The potato is a tuber that is also called potato.

Its scientific name is Solanum

tuberosum. It is native to South America and is currently cultivated in almost every
country in the world.

Among so many unknown things that the Spaniards discovered in the New World,
there was a strange tuber that grows and develops underground: the potato. Although
at first the Spaniards thought it was a kind of truffle.

The indigenous people who lived in the Andes called it sweet potato, and that is where
it derives its present name.

The Spaniards soon realized the high nutritional value of this plant and the ease with
which it could be preserved. Little by little they began to eat it on their ships and some
years later, probably between 1565 and 1570, the potato was introduced by sailors in
Spain. Ten years later, in 1580, the potato began to be cultivated in Italian gardens.
Not only in orchards or fields, but precisely in gardens. Indeed, both in Italy and later in
the rest of Europe, the potato was considered for a long time as a curiosity, an exotic
plant that only a few botanists cultivated and not precisely to be eaten once cultivated.

Antoine Auguste Parmentier

Antoine Auguste Parmentier

It was at the end of the 18th century, thanks to the Frenchman Parmentier, that the
custom of using it as food spread throughout Europe.

Since then, this valuable vegetable has become increasingly important in the human
diet, and today it has become the nutritional basis of many countries around the world.

Where the first potatoes were discovered

Originally from Chile and Peru, where they had long been cultivated by local
populations, the potato was discovered by the Spanish during the conquest of America
and subsequently brought to Europe.

It was not until many years later that its nutritional importance was recognized. It was
only towards the end of the 18th century, and thanks especially to Louis XVI, that its
cultivation began on a large scale.
The potato is a plant with an herbaceous stem and a height of about 60 centimeters,
with oval, whitish-colored leaves on the underside. What we eat is not the fruit, but the
subway stem of the plant, called tuber, bulging and converted into a storehouse of
reserve substances.

The Incas knew more than 60 varieties of potatoes suitable for different climates, to the
point of cultivating them both near the coastal deserts and at an altitude of 4,000
meters, in the areas near Lake Titicaca.

Apart from being used as a vegetable, the plant is also currently used for the
production of starch, starch flour, dextrin and alcohol.

MODERNITY OF THE POTATO

The memoirs of the enlightened reflect a diversity of opinions about the potato. Some
of these views recorded its qualities, others transmitted, recognized and refuted certain
myths, for example, that of its place of origin, its incidence of scurvy, its harmful effects
on pregnancy, and described it as a food for war, the Indians and the poor.50 The
resistance to change in its consumption over time expresses the struggle between
tradition and modernity.

Humboldt and Caldas, as scientists, perceived the potato in a similar way and were
interested in the favorable climatic conditions for its cultivation, but while the former
considered it to be a food of the Indians, the latter presented it as a food of the poor.
Both scholars offered a positive view of the tuber and its importance in preventing
famine. In Ideas for a geography of plants, plus a picture of the nature of tropical
countries (1809), Humboldt called it a "beneficial plant", denying its "wild existence"
and favored medium altitudes for its sowing. He was aware of its easy adaptation to
climates as extreme as that of Siberia.51 The scientist referred to "potatoes" as fleshy
fruits, which offered the natives a nutritious food and which, like "bananas", lent
themselves to different preparations. He questioned, however, the assertion of those
who claimed that the tuber originated in New Granada.52 Humboldt made some
observations about the "obscure place of origin of the potatoes," an aspect that caused
concern and interest among the enlightened, along with the myth of its transfer to
Europe.53

