A Brief Look at Potatoes

First, we estimated the osmolarity of potato tuber cells by measuring the change in the potato’s’ weight after they were incubated in various concentrations of sucrose solutions (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 M). First, we obtained 100mL of distilled water, and 100mL of each sucrose solution-which we placed in separate 250mL beakers. We then used a cork borer to extract 7 cylinders of potato. We then cut them all to about 5 cm long, and removed the skin from the ends. We placed all seven potato samples in a covered petri dish so they would not dry out. For consistency, we assigned each person their own, separate task to perform to each potato cylinder. First, one person removed the potato cylinder from the petri dish and used a paper towel to blot. Then

The conquistadors eventually used potatoes as rations on their ships and took it back to Spain (Chapman, n.d.). From there, the potato spread to other countries. Unfortunately, the potato was “regarded with suspicion, distaste and fear.” (Chapman, n.d.) Only animals were fed the potatoes at first but as time went on, the aristocracy of Europe began to encourage the lower classes to begin cultivating potatoes. Potatoes, however, did not become a staple until roughly 1795 and the food shortages that came during the time of the Revolutionary Wars in England. (Chapman, n.d.)

Before 1500, potatoes were not become outside of South America. By the 1840s, Ireland was so subject to the potato that the proximate reason for the Incomparable Starvation was a potato malady. Potatoes in the long run turned into an imperative staple of the eating regimen in quite a bit of Europe. Numerous European rulers, including Frederick the Incomparable of Prussia and Catherine the Incomparable of Russia, supported the development of the potato. Maize and cassava, acquainted with the Portuguese from South America in the sixteenth century, have supplanted sorghum and millet as Africa's most essential sustenance crops. sixteenth century Spanish colonizers acquainted new staple yields with Asia from the Americas, including maize and sweet potatoes, and along these lines added to populace development in Asia. Tomatoes, which came to Europe from the New World by means of Spain, were at first prized in Italy basically for their decorative esteem . From the nineteenth century tomato sauces wound up run of the mill of Neapolitan food and, eventually, Italian cooking when all is said in done. Espresso from Africa and the Center East and sugarcane from the Spanish West Independents turned into the fundamental fare product harvests of broad Latin American manors. Acquainted with India by the Portuguese, bean stew and potatoes from South America have turned into a basic piece of Indian

Introduced to Europe in the mid 1500s, potatoes were able to strongly impact European lives. They originally grew in Peru but spread throughout South America and later in Europe. Potatoes were able to thrive in Ireland, Scandinavia, Germany, and Poland. Potatoes were able to feed many people and improve food supply. The potato was able to supply a steady amount of calories and nutrients which was able to provide a better life for people of the Old World. Potatoes quickly spread throughout Europe and became an important crop. Today people still use the potato for food and other uses such as making stamps and soothing headaches. When growing potatoes today, many diseases can occur. Some include early and late blight, potato scab, and bacterial ring rot.

Through this crops such as maize, beans and potatoes became primary to the Old World

As the historical legend goes: in 1744, Frederick the Great of Prussia strived to cultivate the potato in an effort to lower the price of bread and rid the nation of a severe famine. His people were quick to oppose this proposition, though, believing the vegetable was a poisonous nightshade and the spawn of the Devil (as it is not mentioned in the Bible), or at the very least, tasteless and utterly disgusting that “not even the dogs will eat them” (Chapman). At first, the king carried out his Potato Edict with an iron fist, strictly requiring every peasant in the kingdom to grow the crop in their homes. Town records even show people being executed for their civil disobedience against this decree. Seeing little progress, Frederick the Great

The Inca Indians were the first people to cultivate potatoes in Peru between 8,000 and 5,000 B.C. The Inca people considered the potato sacred; they worshipped them and even buried them with the dead. They always kept a backup supply incase of war or famine. It wasn’t until the year 1536 that the crop began to spread beyond Peru. The Spanish Conquistadors took over Peru around this time; they originally were in search of gold but found something almost more valuable, the potato. They ended up taking the potatoes and transporting them to Europe. According to researchers it’s believed that the introduction of the potato helped put an end to the famine in Northern Europe that was going on at the time. The potato’s were brought to Spain in 1570 but were mostly used to feed livestock. Once the potatoes were

