Those interested in learning more about potatoes and the many other edible plants from this region should download a free copy of the excellent reference, "Lost Crops of the Incas" from the National Academy of Sciences:
https://www.nap.edu/catalog/1398/lost-crops-of-the-incas-little-known-pl...
There is a similar 3-volume set, "Lost Crops of Africa", also downloadable at no cost.
Your tax dollars put to very good use, certainly better than spent on golfing week-ends, sound-proof rooms, or private Italian security guards.
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Thank you very much! I was especially interested in the potato-like oca that we tasted when in Peru. Now, we're growing some.
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I always love to see the Andes be presented in the NYT and to have Ms. Jaffrey discuss them, the author of one of my favorite cook books is even more special. However, as an anthropologist who has worked in the Andes for over 30 years the photograph of a man placing potatoes in the ground in the article that could have been corrected before publication are disturbing for any Andean person. We scholars are here to help. I applaud her for noting that chile peppers are called uchu. Please ask your authors to contact us to tidy up the small details so your articles are correctly presented. You do this for the Comey or Trump reports, please do this for food too. The main issue is that men NEVER place the potatoes in the ground-they open the earth, placing the potatoes in the ground is ALWAYS done by women. She got this lovely Sr Quispe Amao to place potatoes in the ground for the photograph, why not photograph how they really plant potatoes, with a woman.
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Beautiful article! I only wish there was a recipe for the striking, un-shepard's pie like, pastel de papa in the photo.
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My husband was born in Bogotá, living there until he was almost 14. His parents, expats from New York, were all for eating local foods, and had an excellent Colombian cook. He would wistfully tell me of the potato treats he enjoyed as a child, including papas a la Huancaina, and of the many varieties available.
When we bought our own home, with a large garden space, he was surprised to find volunteer potatoes already growing, remainders of a previous owner. Over the years he was delighted to continue growing potatoes, which when harvested, cooked, and eaten fresh are delicious -- better than store-bought. None of the colorful varieties of the Andes were available to grow in California, unfortunately.
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What did people eat before the New World and its potatos were discovered?
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A lovely article.I never knew that there exist so many varied varieties of coloured potatoes.The photographs is very eye catching.
I feel a photo of Peru's national dish Papa a la Huancaina would have been an added attraction.
Madhur Jaffrey is a renowned cook,a easy to make,delicious Peruvian recipe would have spiced up the article like a hot Potato.
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Potatoes saved Europe several times from a famine. As a fun fact I can tell you that my wife is regularly growing potatoes in planting pots on the terrace of our penthouse. They are very tasty.
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Soon, I shall plant some chitted Pontiac Red seed potatoes in a container outside. This is my first grow. Instruction has come from numerous videos on You Tube. Experimenters are going nuts with different growth media and nutritive combos. Coffee grounds are going into my mix.
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Wonderful piece and comments. I am reminded that the stranded astronaut in the novel and film, “The Martian,” was, not surprisingly, saved by his ability to cultivate the not-so-humble potato.
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It would be enlightening if the author could tell us more about the nutritional profile of the different colored potatoes. Purple ones are now available is US supermarkets. Are they any better than standard potatoes?
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The macronutrient composition of potatoes doesn't change a lot with color, but the colored potatoes contain anthocyanin compounds that function as antioxidants. For example, the class of pigment that gives potatoes purple flesh is found in some grapes and the class of pigment that gives them red flesh is found in raspberries. Because most of the protein in potatoes is found in and just under the skin, Andean potatoes also have a healthier ratio of protein to carbs because they are generally smaller than modern potatoes.
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I'd like to know about the solanine content, actually. Not all potatoes are kind.
I ate the best mashed potatoes I've ever had in Peru. Simple mashed potatoes but not simple at all.
The Incas, and the cultures before them, were masters at preserving food. Today's Peruvians are masters at cuisine.
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Delightful article! I've loved Ms. Jaffrey's books since I encountered "Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking" (1982) and cooked through most of the recipes. Her memoir "Climbing the Mango Trees" is another delight. Now I'm wondering whether there's an Andean restaurant in New York. Namaste.
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I'm sure there are at least a few Andean restaurants in Queens.
Great article! Hotel Sumaq is one of the best hotels to stay in. I HIGHLY recommend.
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I recall on my travels in South America that both Bolivia and Peru were very proud of their potatoes, and both liked to claim them as their own. A guide in Lima told me Peru had over 3,000 different varieties of potatoes!
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You forgot to mention one of the most interesting things about potatoes. They're the only single domesticated crop capable of sustaining life as a monoculture. This is the reason the Irish potato famine was so devastating. Ireland was a net exporter of food. However, Irish farmers relied almost exclusively on the white potato for subsistence. That works because potatoes create the complete amino acid necessary for life while most starches use meat to compliment for the absent nutrition.