"The potato is very good and is the basis of everyone's sustenance", said the scientist
Francisco José de Caldas in Quito. With this phrase he expressed very well the
inclusion at the different tables, no matter what the condition of the diners was. This
was also the way some enlightened people in Europe considered it. This "democratic"
affirmation was at odds with some comments in the Semanario de la Nueva Granada,
which stated that it was a poor man's food. There he described the places (the height
above sea level and the temperature) favorable for the cultivation of potatoes:
"Between 3000 and 4000 meters, potatoes are the main object of agriculture". Caldas
spoke positively of the potato, which he also referred to as Solanum tuberosum: "The
potato, the beneficent plant on which the subsistence of the population in the most
sterile countries of Europe is based in large part".54 Nevertheless, he was a witness to
this imbalance in the diet, criticizing the lack of meat in the consumption of an
agriculture based on corn, sugar cane and plantain, and "the roots, the yucca, potato
and arracacha". 55 On his journey through the Audiencia of Quito, the food he was
offered in a humble hut in Sachapungo, in present-day Ecuador, consisted of "boiled
and roasted barley and a handful of potatoes".56 In contrast, La Condamine did not
mention it in his writings, despite speaking of the variety of American plants.

Don José María Salazar, a learned man and professor at the Pinillos College of
Mompox, wrote a memoir in the same Semanario del Nuevo Reino that "impugned
several errors" of the traveler Mr. Leblond, in relation to the climate and living
conditions in Santafé. He criticized the Frenchman when he said that "the uncultivated
fields offered only a few plants, some miserable roots, quinoa, potato, and corn, which
perhaps deceived hope because of the instability of the climate",58 to which Salazar
set out to respond by explaining how "wheat, barley, and potato make the mainstay of
their cultivation". In his memoirs, in turn, he made known, in addition to the mildness of
the climate and the exuberance of its landscapes, a great variety of products typical of
the area.59

Scientists in the second part of the eighteenth century used scientific, political and
economic claims to promote potato consumption and prevent famine. As has been
said, under new epistemological constructions that favored food exchange, the potato,
that simple root, was introduced into the food sphere of the various European
countries. Its resurgence occurred in the face of the fear of scarcity and hunger, in the
nineteenth century, when food alternatives were sought in the face of world population
growth.

In treatises such as that of the French chemist and gastronome Antoine Augustin de
Parmentier, and that of Henry Doyle, an Irishman who settled in Spain, a new look at
the product includes new forms of consumption. This "recolonization" of the potato
faces challenges in times of famine and plagues and the need to spread the food
among the growing population. Although its consumption in Europe had been going on
for centuries, it was in the second half of the eighteenth century when this process,
which can be called intercultural, began to be seen. In 1772, the hygienist and chemist
De Parmentier proposed a form of "legume preservation" through heat and promoted
its consumption, especially in puree and soups. The chemist's projects would be the
prelude to what later became known as "French-style potatoes". To this end, he
proposed:

[...] parboil the potatoes by boiling them in salted water, then cut them into slices that
are put to dry in a baker's oven; they harden and can be preserved for an indefinite
period of time. When one wants to use them, it is enough to throw them into the water
over a low flame; these slices can also be reduced to powder, to make "very healthy"
puree or soups.60
Years later, in 1799, the Tratado sobre el cultivo, uso y utilidades de las patatas o
papas e introducción para su mejor propagación, by Enrique Doyle, was published in
Spain. In the work he reported on the importance that the potato had acquired in
Ireland, England and Holland, and the selection of different species: ten for the table
and eight for livestock.61 Like Parmentier, Doyle organized, with the support of the
State, several prizes to promote the intensification of its cultivation and consumption.
Prominent in Doyle's writing is the mention of this food at the various tables:

The poor eat them in various ways, the rich use them at their tables with meats and
other viands instead of bread; so that the table is not adorned without a dish of
potatoes; even at the table of the King himself they esteem them as a very delicate
delicacy, having in their favor that they can be prepared and stewed in a thousand
different ways, to form a tasty, healthy and easy to digest food: boiled, roasted, in white
sauce; they are eaten with salted meat, cod or other salted fish thus tastefully
correcting the acrimony they might cause in our humors. 62

After three centuries of having entered the tuber in Europe, now its consumption was
rewarded and stimulated in France and Spain. A great step was being taken towards
the recolonization and revaluation of the potato and the beginning of new proposals for
its consumption, which had already become generalized in the United Kingdom.

