Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

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Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by El Pollo Diablo » Fri Nov 29, 2019 4:00 pm

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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by FlammableFlower » Fri Nov 29, 2019 6:32 pm

Cool

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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by rockdoctor » Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:39 pm

Reminds me of the Bristol Stool Chart

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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by science_fox » Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:44 pm

How much of that is variation within the variety though (eg how big are the error bars of shape and colour)?

Tis fun though - I like the stripey ones (are they stripey coloured inside like carrots and beetroots??) but the lumpy ones would be impossible to peal.
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by greyspoke » Fri Nov 29, 2019 9:18 pm

I tasted a few when on holiday in Peru, very nice.

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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by jimbob » Sat Nov 30, 2019 8:59 pm

science_fox wrote:
Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:44 pm
How much of that is variation within the variety though (eg how big are the error bars of shape and colour)?

Tis fun though - I like the stripey ones (are they stripey coloured inside like carrots and beetroots??) but the lumpy ones would be impossible to peal.
One of the Radio4/World service science programmes had a podcast on that recently. I can't find it, but they talked to a Peruvian market seller who had a ridiculous number of varieties, although he said his wife knew far more.
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by Bird on a Fire » Sun Dec 01, 2019 2:07 pm

science_fox wrote:
Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:44 pm
How much of that is variation within the variety though (eg how big are the error bars of shape and colour)?
I can't speak directly to the photo in the thread, but the museum has 1,367 varieties of potato in it.

Certainly when I was in the Andean regions of Ecuador and Colombia I noticed in restaurants that different recipes would have different kind of potatoes, all referred to by different names on the menus.

But this seemed more prominent in rural areas than in Quito and Bogotá - I suspect that urbanised generations will quickly lose the ability to distinguish between types of potatoes and will soon all be buying a very small number of varieties selected for whichever traits make them most profitable for supermarkets.
science_fox wrote:
Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:44 pm
Tis fun though - I like the stripey ones (are they stripey coloured inside like carrots and beetroots??) but the lumpy ones would be impossible to peal.
The article wrote:There is even a maddeningly knobbly potato known as pusi qhachun wachachi, whose name literally means “make your daughter-in-law cry”, as it has frustrated so many prospective wives who have tried to pass the test of trying to peel it.
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by discovolante » Sun Dec 01, 2019 3:30 pm

Yeah I already want to go to South America thanks, without the added temptation of being able to eat a zillion different types of potato.
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by Gfamily » Sun Dec 01, 2019 5:19 pm

A propos of nothing much at all...

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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by Pucksoppet » Sun Dec 01, 2019 6:54 pm

science_fox wrote:
Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:44 pm
Tis fun though - I like the stripey ones (are they stripey coloured inside like carrots and beetroots??) but the lumpy ones would be impossible to peal.
The article wrote:There is even a maddeningly knobbly potato known as pusi qhachun wachachi, whose name literally means “make your daughter-in-law cry”, as it has frustrated so many prospective wives who have tried to pass the test of trying to peel it.
Surely the answer is not to peel it? I understand the part of the potato with most vitamins etc in it is just under the skin, so the answer is to boil it an eat with skin on (or roast it), or slice it and make a tortilla de patatas with the skin included (sacrilege, maybe, but it works).

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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by Fishnut » Fri Dec 06, 2019 9:21 pm

While not as diverse (I suspect) as the Peruvian potatoes, there are a lot of varieties local to the UK. And you can get up close and personal with them at one of the Potato Days going on next year. I've not been before but I know Pennards Plants who are one of the organisers and they are a great nursery so they might be worth checking out. I'm going to try and get to the one in Bristol.
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by discovolante » Sat Dec 07, 2019 1:37 pm

Fishnut wrote:
Fri Dec 06, 2019 9:21 pm
While not as diverse (I suspect) as the Peruvian potatoes, there are a lot of varieties local to the UK. And you can get up close and personal with them at one of the Potato Days going on next year. I've not been before but I know Pennards Plants who are one of the organisers and they are a great nursery so they might be worth checking out. I'm going to try and get to the one in Bristol.
That looks great. Nothing near me sadly but if I ever get a garden I want to try growing varieties of veg you can't easily get in the shops.

Much respect for potatoes.
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by FlammableFlower » Sat Dec 07, 2019 5:57 pm

Fishnut wrote:
Fri Dec 06, 2019 9:21 pm
While not as diverse (I suspect) as the Peruvian potatoes, there are a lot of varieties local to the UK. And you can get up close and personal with them at one of the Potato Days going on next year. I've not been before but I know Pennards Plants who are one of the organisers and they are a great nursery so they might be worth checking out. I'm going to try and get to the one in Bristol.
Definitely going to the Bristol one - thanks Fishnut!

