It is the International Year of the Potato and throughout the year some very clever artistic peeled potatoes have been gracing advertising hoardings and even coffee cream pots (this sports the fabulous noun Kaffeerahmdeckelserie!) in Switzerland. I rather like the potato as angel or saint but I'm not sure about this scarved potato who seems to be smoking a cigarette! You can find more of the designs here and you can even participate in a potato peeling game here, you can peel away the potato and click for the day's potato recipe.
The point of the year is very serious, the potato can improve nutrition and is a key crop because it can be grown fairly cheaply and easily. Some even say it may have contributed to Europe's working classes being well-nourished enough to be able to rebel and resist in the 19th century. Not only an angelic food but a revolutionary one.
Wednesday 27 August 2008
It's the international year of the potato
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4 Comments:
Habemus papa
Florindo has dug up most of our potato crop and it has been better than last year, when a lot rotted because of the rainy summer (mainly the ratte). He invited us to a watia, a Bolivian tradition using an oven built out of clods of earth to bake potatoes and other crops right in the field where they're dug up. It give the potatoes a delicious smoky flavour.
What varieties have you been planting?
I still sometimes think of those amazing pink bobbly potatoes on the photos you brought back from Bolivia. Maybe you need to get some planted in St Blaise and get a local Michelin starred resto to buy your production?
Those bobbly potatoes are called "the daughter-in-law wept" in quechua because they are impossible to peel. We should bring some in... We have planted some ratte and some charlotte, and a big red one whose name escapes me... But it is the weeds we've been eating the most: mallow (mauve) is good in soup or as greens. And nettle tea is very healthy.
Fabulous name!
But fortuntely for daughters in law now we all know that potaoes are better for you if you don't peel them!
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