Potatoes have a popular use in fast food, like French fries, tater tots, hash browns etc. Potatoes can be found in any supermarket, and in many different parts of the world. The Potatoes was actually the name of a short-lived anti-bullying club at Lincoln. What a lot of people don’t know is where they are from, how they grow, and what they are.
Potatoes grow in full sunlight, and need it to survive. They are aggressively rooting plants, which means they constantly grow more roots, which means they need a lot of space for their enormous root systems. They like moist but not soggy soil. If you plant potatoes in soggy soil they will probably rot. They like slightly acidic soil, which is measured at 5.8-6.5 ph. Potato plants are very adaptable, and will grow even if the soil conditions are not perfect. They grow in the early spring, when the soil is about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. They can take a little bit of frost, but can’t take late winter temperatures, or snow. But before you put any of this knowledge to use, you must buy certified growing potatoes. These are selectively bred for growing, and are guaranteed to give a good yield. (The Garden Helper)
The history of the potato ranges all the way back to 3000 BC. Peru’s Inca Indians cultivated them, and they were at the time the size of a nut to the size of an apple. Their potatoes ranged from red to gold to blue to brown to black. In medicine, the raw slice of a potato was put on wounds to broken bones. They carried them to prevent rheumatism, and ate them to avoid indigestion. They also used potatoes to measure time, by the growth of a potato. Spanish conquistadors took them to Europe in 1537. In Europe they were considered evil and poisonous. They were believed to give people lepr...
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...pade. There are other methods such as the grow bag, the wire cylinder, and the raised bed, but explaining all those would turn this paragraph into a long list full of obscure methods that most people don’t use. (Organic Gardening)
As you can see, there is a lot to learn about the potato, excluding the project of shipping 1500+ types of potatoes to the Artic! Potatoes are hardy plants that you can plant in any garden, in any space! I hope you like the potato now!
Works Cited
"7 Ways to Plant Potatoes." Planting Potatoes: 7 Different Methods: Organic Gardening. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2014.
"HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF POTATOES." Potatoes, Their Early Origin & History. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2014.
"How to Plant and Grow Potatoes in Your Home Vegetable Garden." Potatoes, How to Plant and Grow Potatoes in Your Home Vegetable Garden. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2014.
Along with an exuberance of gold and silver, plants such as corn, tobacco, potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, sugar, and myriad other fruits and vegetables were introduced into European diets. The humble potato was especially adopted by the Irish; Tomatoes, the Spanish; and tobacco, the entire world. Due to the increased food supply, the European population exploded and necessitated the subsequent settlement of the ‘New World’.
Student ID: 23137443 The Human Desire of Control Michael Pollan uses the potato to address the idea of control, in particular, whether we have control over nature or it has control over us. Potatoes were first found in South America growing in the Andes. The ancestors of the Incas lived in that area and were the first known humans to cultivate these potatoes for human consumption (Pollan 131). When settlers came to the New World, they marveled at these new crops that grew from spuds and shipped them back to Europe.
In the ruins of ancient Peru and Chili, the remains of potatoes dating back to 500 B.C. have been found. Potatoes were such a part of Incan life that they not only ate them, but they worshiped them. "O Creator! Thou who givest life to all things and hast made men that they may live, and multiply. Multiply also the fruits of the earth, the potatoes and other food that thou hast made, that men may not suffer from hunger and misery."- Incan Prayer used to worship potatoes.
The Great Famine of 1845 With 3 million either gone or dead from the island of Ireland, 1845 was possibly the most painful year in its history. It was also obvious that something was afflicting Ireland, with the smell and sight of the crops. Death rates grew high, and immigration even higher during this time period of the famine. The Great Potato Famine of 1845 had a massive effect on Ireland in population decrease, the reactions of the people, and effects it had on the future of Ireland. One of the biggest, and nastiest, effects of the famine was population decrease.
Size of potato-will be the same as it will be cut using a cork and borer which cuts them all to the same diameter.
The populations of the New and Old Worlds were greatly affected by the Columbian Exchange. In the Old World, populations and life expectancies of individuals were flourishing. This was due to the exchanging of various edible plants between the two lands. In Europe, the introduction of the potato would greatly increase populations in many countries, especially Ireland. “The potato was originally grown in the Andes mountains” where the Natives first grew the tubular root (“Potato.”). Much of Europe was hesitant in growing and consuming the new food, but in 1794, during a wheat famine, soon came to love the new source of energy (“Potato.”) In Ireland, the potato quickly became a staple food as the population grew “by seven million in two centuries (“Potato.”).” With milk and approximately three acres of healthy potatoes planted, a family could be fed for two years, assuming no potatoes spoiled (“Potato.”). However, the Europeans weren’t the only ones who experienced the benefits of the Columbian Exchange. Maize was brought to Asia, causing rapid population growth, and wheat, beef, and plantain were of benefit to Native American’s nutrition (Crosby). However, Amerindian...
