King John Sobieski by Emperor Leopold for the defeat of the Turks near Vienna. Finally, Russians believe that potatoes took root in Russia thanks to Peter I. To this it is worth adding stories about various tricks and even violence that wise sovereigns allegedly resorted to in order to force their subjects to grow a useful plant. Most of these legends and stories are just anecdotes or misconceptions.
The real history of the spread of potatoes is much more interesting than any legends. No matter what the British imagine, all European potatoes have the same origin from Canarian and Spanish potatoes. From the Iberian Peninsula it came to Spanish possessions in Italy and the Netherlands. By the beginning of the 17th century, it was no longer uncommon in northern Italy, Flanders and Holland. In the rest of Europe, the first potato growers were botanists. They sent each other tubers of this still exotic plant and grew potatoes in gardens among flowers and medicinal herbs. From botanical gardens, potatoes ended up in vegetable gardens.
The promotion of potatoes in Europe cannot be called too successful. There were several reasons for this. Firstly, a variety that had a bitter aftertaste spread in Europe. Remember Charles Darwin's remark about English potatoes? Secondly, the leaves and fruits of potatoes contain corned beef poison, which makes the tops of the plant inedible for livestock. Thirdly, storing potatoes requires a certain skill, otherwise corned beef will also form in the tubers, or they will simply rot. Thanks to this, the most bad rumors were spread about potatoes. It was believed to cause various diseases. Even in those countries where potatoes found admirers among peasants, they were usually fed to livestock. It was rarely eaten, more often in times of famine or poverty. There were exceptions when potatoes were served to the table of kings or noble nobles, but only in very small portions as a culinary exotic.
A special case is the history of potatoes in Ireland. It got there in the 16th century thanks to fishermen from the Basque country. They took the tubers with them as additional provisions when they sailed to the shores of distant Newfoundland. On the way back they stopped in the west of Ireland, where they traded their catch and the remnants of what they had stored for the journey. Due to its wet climate and rocky soils, Western Ireland has never been famous for its cereal crops other than oats. The Irish didn't even build mills. When potatoes were added to the rather boring oatmeal, even the bitter taste was forgiven. Ireland was one of the few countries in Europe where eating potatoes was considered the norm. Until the 19th century, only one variety with wrinkled skin, white flesh and low starch content was known here. Usually it was added to “stew” - a brew of everything in the world, which was eaten with bread made from unground grain. In the 18th century, potatoes saved poor Irish people from hunger, but in the 19th century they became the cause of a national disaster.
Potato revolution
Antoine Auguste Parmentier presents potato flowers to the King and Queen
The 18th - 19th centuries became the era of the Great Potato Revolution. During this period, there was rapid population growth throughout the world. In 1798, the English thinker Thomas Malthus discovered that it was growing faster than the economy and agriculture were developing. It would seem that the world was facing imminent famine. But at least in Europe this did not happen. Potatoes brought salvation from starvation.
The Dutch and Flemings were the first to appreciate the economic advantages of potatoes. They had long ago abandoned the cultivation of labor-intensive grain crops, preferring to develop more profitable stalled livestock farming, which in turn required large quantities of feed. At first, the Dutch fed their cows and pigs turnips, but then relied on potatoes. And we didn't lose! Potatoes grew well even in poor soils and were much more nutritious. The experience of the Dutch and Flemings came in handy in other countries when wheat crop failures became more frequent. To preserve feed grains for food, cattle were fed potatoes.
In the second half of the 18th century, the cultivation of this crop steadily expanded. In the middle of the 18th century, they appeared on the territory of Belarus. In Russia, Catherine II was concerned about the development of potato growing. But even at the beginning of the 19th century, in the central Russian regions, potatoes were perceived as a curiosity, which was sometimes ordered from abroad.
The introduction of potatoes into the regular diet of Europeans was due to wars and fashion. In 1756, European countries were engulfed in the Seven Years' War. Its participant was the French doctor Antoine Auguste Parmentier. He was captured in Prussia, where for several years he was forced to eat and even medicate with potatoes. After the end of the war, A. O. Parmentier became a real champion of this plant. He wrote articles about potatoes, served potato dishes at dinner parties, and even gave ladies potato flowers.