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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by Fishnut » Wed Jan 08, 2020 11:48 pm

Just a reminder that the Bristol Seed Fair and Potato Day at Windmill Hill City Farm is this Sunday, 10am to 1pm. I'll be going. Anyone who wants to meet up can either DM me or keep an eye out for the crazy lady getting excited about Shetland Blue potatoes (they bl..dy well better have some!).
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by Fishnut » Sun Jan 12, 2020 9:37 pm

I went to the potato day and it was excellent. I couldn't get any photos because of the crowds but I did get five different potatoes,
- Red Emmalie
- Pink gypsy
- Mayan rose
- Yukon gold
- Salad blue (what I had been previously told was called Shetland blue)

I'm particularly pleased at getting the last ones as they're so pretty. I had some a few years ago, and have been desperate to get some more:
Blue potato.jpg
Blue potato.jpg (12.13 KiB) Viewed 5749 times
I also got some New Zealand yams (actually from Peru). They seem to be a fairly new import to the UK so it'll be interesting to try them.

There are still lots of potato days to go. They're mostly around the south and south-west but and I highly recommend going if you're after rarer varieties. They were selling them at 25p/tuber so you can just get a few (I got 4 of each variety) rather than having to get a whole sack. There were also lots of seeds from Pennards, as well as onion and shallot sets, rhubarb, fruit bushes and trees, and various other plants.
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by El Pollo Diablo » Mon Jan 13, 2020 10:58 am

Were they seed potatoes? If you manage to grow any I'd be interested to nab some off you this year!
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by Fishnut » Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:57 am

They are all seed potatoes and I'll definitely be keeping a few back if they're successful. Happy to share the wealth :)
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by jimbob » Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:04 pm

Fishnut wrote:
Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:57 am
They are all seed potatoes and I'll definitely be keeping a few back if they're successful. Happy to share the wealth :)
Slightly off topic, but I thought this was a really moving story on the BBC Radio4 food programme:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007b4c
The Search for Esiah's Seeds
The Food Programme

Dan Saladino tells the story Esiah Levy who shared seeds and changed lives.

It all started with a squash. Soon after he started to grow his own food he cut open a particularly delicious variety and discovered hundreds of seeds inside. He felt compelled to share them with people so they could enjoy the same experience. So began a mission to encourage anyone who would listen, where ever they lived, whatever their background, to grow their own food.

In his spare time and using allotments and his mother’s garden he grew food, built a seed bank and sent seeds around the world through . He created a project called SeedShare to distribute the varieties he selected, from corn to pumpkins, tomatoes to beans to fellow gardeners around the world, He also made friends with other seed savers including Vivien Sansour, a Palestinian woman who had created a seed library to save disappearing crops on the West Bank.

When Esiah Levy passed away suddenly and tragically young at the beginning of this year, Vivien set out to find out what had happened to the seeds he had shared and who had planted them.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by Fishnut » Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:36 pm

jimbob wrote:
Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:04 pm
Fishnut wrote:
Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:57 am
They are all seed potatoes and I'll definitely be keeping a few back if they're successful. Happy to share the wealth :)
Slightly off topic, but I thought this was a really moving story on the BBC Radio4 food programme:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007b4c
The Search for Esiah's Seeds
The Food Programme

Dan Saladino tells the story Esiah Levy who shared seeds and changed lives.

It all started with a squash. Soon after he started to grow his own food he cut open a particularly delicious variety and discovered hundreds of seeds inside. He felt compelled to share them with people so they could enjoy the same experience. So began a mission to encourage anyone who would listen, where ever they lived, whatever their background, to grow their own food.

In his spare time and using allotments and his mother’s garden he grew food, built a seed bank and sent seeds around the world through . He created a project called SeedShare to distribute the varieties he selected, from corn to pumpkins, tomatoes to beans to fellow gardeners around the world, He also made friends with other seed savers including Vivien Sansour, a Palestinian woman who had created a seed library to save disappearing crops on the West Bank.

When Esiah Levy passed away suddenly and tragically young at the beginning of this year, Vivien set out to find out what had happened to the seeds he had shared and who had planted them.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.
Thanks, I'll give it a listen :)

There's a grower in the UK who provides heritage beans that are explicitly for cultivating yourself and sharing - you'll only get one packet, ever - but they've got some really interesting stuff.
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by nekomatic » Thu Jan 16, 2020 12:08 am

For anyone in south Manchester Hulme Community Garden Centre do a potato day which I think is usually late Feb or early March, but search the website or get in touch with them to check.

We did salad blues one year, they look cool but didn’t taste great.

Also if you grow potatoes you need to sign up for Blightwatch.
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by Grumble » Thu Jan 16, 2020 2:33 pm

Fishnut wrote:
Sun Jan 12, 2020 9:37 pm
There are still lots of potato days to go. They're mostly around the south and south-west
If you scroll right to the bottom there are quite a few further north, just the owners of that site don’t attend.

North west ones are here: http://www.brighterblooms.co.uk/events-2/
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by Rich Scopie » Thu Jan 16, 2020 4:07 pm

I'm hoping to go to this one, if anyone fancies a pint on the day:

Cambridgeshire Self Sufficiency Group Potato Day
All Saints Church
Market Square, Huntingdon PE29 3NR
Saturday 1st February 2020 - 10.30am - 1.00pm
50 + varieties of seed potatoes + onion sets and shallots.
Refreshments, crafts and other stalls.
FREE ADMISSION
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Re: Peru's Panoply of Preserved Potatoes

Post by Rich Scopie » Thu Jan 16, 2020 4:28 pm

Double post. Sorry.
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