From my research on how potatoes are graded in America, I have learned that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) established and enforce the grading. The USDA has been enforcing and updating the quality grading system for all foods since 1862. The last time the quality grading system for potatoes was updated was in June of 2011. The system in place currently grades potatoes on the following information: shape, firmness, appearance, size, color, and being free from: soft rot, wet breakdown, blackheart, freezing, blight, scabs, rhizoctonia, and physical damage or foreign matter. Although there are three grades for potatoes available for purchase due to the USDA’s grading scale, all potatoes sold in the US must fall into this scale.

The history of potatoes started in South America spreading to Europe and adopted by different cultures around the word. It grew wild at the Andes Mountains. The Native Americans began cultivating it, and it became part of their believes. The conquistadors came and took it to Europe. It did not have a great impact at the beginning but as the time pass by it gain popularity. Ireland was one of the first countries to adopt it as a main product of their which later hurt them badly later on. During the later years other countries stated adopting and making it part of their culture, since it was cheap to grow.

The potato is highly nutritious, providing forty-five percent of a person’s Vitamin C needs, which was hard to come by in diets of the time. Being starchy, it provided many two to four times more calories than the Old World grains like oat, wheat, and barley per acre of farmland (McNeill, 1999). The potato was also an ergot-free alternative to rye, which if ingested, led to psychosis, death and reduced birth rates (Matossian, 1989). While requiring more labour to dig up the tubers from below the ground, the potato more than made up for it by being easier to prepare (no need for threshing), and by doubling Europe’s food supply (Mann, 2011).

Sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control. These are the four topics of desire that Michael Pollan talks about within his memoirs in The Botany of Desire. All four desires are told through powerful euphemisms in relation to plants that we have come to know as domesticated. In regards to our modern relationship with plants, the apple, tulip, marijuana, and potato are perhaps some of our most treasured allies. This could not be truer than that relationship in which we have with the potato. That relationship has lasted for thousands of years, and its genetic makeup has been the conversation of many farmers around the world. The potatoes birthplace with the Incans proved to be a time of high biodiversity with thousands of varieties. However, through the act of monoculture with Europeans, and a need to feed a growing population, the potato has experienced a decrease in the amount of varieties that are cultivated.

The potato was first cultivated in Peru around 8,000 B.C to 5,000 B.C. Spanish Conquistadors conquered Peru, discovered the potato, and then carried them back to Europe. About 40 years later, the potato spread across all of Europe. Sir Walter Raleigh introduced potatoes to Ireland, and the crop became a successful staple for the Irish Population. Agriculturalists in Europe found potatoes easier to cultivate than other staple crops, such as wheat and oats. It was also discovered that potatoes contained most of the vitamins needed for human sustenance. The potato was the perfect plant to survive off of throughout all of Europe, especially

Yukon Gold, Russet, Yams, Sweet, Fingerling, Reds, Idaho, Whites. These are some of the potato varieties I could name off the top of my head. There are thousands more varieties, but a large majority of those varieties aren’t commonly known, especially to most Oregonians. Potatoes as a whole are extremely common, and especially known as french fries, potato salads, and in the forms, baked, mashed, fried, animal feed, and more. Potatoes are all over, but potato farms are scarce in Oregon. Oregon farmers should strive to expand and increase the variety of potatoes grown in Oregon to cut down on transportation time.

The potato seems to us today to be such a staple food that it is hard to believe that it has only been accepted as edible by most of the Western world for the past 200 years. Our story begins thousands of years ago, in South America—Peru,

New farming methods came to use during late 16th century. Farmers in many parts of Europe, including Ireland, France, started to raise potatoes. A plant from the “New World”, that for a long tome was seen with a big suspiciousness. A higher rate of potato