The doctor's efforts were noticed by famous figures in France at the time, including Minister Anne Turgot and Queen Marie Antoinette. She happily introduced boiled potatoes to the royal table menu and wore potato flowers on her dress. The queen's innovations were taken up by her subjects and other monarchs. Frederick of Prussia is credited with playing a joke on Voltaire. He allegedly treated him to potatoes, and then asked how many of these fruits grew on the trees in his state, but the great educator was not enlightened about what kind of fruit it was and what it grew on.
Real success came to potatoes during the Napoleonic wars of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Military actions were accompanied by the destruction of grain harvests. Meanwhile, a lot of food was required for the soldiers and their horses. Potatoes became a salvation for the broad masses of the population. Marie-Henri Bayle, also known as the French writer Stendhal, told how during the famine of the Franco-Russian War of 1812 he fell to his knees when he saw nutritious tubers in front of him.
Bread, cheese, salted fish, potatoes and cabbage became the staple foods of European workers during the Industrial Revolution. But, if in hungry winters the prices for bread rose so that it became unattainable for the poor, then potatoes always remained affordable. Many workers kept vegetable gardens in the suburbs, where they always planted potatoes. However, excessive passion for potato dishes turned into a tragedy for one people.
Great Famine in Ireland
As mentioned above, the Irish began to widely eat potatoes long before the advertising campaign of A. O. Parmentier. In the 18th century, with population growth and a reduction in the area of peasant plots, the Irish increasingly had to sow fields not with oats, but with more productive potatoes. The British authorities only encouraged this practice. “By means of laws, regulations, counter-regulations and executions, the government has introduced potatoes into Ireland, and therefore its population is much larger than that of Sicily; in other words, here it was possible to accommodate several million peasants, downtrodden and stupefied, crushed by labor and poverty, eking out a miserable life in the swamps for forty or fifty years,” Stendhal emotionally described the current situation.
Ireland's growing population was poor but not starving until late blight, a disease of nightshade and some related plants caused by microscopic, fungus-like organisms called oomycetes, was accidentally introduced into Europe. The homeland of late blight is not the Andean region, where potatoes were cultivated for many millennia, but Mexico, where potatoes were introduced by the Spaniards. The Mexicans were not avid potato eaters or fans of nightshade crops in general, so tuber diseases did not particularly worry them.
In 1843, the disease was recorded in the eastern United States, where it could have arrived along with seed material from Mexico. In 1845, seed potatoes from the United States were imported into Belgium, and from Belgium the disease spread to other European countries. Neither scientists, nor even more so peasants and officials, yet understood what late blight was, where it came from, and how to fight it. They simply saw the crops rotting right in the fields. The situation was worsened by the fact that all European varieties had the same origin, and oomycetes found a favorable environment here.
When Ireland suffered its first major potato crop failure in 1845, the British authorities imported seed from Belgium and distributed wheat and corn to the peasants left without food. The Irish sold the wheat to English traders and threw away the unfamiliar corn. But the next year the potato crop failure occurred again, and on an even larger scale. Famine broke out among the potato-addicted population. It lasted for several years and was accompanied by epidemic diseases - eternal companions of malnutrition. The 1841 census recorded 8,175,124 inhabitants in Ireland - about the same as in our time. In 1851 they counted 6,552,385 people. Thus, the population decreased by 1.5 million people. It is believed that about 22 thousand died from hunger, and just over 400 thousand from disease. The rest emigrated.
In modern Ireland, potatoes continue to play a big role in nutrition, but still the Irish are inferior to Belarusians in the production and consumption of potatoes.
How Belarusians began to eat potatoes
King and Grand Duke Augustus III. During his reign, Belarusians began to grow potatoes
In Belarus and Lithuania, potatoes began to be grown in the mid-18th century, but until the first half of the 20th century they did not play a special role in nutrition. They used it to make a Lenten stew, add it to bread, less often bake it and eat it as an independent dish. Much more often, potato starch was used, which, however, was considered low-grade, like potato vodka. From the mass remaining after squeezing out the starchy liquid, cheap cereals were prepared to be used in soup. Belarusians preferred flour dishes to potatoes. This even applied to poor peasants. It is characteristic that in the biographical poem “New Land” by Yakub Kolas, potatoes are mentioned only twice. One time Uncle Anton makes dumplings from it. The second time her mother feeds her pigs. But the word “bread” appears 39 times in the poem.
