The potato was the first domesticated vegetable in the region of modern-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia between 8000 and 5000 BC. Cultivation of potatoes in South America may go back 10,000 years, but tubers do not preserve well in the archaeological record, making identification difficult.
Another thing we wanted the answer to was: where do potatoes originate?
One source claimed potatoes have an incredibly rich and interesting history. For thousands of years, they were cultivated by the Incas in Peru . The earliest archaeological evidence exists on the shores of Lake Titicaca from roughly 400 BCE!
The potato is a starchy tuber of the plant Solanum tuberosum and is a root vegetable native to the Americas, with the plant itself being a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species, originating in modern-day Peru , can be found throughout the Americas, from Canada to southern Chile. What did early Britons eat?
What is the origin of the potato?
The history of potatoes starts in present-day Peru and Bolivia . The earliest traces of growing potatoes were found in the Andes dated from 6 millennium BC. It is assumed that the potatoes have begun to spread around Lake Titicaca.
Did the Irish Potato originate in Ireland?
Surprisingly, the tuber we often refer to as the Irish potato did not originate in Ireland. The history of potato plants dates back thousands of years to the Andean part of South America.
What is the history of the potato?
Its likely native tribes began harvesting the bitter tasting wild tubers in the area of modern day Chile. These early potatoes were dried and could be stored for long periods of time, making the potato a valuable safety net when harvests were poor.
Another question we ran across in our research was “What is the etymology of the word potato?”.
You see, the name originally referred to the sweet potato although the two plants are not closely related. The 16th-century English herbalist John Gerard referred to sweet potatoes as “common potatoes”, and used the terms “bastard potatoes” and “Virginia potatoes” for the species we now call “potato”.
Where do wild potatoes come from?
Wild potato species can be found throughout the Americas, from Canada to southern Chile . The potato was originally believed to have been domesticated by Native Americans independently in multiple locations, but later genetic traced a single origin, in the area of present-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia.
This of course begs the question “Where did the first potatoes grow?”
My chosen answer is the earliest archaeologically verified potato tuber remains have been found at the coastal site of Ancón (central Peru), dating to 2500 BC.
This begs the query “Where do potatoes grow in the wild?”
Today, wild potatoes still grow in parts of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador . Potatoes didn’t reach Ireland until after the discovery of the New World, when Spanish explorers entered South America looking for gold and precious metals. Largely overlooked, the potato eventually made its way overseas where it was met with a less-than-enthusiastic greeting.
What was the first potato crop in North America?
Early colonists in Virginia and the Carolinas may have grown potatoes from seeds or tubers from Spanish ships, but the earliest certain potato crop in North America was brought to New Hampshire in 1719 from Derry . The plants were from Ireland, so the crop became known as the “Irish potato”.
I discovered the potato was first domesticated in the region of modern-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia between 8000 and 5000 BC . Cultivation of potatoes in South America may go back 10,000 years, but tubers do not preserve well in the archaeological record, making identification difficult.
What is the history of potatoes in South America?
Cultivation of potatoes in South America may go back 10,000 years , but tubers do not preserve well in the archaeological record, making identification difficult. The earliest archaeologically verified potato tuber remains have been found at the coastal site of Ancón (central Peru), dating to 2500 BC.
What is the history of potato research in Canada?
By the 1960s, the Canadian Potato Research Centre in Fredericton, New Brunswick, was one of the top six potato research institutes in the world . Established in 1912 as a Dominion Experimental Station, the station began in the 1930s to concentrate on breeding new varieties of disease-resistant potatoes.