Of course, in order to avoid other malnutrition over the long haul, you need to diversify. That's exactly what ancient Andean civilizations accomplished. They even invented high-altitude farming and storage techniques specifically adapted to the potato. You should look up the raised fields of ancient Bolivia as one example. The entire endeavor was incredibly innovative but also born of necessity. The only large domesticatable animals living in ancient South America after the holocene were camelids, aka llamas. If you didn't live by the ocean, meat was hard to find. Enter the humble potato.
As much as I like causa, I'll also mention the vast ecological trade networks that developed throughout the Andes long before even the Incans. Andeans weren't living of just potatoes. If you're interested you should read Charles Stanish's seminal work "Ancient Andean Politcal Economy," University of Texas Press. For something more fun, check this out: https://www.popsci.com/nutrition-single-food-survival
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Aren't bananas a monoculture?
The International Potato Center (www.cipotato.org), in Lima, Peru, manages the worlds largest in-vitro Genebank in the world holding over 4,700 cultivated varieties of potatoes and Peru is home to over 2,500 of them which is why it is considered the center of origin of the potato. This coming May as Peru celebrates the potato harvest the world will be coming to Cusco, Peru for the World Potato Congress the first time it will be hosted in Peru.
15
I wonder how many of these varieties of potato are available or grown or growable in the US. The papa amarilla (yellow potato) only grows at high altitudes in Peru and even though it has a super taste and distinctive color you can't get it here easily. Sounds like culinary opportunities abound!
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The main problem with growing Andean potatoes in North America isn't so much altitude, but dormancy and day length. Many do not have a period of dormancy and begin to sprout and grow again as soon as they are mature. Others don't begin to form tubers until the day length drops to 12 hours, which doesn't occur until late September at higher latitudes. Many can be grown from true seeds even though tubers are less available. If you want more information on growing Andean potatoes in North America, you can find it here: https://www.cultivariable.com/instructions/potatoes/how-to-grow-andean-p...
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That´s because 97% of cultivated potato varieties grown around the world are the descendants of potatoes cultivated in Chiloé, Chile at Long. 45°. Chiloé itself has 300 varieties, so if people in the northern hemisphere want to add variety to their potatoes they grow, they should look into Michuñe, Micañacet, Clavela and many other Chilotan cultivars.
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Mi esposa es peruana. Peru has 600 varieties of potatoes. In Lima, around a dozen types are used for soups to fried or baked dishes, to french fries.
2
I appreciate the dried aspect ,yet have to stop at the Llama jerky ,Llamas are cute.
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So are cows, chickens and pigs
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By "Inca guide" did you mean Quechua-speaker? It makes no sense to refer to someone as an Incan guide.
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In the Andes of Peru there are still Inca descendants... Maybe the guide was one of them. Quechua is one of Peru’s official languages and widely spoken in the Andes.
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A plain old baked potato in just its own skin is not bad either.
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And cooked in a logburner!
1
Nice description of our 'papa' (potatos), of which we, in Bolivia, have more than 200 varieties (I'm told) and a variety of culinary preparations; similar to Peruvian dishes, but 'papa a la Huancaina' is a world-famous dish that originated in Peru of course. Potato, as part of a more hearty meal with meats, demands the use of spicy locoto... by way of it's 'hot' salsa (llajwua!).
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A marvelous source of food imported in the 1500's to Spain and Ireland, and spread from there world over. If the story is true that the Incas did not know what a wheel is, then the field structure of terraces makes even more sense.
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Although I have more experience with potatoes of the Andes in Bolivia, they are nonetheless a delicious and fascinating food. One of the reasons potatoes are so ubiquitous in Peru and Bolivia is that they are grown underground of course, thereby resistant to the problems of frost - in parts of the Andes frost is present about 300 days of the year. When in the Andes, visitors will notice rows and rows of planting terraces along the mountainside. The stone reinforced terraces are heated during the day by the hot sun, providing warmth for potatoes and other plantings during the cold nights.
Steve
www.travelingprofessor.com
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Thank you. I learned something interesting and new about potatoes and those terraces. People who know the land are treasures.
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I'm curious, are the leaves of these particular potatoes adapted to frost then??? I grow hardy little purple potatoes in a sub-alpine area but even these slump and die at the first touch of a hard frost. If there are only 60 frost free days that means that interspersed in the warmer period there must still be occasional frosts. How do potatoes survive under these conditions, let alone produce edible tubers?
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Andean potatoes (Solanum tuberosum subsp. andigenum) tend to be a little more frost resistant than modern potatoes, but there are actually three related species of potatoes that are the most frost resistant and grown at the highest elevations: Solanum ajanhuiri, Solanum curtilobum, and Solanum juzepczukii. Most varieties of these species are high in toxic glycoalkaloids and need to be processed to render them edible, although a few can be eaten fresh.
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