However, in the 19th century, potato planting in Belarus constantly expanded. The main fans of this plant were landowners. For political reasons, the Russian imperial authorities limited their economic opportunities, so they had to rely on a highly productive economy. Potatoes were grown as a fodder and industrial crop. It was fed not only to pigs, but also to cows, sheep, chickens and turkeys. Starch, sweet molasses, yeast were made from potatoes, and low-grade alcohol was distilled. In households, fabrics were washed with grated potatoes.
The potato revolution in Belarus began during the First World War and then the Soviet-Polish War, which lasted from 1914 to 1921. Then potatoes began to be widely eaten due to a shortage of grain. It is curious that during the peaceful 1920s, potato consumption did not decrease, but even increased. Moreover, both in Soviet and Western Belarus. The reason for this was several lean years for grain crops. The collectivization that followed led to the reduction of personal peasant plots to the size of small vegetable gardens, in which it became unprofitable to grow rye or wheat. But potatoes planted on several acres could feed a family even in the most difficult years of famine.
In the post-war period, there was an expansion of potato fields in both household and collective farms. In fact, the trend to increase potato planting was set by the all-Union leadership, but it was clearly followed only in our republic. Potato growing was transformed from a subsidiary industry into a knowledge-intensive one. In the BSSR, their own potato varieties were created and their processing was established. In my opinion, it was not so much the foresight of the Belarusian leadership that was to blame, but the desire for good reporting. After all, Belarusian agriculture could not compete in grain yields with Ukraine and Kazakhstan due to natural and climatic reasons, but it accounted for a high potato harvest. In the 20th century, Belarusians learned not only to eat potatoes, but also mythologized this process. Potatoes have become an integral part of our folklore and even fiction. Only a Belarusian Soviet writer could have come up with the idea of composing a patriotic work called “Potatoes.”
Today, small Belarus ranks ninth in potato production in the world, and first in terms of per capita production. Of course, we don’t eat all the potatoes. We sell some of it to other countries, we process some of it, and some of it goes to feed livestock and pigs. The passion of Belarusians for potatoes makes our neighbors smile, and makes us irritated. Belarus buys thousands of tons of vegetables and fruits abroad, but continues to plant potatoes. However, when I look at the wide potato fields of our homeland, I am calm. As long as potatoes grow, we are not afraid of hunger and disasters. The main thing is that some new analogue of late blight does not happen, as it once happened in Ireland.
Outside Europe
“I love fried potatoes, I love mashed potatoes. I generally love potatoes.” Do you think these words were said by an Irishman or a Belarusian? No, they belong to the black American singer Mary J. Blige. Today potatoes are grown in all countries of the world. Even in tropical Asia and Africa, where it has to compete with other tubers like sweet potatoes, yams and taro, it is considered a very common, tasty and affordable food. The Andean people gave the world potatoes, Europeans spread them beyond this region, but the history of potatoes outside of South America and Europe is no less educational and fascinating.
The Spanish brought potatoes to Mexico just a couple of decades after conquering the Inca state. Although much of this North American country resembles Peru with its high mountains and arid valleys, its fate there was completely different from that in Europe. Mexican Indians and Spanish settlers were not interested in this plant. They stayed true to corn and beans. The first description of potatoes grown in Mexico appeared only in 1803, and they began to be grown on an industrial scale only in the middle of the 20th century.
Perhaps the culprit was the local nature, which resisted the introduction of a new agricultural crop. After all, Mexico is the homeland of two main enemies of potatoes, the already mentioned late blight and the Colorado potato beetle. The latter came to the United States from Mexico in the 19th century, destroying a significant part of the crop in Colorado in 1859. At the beginning of the 20th century, beetle eggs along with seed material were brought to France, from where it began its offensive across European countries. The Colorado potato beetle appeared in Belarus in 1949, flying over the border with neighboring Poland.
