History of the potato

The "Papa" in the Andes

The result of natural hybridisations, "Solanum tuberosum" (our potato) seems to have occured spontaneously in the Andean countries, and more particularly close to the current coastline of Peru. Indeed, 200 years before our era, potatoes appear on pottery found near to the coast of Peru.

It is in the region of lake Titicaca, in irrigated terraces fertilised with guano ( seabird droppings) that the potato was first culivated. In this region (Peru, Bolivia) the cultivation of the potato expands into northerrn Chile, nort west Argentina and southern Ecuador, which approximatly marks the boundary of the future Inca empire. It gradually took the Quechuas name of "papa". It always bears this name in Latin America.

The principal tools used by the Incas to cultivate potatoes are the chakitaklla and the dorana. The chakitaklla is a long handle equipped with a foot support. It's dug into the earth and rotated by using a support which is found under the handle. This tool is still widely used in Andean agriculture at a high altitude.

The dorana resembles a hoe. The blade, more or less large, is fixed on a long handle by a strap. It is used for ploughing and hoeing.

The conquistadors of the New World

In the 16th century if the Spanish conquerers didn't reach Eldarado then they discoverd other riches. These included local agricultral produce: cocoa, maize, beans, lupins, tomatoes, gourds, cotton, coca, tobacco, and a plant of which the part that grew underground was edible, the "papa".

It was thus for a scientific purpose, and to vary the diet whilst travelling, that the potato arrived in Europe.

From Peru to Europe

Two routes are supposed :

The first by Spain (in Andulsia it's still called "papa") :

From Spain, Philippe II sent the tubers to the Pope in Rome, without doubt by analogy with the American word "papa". The Pope sent them to the governor of Mons in Belgium, who in turn gave them to a professor at the university of Leiden who was staying in Austria. From there the potato spread to Germany, Switzerland and then to eastern France.

The second route, which is more contreversial, opened some years later via Mexico to Virginia, from there it reached Canada, Great Britain, Ireland and the Nordic countries.

At the end of the 18th century, the potato became the principal agricultural product of Germany. It was also cultivated in Austria, Flanders,Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden and certain provinces of eastern France.

The potato in France

The first planting of potatoes the "truffoles" was localised in Ardeche in the middle of the 16th century. Officially it is Olivier de Serres who, in 1600, cultivated them for the first time at Vivarais.

Probably arriving from Switzerland in the 17th century, the potato was cultivated principally for animal fodder in Franche Comte, Dauphine, and in Burgundy. The French population was reluctant to use this underground plant because it came from the solanaceae family, like belladonna, mandrake and other toxic plants...

In addition it grew by planting and not by germination, it was not mentioned in the Bible and its cultivation was easy, therefore it could only be "the fruit of the Devil"...

It was not until Antoine Augustin Parmentier, who was born in 1737 at Montdidier, nearly 100 years after the introduction of the potato into France, that changes were made. A captive in Germany, the young military pharmacist learned by his own experience the nutritional value of this vegetable. Released in 1763, he began an information campaign to popularize its cultivation in France. He published a book on the "Economies of potatoes, wheat and rice" then, in 1773, a "Chemical review of potatoes". In 1781, he published a thesis, with new comments on the cultivation of potatoes, under the title: "Research on nourishing plants which, in times of famine, can replace ordinary foods".

It was by a double ploy that he succeeded in making the potato acceptable to the people...

He offered the flowering stems to Louis XVI, the King discovered and liked this famous tuber.

By cultivating 54 arpents (1 arpent = 58.47 metres) about 2 hectares in the plain of Sablons (today Neuilly) which was guarded by troops. Rumour was, that if the army was there to deny access, then what was growing must be of value. Parmentier then removed the guards at night... The local thieves soon discovered that the potatoes did not lead to any malady and their popularity became widespread.

This initiative helped introduce the potato into French life.

By cultivating it in their gardens, it was teachers and priests who provided an example. With the famine of 1789, the cultivation of the potato was generalised, it became a basic food commodity.