OGT BiWeekly Week Five: THE HUMBLE POTATO

I do like French Fries.  I am true to my Belgian roots that way in liking my pomme frite, but I don't usually go out of my way to eat them.   I haven't stepped into a McDonald's in seven years since I worked with kids in foster care and we've cut most carbohydrates out of our household diet.   

But ever since the "COVID19 Shelter in Place Orders" I've noticed a craving for comfort food and the humble potato has become my favorite staple.

My other heritage, Scottish-Irish owes a lot to this versatile root.    The Irish were nearly decimated as a population due to the Potato Famine of the 1840's.  Also known as the Great Hunger, Gorta Mor in Gaelic, it began in 1845 and lasted 7 years killing nearly one million Irish and forcing another million to emigrate to places like America.   It's likely that my mother's family would not have come to New York if it weren't for this tiny fungus, Phytopthoran infestans, which caused potatoes to blacken and die.   

Great Hunger Memorial

V.E. Macy Park, Ardsley, NY

Artist: Eamonn O’Doherty

Commissioned by: Great Hunger Foundation and Memorial Committee

There are parallels here to this new SARS virus COVID19.  The seven year course of this blight should give us pause to consider the ways in which nature forces us to respect its power and probably irresponsible management of crops and farmland.   Who knows how long COVID will be lurking around our firesides.  Queen Victoria's Corn Laws taxed grains so extremely in the 1840's that the poor Irish under Brutish rule turned the potato as their mainstay.   If I think about my craving for this comfort food it appears a genetic legacy on both sides.  https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/irish-potato-famine#section_3

Ironically the potato has its roots in the highlands of Peru, where the wild Solanum tuberosum was domesticated some 10,000 years ago.  It was not brought to Europe until 400 years ago by the Spaniards.

Now it's a fundamental staple of most world diets coming in fourth after corn, wheat and rice.

The Potato Eaters - Vincent Van Gogh, 1885

The Potato Harvest by Jean-Francois Millet, 1855

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato

It's also a member of the Nightshade Family and contains the toxin Solanine, which is poisonous to humans in large doses.   Perhaps here is a warning about moderation and balance not just for me and my trauma centered comfort diet, but for our planet and our management of food crops for a world that is ever estranged from its own sources of nutrition.   

A basket of Idahos

Dean buys a great brand of frozen French Fries from Idaho and they are so crispy when heated in the convection oven.   He is also a whiz with making up new recipes: Hash browns, scalloped potatoes with scallions and cheese, and tonight we had air crisped potato chips sauteed in garlic, pepper and olive oil.   I can't get enough of these and guzzle them down with globs of mayonnaise.   Diet be damned.