Potatoes from the United States and Canada are of European origin, meaning they were imported by settlers from Europe and not directly from South America. Like us, it was considered to a greater extent as a fodder and industrial crop. Widespread consumption began only in the last quarter of the 19th century, under the influence of European immigrants who brought new eating habits from their native countries. An exception is the so-called Indian potato of the Pacific coast of North America. The Indians have been growing it since the end of the 18th century. In Alaska, potatoes were an important commodity that the Tlingit Indians traded with Russian American Company traders for textiles and metal products. According to one version, Indian potatoes come from California, where they arrived in the 18th century thanks to the Spanish Jesuits. According to another, Peruvian fishermen accidentally brought it to Vancouver Island. Potatoes became the first agricultural crop developed by the Indians of the west coast of Canada and Alaska.
In southern China and the Philippine Islands, potatoes became known around the same time as in Europe. It was brought there by Spanish traders from Peru. The Filipinos were never able to appreciate the nutritional qualities of imported tubers, but began to grow them to sell to sailors. In China, potatoes remained an exotic plant until the 20th century. It was served to the table of noble nobles and emperors. However, ordinary people knew little about her. At the end of the 18th century, the British introduced potatoes to eastern India. From there, in the 19th century, it came to Tibet. In tropical Africa, the potato culture became known thanks to merchants from Europe, but became widespread only in the middle of the 20th century.
Today, many gardeners successfully grow potatoes. Delicious and nutritious dishes are prepared from it. The history of the vegetable is truly amazing. Let's remember where the homeland of potatoes is located, and how the culture appeared in European countries and Russia.
Every educated citizen should know that the birthplace of potatoes is South America. Its history began more than ten thousand years ago in the territory adjacent to Lake Titicaca. The Indians tried to grow wild potatoes and spent a lot of time and effort on it.
The plant became an agricultural crop only five thousand years later. Thus, the birthplace of potatoes is Chile, Bolivia and Peru.
In ancient times, Peruvians idolized the plant and even made sacrifices to it. The reason for this veneration has never been established.
Today, more than 1,000 varieties of potatoes can be found on the commercial market in Peru. Among them are green tubers the size of a walnut, and raspberry-colored specimens. Dishes from them are prepared right at the market.
Europeans first tried potatoes, which originated in South America, in the 16th century. In 1551, geographer Pedro Cieza da Leon brought it to Spain, and later described its nutritional properties and taste. Each state greeted the product differently:
For a long time, Europeans unfairly called potatoes “the devil’s berry” and destroyed them due to mass poisoning. Over time, the product became a frequent guest on the table and received universal recognition.
The French believed that potato tubers were the food of the lower stratum of society. The vegetable was not cultivated in this country until the second half of the 18th century. Queen Marie Antoinette wove the flowers of the plant into her hair, and Louis the 16th appeared at the ball pinning them to his ceremonial uniform.
Soon, every nobility began to grow potatoes in flower beds.
A special role in the development of potato production was played by the royal pharmacist Parmentier, who planted a plot of arable land with vegetables and assigned a company of soldiers to guard the plantings. The doctor announced that anyone who steals a valuable crop will die.
When the soldiers went to the barracks at night, the peasants dug up the ground and stole the tubers. Parmentier wrote a work on the benefits of the plant and went down in history as a “benefactor of humanity.”
Potatoes appeared in our country thanks to Tsar Peter the Great. The emperor brought new products, clothing, and household items from Europe. This is how potatoes appeared in Rus' at the beginning of the 18th century, which peasants began to grow on the orders of the Tsar.
People did not value tubers the way they did in his homeland. The peasants considered them tasteless and were wary of them.
During wars, this vegetable saved people from hunger and already in the mid-18th century it became the “second bread”. The product became widespread thanks to Catherine II. In 1765, the government recognized its usefulness and obliged peasants to grow “earth apples.”
In 1860, a famine began in the country, forcing people to eat potatoes, which, to their surprise, turned out to be quite tasty and nutritious.
Over time, the earthen apple began to be cultivated throughout the country. Even the poor could afford it, because the culture is able to adapt to climatic conditions.
Today, the benefits and chemical composition of the product have been sufficiently studied by experts. Agricultural producers have learned to properly care for crops and protect them from diseases and pests.