During the nineteenth century, some travelers to the Andes associated good food with
the consumption of diverse and abundant meats. In addition, the potato served as
evidence to study the differences of the tropics and harvest times. In their interest in
classifying, measuring and knowing nature, they reflected on the importance of altitude
and temperature for their production, making more reference to the consumption of
maize, yucca and plantain than to that of the potato. Their observations on the tuber
depended on the places where they traveled, and included some recommendations of
"civilizing forms" in the recently independent Colombia.

In his memoirs, the naturalist and chemist Jean-Baptiste Boussingault referred to the
varied environment of potato planting, exchange and consumption: on the road to
Herveo (center of present-day Tolima), he and his retinue were welcomed with fresh
meat, excellent cheese, potatoes and milk; on the banks of the Magdalena River, when
referring to the meal of bogas, he included the potato, although he described the
sancocho as a stew with 100 bananas (sic), salted pork and garlic, which they left to
ferment and ate the next day, "with a strong ammoniacal odor." 63 He spoke of the
average temperature (13 or 14 degrees Celsius) as the best for potato production.
About the sowing, he commented that, unlike the seasonal climates in Europe, it did
not need to be done at a certain time of the year.64 In the "hot lands" the potato meant
an exchange with higher altitudes.65 On the other hand, the traveler said, in the
southwest, the sancocho of Pasto meant a splendid dinner composed of "a mixture of
chicken, Indian pork and potatoes, all very spicy, prepared with chili [...] and all
scrambled".66
The Argentine diplomat Miguel Cané, on his trip through Venezuela and Colombia, was
much more emphatic in stating the difficulties of adapting to the heat and eating habits
in the Magdalena areas:

[...] the bell rings at the table and then begins the most terrible struggle for existence, of
those offered by the vast picture of animal creation. On one side the imperious, brutal
need to eat; on the other the stomach that resists, implores, struggles, aided by the
reflection of the boiler that raises the temperature to the point of roasting a bird that
dares to cross that atmosphere.67

Other European travelers, such as Charles Stuart Cochrane, Gaspar Theodore Mollien
and Ernest Röthlisberger associated the potato with the food of the poor.68 Mollien
considered that agricultural products, unlike mining, were not an alternative in the
exchange with Europe. Tubers he described as "too little consistent and appetizing for
the stomach of a European" and referred to the routine food of "a piece of meat cooked
with potatoes, yucca and plantains." 69 Meanwhile, the diplomat and traveler John
Potter Hamilton, in 1825, and later, at the end of the nineteenth century, the Swiss
Ernst Röthlisberger associated it with the food habits of the Indian population: "they
grow wheat, potatoes, corn of different varieties, vegetables and yucca; with a lot of
flour they make delicious cakes and pastries". 70 Hamilton left an account of the eating
habits of the natives: "The Indian gets up at three in the morning, has breakfast with
boiled potatoes, a corn cake and a few sips of milk and, from four in the morning until
the afternoon, works on the threshing floors without taking food, chewing only coca or
betel leaves, as pleasant to them as tobacco is to an English sailor". He commented on
a banquet with the Vice President of the Republic: "the food was most sumptuous, [but]
it was not the most appropriate for the English palate: I was very pleased with the
favorite Spanish dish called olla podrida; it consisted of boiled poultry, bacon, beef,
mutton and a variety of vegetables all mixed together in the same dish, but the art of
cooking was simple and free of garlic and oil". 71 For his part, Ernst Röthlisberger
referred to the poor and impoverished classes of the city as those most affected by the
prices of foodstuffs. He spoke of the "sobriety of the Indians" when referring to their
food: "nature supplies cheap plantains, as well as potatoes, yucca, rice and corn [...]
almost absolute lack of vegetables, very little and bad meat, and instead a lot of corn
liquor".