...o Ireland, but this only hurt them worse. Potatoes are very nutritious, and the transition of corn which lacked the nutrients caused scurvy. But in the end the British assumed if they just kept buying from the Irish they would pay their rents and buy some of their food from Britain. (History)
Food is an important factor in the everyday human life. Humans need food to be able to live. But how did the food people eat today come about, no one really knows the in depth explanation. What about more common foods that are a part of everyone’s everyday lives, like potato chips. They are a simple, easy snack food that is commonly in every American household. But does anyone know how they came about, who invented them. Well, let me explain a little about who that person was.
Potatoes have become a staple to the diet of humans.They have become so popular since they come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and tastes. They are also cheap and easy to grow, and they taste delicious! Potatoes have changed the course of history in several ways. Who knew that potatoes, just a starchy vegetable, could have helped shape the world in so many ways. First, the Irish Potato Famine killed a million people and caused another million to move out of Ireland. Second, soldiers in the United States army were able to eat potatoes throughout the war. Third, they prevented a famine from occurring in England after there was not a sufficient amount of crops going to sustain the country's cries for food. Many people wonder if potatoes have
Schlosser sets off chapter 5: “Why the Fries Taste Good,” in Aberdeen, Idaho at the J. R. Simplot Plant where he introduces John Richard Simplot, “America’s great potato baron,” (Schlosser 111). Simplot dropped out of school at 15, left home, and found work on a potato farm in Declo, Idaho making 30 cents an hour. Simplot bought and turned profit on some interest-bearing scrip from some school teachers and used the money to at 600 hogs at $1 a head. He feed the hogs horse meat from wild horses he shot himself, later selling them for $12.50 a head. At age 16 Simplot leased 160 acres to begin growing Russet Burbank Potatoes. In the 1920s the potato industry was just picking up as Idaho was discovered to have the ideal soil and conditions for successfully growing potatoes (Schlosser 112). Soon Simplot was the “largest shipper of potatoes in the West, operating 33 warehouses in Oregon and Idaho,” (Schlosser 113). During World War II Simplot sold dehydrated potatoes and onions to the U.S. Army. By the time he was 36 he “was growing his own potatoes, fe...
Domesticated potatoes were once all belong to one botanical species, Solanum tuberosum; it included thousands of varieties that had diversity in size, shape, color and other characteristics. The potato was first domesticated in the South America Andes, then the Puritans who took Mayflower arrived the land and the First Nations taught them about potatoes. Then the sailors went back to Europe and people started to plant potatoes in Spain, England, France, and many other countries in Europe. Later, potatoes were spread into Africa by the colonists. The crop was once believe to be poisonous by the local farmers who refused to plant them. However, the colonists persuaded the farmers and introduced potatoes as a low-price and high-production crop in substitute of wheat and rice.
The Great Potato Famine was a huge disaster that would change Ireland forever. The people in Ireland were extremely dependent on potatoes and when the blight came the economy went down. When the fungus attacked the potato crops slowly crop by crop throughout Ireland, people began to lose their main source of food. With the people in Ireland’s huge dependency on the potato, people began to starve or get sick from the potatoes. No one had any food to eat. The potatoes were black inside with molds through out it that came from the fungus from something in nature. The weather that brought the blight also was one of the causes because they could not control how the weather was bringing the fungus. Ireland was under the British government and did not help Ireland when they needed Britain. The aftermath of the Great Famine was not only a huge drop in population, but emigration, and much more.
Organic vs. Conventional Foods. (n.d.). Organic vs. Conventional Foods. Retrieved May 17, 2014, from https://www.drfuhrman.com/library/organicvsconventional.aspx
20 Jan. 2014. . "Why Is It Important to Eat Vegetables?" MyPyramid.gov. United States Department of Agriculture, 01 Oct. 2009.
Agriculture is quite possibly the most important advancement and discovery that humanity has made. It produces the one thing that we need the most: food. It has been around since 9500 BC, and can be the oldest sign of mankind’s acumen and the development and evolving of our minds and creations. Agriculture has been mastered throughout hundreds of years and is one of our most important resources on Earth, along with water and fossil fuels. Although the older farming methods from ancient times seem somewhat mediocre and barbaric, they were very ingenious and advanced for that time period. Over thousands of years, we have improved the way agriculture is used, how land is cultivated, the various techniques of farming and irrigation, and the tools and mechanics used. Numerous things that we see as aboriginal today, such as using a hand plow, were extremely contemporary in ancient times, and played key roles in the development of man and society, since quick labor was not abundant before this time. We are now extremely advanced in agriculture and irrigation and the tools used to farm and grow and harvest crops. We have learned from our past and ancestors how to grow and evolve in our methods and have advanced forward greatly.