Currently, potatoes are among the staple foods and are an essential ingredient in many recipes. There is no need to idolize potatoes, as the Peruvians, the inhabitants of the homeland of potatoes, did. You should treat this root vegetable with respect, know where it came from and what it is useful for.
The UN declared 2009 the “International Year of the Potato”. Therefore, this year I decided to devote my work to this particular plant and experiment with growing potatoes indoors.
The first time I saw potatoes was when I was 2 years old, in my grandmother’s garden. And even then I had questions: why are they different colors, why are there large and small tubers on one bush at the same time, where did the potatoes come from, why can’t I eat the green “balls” that appeared after flowering, because they are so beautiful! Now I have learned a lot about potatoes and can answer all my childhood questions.
The history of the appearance of potatoes in Europe in Russia.
Potatoes were first discovered by the Indians of South America in the form of wild thickets. The Indians began growing potatoes as a cultivated plant approximately 14 thousand years ago. Potatoes replaced bread and they called him daddy. Potatoes were first brought to Europe (Spain) by Francis Drake in 1565, after traveling to South America. Once from America to Europe, potatoes became a great traveler. It reached Italy, Belgium, Holland, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Great Britain, etc.
But at first, in Europe, potatoes were perceived as a curiosity. Sometimes people did not know the simplest thing: what is edible in a plant. They used it as an ornamental plant for its beautiful flowers, then they tried the fruits - green berries. A funny story happened in Ireland. The gardener spent a long time caring for the new plant. After the potatoes bloomed, he collected a harvest from the bush - green berries the size of a hazelnut. These fruits turned out to be completely inedible. The gardener began to destroy the plant. He pulled the bush by the top and large tubers fell at his feet. After boiling them, he realized that the potatoes were tasty, but they were eating them from the wrong end.
The agronomist who discovered that potatoes are tasty and nutritious, and not at all poisonous, is Antoine-Auguste Parmentier.
Potatoes were first brought to Russia by Peter I at the end of the 17th century. He sent a bag of tubers from Holland to the capital to distribute to the provinces for cultivation. At first, the people did not want to recognize this foreign product. Many people died due to poisoning from eating the fruits and refused to plant this overseas plant.
In Russia, potatoes took root with difficulty. Then the ruler was Nicholas 1, nicknamed Palkin. Under him, guilty soldiers were beaten to death with sticks. He decided to plant potatoes with a stick. People believed rumors that potatoes were “damn apples” and brought evil. “Potato riots” broke out. The rebels were beaten with rods and even exiled to Siberia for disobedience.
But time passed, and potatoes turned from an unwanted “guest” into a full-fledged master on the table, becoming the second bread for both Russia and the whole of Europe. You can prepare excellent dishes from potatoes: boiled potatoes, fried, baked, mashed potatoes, potato casseroles, pancakes, potato pies, dumplings, etc.
In each country, potatoes are called differently. The English are potatos. The Dutch - hardapel (translated as “earth apple”). The French - pom de terre (“earth apple”). Italians - tartufel. The Germans are potatoes. Russians love potatoes. That's how many names potatoes have!
Potato dishes
Biology of potatoes.
POTATOES are a perennial (in cultivation – annual) plant of the nightshade family, which is grown for its edible tubers. There are mainly two closely related species - the Andean potato, which has long been cultivated in South America, and the Chilean potato, or tuberous potato, widespread in countries with temperate climates.
There are edible sweet potatoes, or yams. It belongs to a different plant family.
Yam (sweet potato)
Tuberous potatoes are grown in 130 countries, where 75% of the world's population lives. It is the fifth most important source of calories in the modern human diet after wheat, corn, rice and barley. The leading potato producers are Russia, China, Poland, the USA and India.
Tuberous potato is a herbaceous plant, erect when young, but lies down after flowering. Stems are 0.5–1.5 m long, usually with 6–8 large pubescent leaves. Modified shoots (stolons) extend underground from the tuber. Tubers form at their ends. The root system penetrates to a depth of 1.5 m. Flowers (yellow, purple or blue) are formed in 6-12 inflorescences. Pollination by wind or insects, self-pollination is widespread. The fruit is a spherical berry, purple when ripe, containing up to 300 seeds. The seeds are flat, yellow or brown, very small. The tubers have a spherical or oblong shape; those that have reached a length of 8–13 cm are usually eaten. Their external color is white, yellow, pink, red or blue; the inside is more or less white. On the surface of the tuber lie the so-called. ocelli bearing 3–4 buds. The formation of tubers begins just before flowering and ends at the end of the growing season. There are large reserves of starch inside the tuber.
Potatoes are propagated vegetatively - by tubers. Germination of tuber buds in the soil begins at 5-8°C (the optimal temperature for potato germination is 15-20°C). The best soils for potatoes are chernozems, sod-podzolic soils, gray forest soils, and drained peat bogs.
Non-standard ways of growing potatoes.
There are a great variety of ways to plant potatoes. From industrial to almost decorative - growing in barrels. Potatoes are planted on ridges and in trenches, in a checkerboard pattern and under film. The choice of technology depends, firstly, on the soil. Where groundwater is close and in low areas, it is better to prefer planting on ridges. In dry places - in trenches or separate holes.
To harvest an early potato harvest, the tubers are planted under black non-woven material. The area is dug up, fertilizer is applied, leveled with a rake and covered with black film, securing the edges. Then you need to make cross-shaped cuts in it, dig holes with a depth of 10–12 cm with a scoop and place the tubers in them. This method will protect potatoes from frost, retain moisture in the soil, avoid weed control and, finally, get a harvest almost a month earlier. This is how early potato varieties are grown. During harvesting, the tops are cut off, the film is removed, and the tubers are collected almost from the surface of the soil.
There is another interesting way to intensively grow potatoes - in a barrel. You need to take a tall, preferably without a bottom, barrel (iron, plastic, wooden, wicker). Make holes around the circumference so that water does not stagnate and the soil can breathe. Place several potatoes at the bottom of the container in a circle or in a checkerboard pattern and cover with a layer of soil. When the seedlings reach 2–3 cm, cover them again with soil. And so on several times until the barrel is filled to about a meter in height. The main thing is not to let the sprouts hatch completely, that is, to form the green part. In this case, the root system will stop developing and a thick stem will stretch all the way to the surface of the earth. The soil in the container needs to be regularly fed and watered well, especially in hot, dry weather. As a result, a bag or more of potatoes can be grown in a container with a volume of about one cubic meter.
Interesting Facts.
There is a potato museum in Belgium. Among its exhibits are thousands of items telling the history of the potato, from postage stamps with its image to famous paintings on the same subject (Van Gogh's The Potato Eaters).
On some tropical islands, potatoes were used as money.
Poems and ballads were dedicated to potatoes.
Potatoes were once glorified in his music by the great Johann Sebastian Bach.
There are two rare varieties in which the color of the peel and pulp remains blue even after cooking.
Different varieties of potatoes.
One of the most common varieties with bluish skin grown in Russian gardens is “sineglazka”. However, few people know that it is scientifically called “Hannibal”, in honor of Alexander Pushkin’s great-grandfather Abram Hannibal, who was the first to conduct experiments on the selection and storage of potatoes in Russia.
A monument to potatoes was opened in the city of Minsk in the 2000s. They will open soon in Mariinsk (Kemerovo region).
In Ireland, a gardener spent a long time caring for a plant that his owner brought from America. After the potatoes had flowered, he collected a harvest from the bush - green berries the size of a hazelnut. These fruits turned out to be completely inedible. The gardener began to destroy the plant. He pulled the bush by the top and large tubers fell at his feet. After boiling them, he realized that the potatoes were tasty, but they were eating them from the wrong end.
II. Research objectives:
Is it possible to grow a potato plant indoors during the polar night?
Compare the growth and development of plants placed in different conditions.
Find out whether it is possible to get identical plants by planting potatoes with whole tubers or halves.
Research objectives:
Find information in literature, the Internet, TV shows, and videos.
Prepare the container and soil for planting.
Sprout the potatoes in a warm place and then plant them in the soil.
Place the planted potatoes with whole tubers and halves of tubers in different conditions:
1. additional lighting + heat (control plant);
2. without lighting + heat;
3. without additional lighting + reduced temperature;
When the potatoes begin to sprout, record the results in an observation diary.
Take measurements, take photographs, write down your thoughts and assumptions in an observation diary.
Based on the results obtained, draw up a table, then build a graph and draw conclusions, and, if possible, make recommendations.
Experiment scheme.
06.01.09 – planted potatoes with whole tubers.
02/06/09 – completed the experiment.
01/06/09 – planted potatoes in halves.
02/06/09 – completed the experiment.
Conditions for conducting the experiment.
III. Methodology for conducting the experiment.
When I did not yet go to school and spent a lot of time with my grandmother, in the village, I noticed that she plants potatoes in the garden and whole tubers, and cuts them in half if the potatoes are large.
While conducting an experiment with growing potatoes in an apartment, I decided to compare:
1. Growth and development of potato plants placed in different conditions (three options).
2. Growth and development of a potato plant planted with whole tubers and halves under the same conditions.
If we assume that potatoes from halves will grow and develop no worse than from whole tubers, then fewer potatoes will be needed to plant the same area. It's more profitable. I will draw conclusions based on my assumption after observations.
At the end of December, I selected healthy potato tubers and placed them in a warm, dark place to sprout.
01/06/09 – planted them in prepared soil and placed them in selected places. These are the three options I mentioned earlier.
Watered the plant every 2 days.
I planted the germinated tubers.
10.01 – the first sprout appeared in V. 2.
13.01 – sprouts appeared in V. 1 and V. 3.
First shoots.
Every 5 days I measured the height of all plants and recorded them in a table. The difference in plant height became more and more noticeable. Plant B. 2. “rushed forward” and “lead” until the end of the experiment, gaining a height of 62 cm.
This didn't surprise me. The plant stood in a dark place. I assumed that it would grow faster, “look for the light,” reach for it. Plant B. 3. grows more slowly. It lacks light and the cold slows down its growth. V. 1 is in favorable conditions and grows almost like in a garden.
First shoots. After 10 days.
As a result of observations, it became noticeable that both the color and thickness of the plant stems were different in the three variants. Leaves appear at different times, they have different colors and their color changes depending on growth.
So, in Option 1, the stems and leaves are “strong” and large. They immediately turned green and remained that way until the end of cultivation. This is understandable because the plant received enough light. The leaves of any plant contain a coloring substance (chlorophyll), which appears in the presence of heat and light. This plant is similar to those that grow in the garden.
In Option 2 - throughout the entire time, the stems are white, long, thin and the leaves are small, yellowish, although they appeared first. This plant was in the dark, did not receive light, and did not produce chlorophyll. It is the highest, but weak.
In Option 3, the stems and leaves are pale green throughout the entire observation period, the leaves are small. It was illuminated periodically. This plant ranks 2nd in development.
Any plant needs water to grow. I noticed that the plant needed to be watered more often if it was kept warm with additional lighting. This means that the moisture evaporated faster here. Potatoes that were in a dark place were watered less often than others.
Potato plants planted with whole tubers and halves do not differ in their development and appearance.
IV. Processing of received data.
On 02/06/09 the last measurements were taken and the results were entered into the table.
13. 01. 09 0,6 3 0,4
18. 01. 09 2 11 4
22. 01. 09 13 20 10
27. 01. 09 21 38 17
01. 02. 09 27 48 23
06. 02. 09 35 56 29
Results of measuring the height of potato sprouts planted with whole tubers.
Chart No. 1
Height, cm Option 1 Option 2 Option 3
13. 01. 09 0,5 4 0,5
18. 01. 09 1,5 18 3
22. 01. 09 7 35 11
27. 01. 09 23 43 18
01. 02. 09 25 52 20
06. 02. 09 42 62 25
To clearly see the results of potato growth, you can build a graph.
Results of measuring the height of potato sprouts planted in halves.
Schedule No. 2
V. Conclusion.
1. Potato plants can be grown at home during the polar night.
2. Based on the results of observations and measurements, it can be seen that a plant placed in a warm place without constant lighting grew taller than others. It is tall, but very pale and weak. The leaves are small yellowish. The plant was drawn to the light, all its strength went into growth, and not into its development. Plant height 62 cm.
Option 2
The most beautiful and developed plant is one placed in a warm place with additional lighting. This potato spent its nutrition on development: the stem and leaves are green and large.
Plant height 42 cm.
Option 1
3. A plant grown in a cool place without constant light is light green, slightly elongated, the stem is thin, the leaves are small and very light. It did not receive enough light and heat.
Plant height 25 cm.
4. For better development of potato plants in indoor conditions, you need:
Additional lighting with fluorescent lamps;
Regular watering; Option 3
5. Plants planted with whole tubers and halves do not differ in growth. We can conclude that it is more profitable to plant tubers cut into pieces in the garden. It will be more economical this way. It’s better to use the remaining potatoes for food and cook something tasty.
6. A plant grown with your own hands brings great joy. It becomes like a friend. Every day you meet with it, take care of it, you can talk (by the way, then it will grow better).
I haven't finished my work. Spring is coming, I still want to see if it will bloom, and maybe small tubers will appear.
There are many more different experiments that can be carried out with plants, and maybe next year I will continue to work in this direction.
I have achieved my goal.
This is how the potatoes grew during the experiment.
Today we will open the curtain on the question: Who was the first to bring potatoes to Russia? It is known that in South America the Indians have successfully cultivated potatoes since time immemorial. This root vegetable was brought to Europe by the Spaniards in the middle of the 16th century. There is no reliable information about when exactly this vegetable appeared in Rus', but researchers note that this event is more likely associated with the Peter the Great period. At the end of the 17th century, Peter I, visiting Holland, was interested in this unusual plant. Having spoken approvingly of the taste and nutritional properties of the tuber, he ordered the delivery of a bag of seeds to Count Sheremetyev in Russia for breeding.
In the capital of Russia, the vegetable took root slowly; at first, the peasants distrusted the foreign product and refused to cultivate it. In those days there was an interesting story related to the solution to this problem. The king ordered potatoes to be planted in the fields and protected, but only during the daytime, and at night the fields were deliberately left unattended. The peasants of the adjacent villages could not resist the temptation and began to steal tubers from the fields, first for food, and then for sowing.
At first, cases of potato poisoning were often reported, but this was due to the ignorance of ordinary people on how to properly use this product. The peasants ate potato berries, which are very similar to green tomatoes, but unsuitable for human food and very poisonous. Also, from improper storage, for example in the sun, the tuber began to turn green, solanine was formed in it, and this is a poisonous toxin. All these reasons led to poisoning.
Also, the Old Believers, of whom there were a great many, considered this vegetable a devilish temptation; their preachers did not allow their coreligionists to plant it or. And church ministers anathematized the root crop and dubbed it the “devil’s apple,” because Translated from German, “Kraft Teufels” means “devil’s power.”
Due to all of the above factors, Peter I’s excellent idea of distributing this root crop throughout mother Russia was not implemented. As historians say, the king’s decree on the widespread dissemination of this crop aroused the indignation of the people, forcing the monarch to listen and retreat from the “potatoization” of the country.
Measures for the large-scale promotion of potatoes everywhere were launched by Empress Catherine II. In 1765, more than 464 pounds of root crops were purchased from Ireland and delivered to the Russian capital. The Senate delivered these tubers and instructions to all corners of the Empire. It was also intended to cultivate potatoes not only on public field lands, but also in vegetable gardens.
In 1811 Three settlers were sent to the Arkhangelsk province with the task of planting a certain amount of land. But all the implementation measures taken did not have a clearly planned system, so the population greeted potatoes with suspicion, and the crop did not take root.
Only under Nicholas I, due to the low grain harvest, did some volosts begin to take more decisive measures to cultivate tuber crops. In 1841 A decree was issued by the authorities, which ordered:
The implementation of these measures encountered popular resistance in many counties. In 1842 A potato riot broke out, which manifested itself in the beating of local authorities. To pacify the rioters, government troops were brought in, who destroyed the unrest of the people with particular cruelty. For a long time, turnips were the main food product for people. But little by little attention to potatoes returned. It was only at the beginning of the 19th century that this vegetable became widely known and many times saved people from starvation during lean years. It is no coincidence that potatoes were nicknamed “second bread”.
