General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIf You Love Potatoes, Tomatoes Or Chocolate Thank Indigenous Latin American Cultures
I love em ALL! 😋
As the country celebrates all things Latino, we think it's time to show some culinary appreciation for some of the tastiest foods indigenous to Latin America but that over centuries have been victim to some bad PR, and are commonly associated with European countries.....
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/21/1039153054/if-you-love-potatoes-tomatoes-or-chocolate-thank-indigenous-latin-american-cultu
SoCalNative
(4,613 posts)Potatoes, squash, corn....
malaise
(267,847 posts)Thanks to the Incas, Peruvians have the most fabulous potato festival on the planet
https://www.euronews.com/2019/05/31/watch-peruvians-flock-to-annual-potato-festival
https://www.trafalgar.com/real-word/peruvian-potatoes/
The humble potatos story began more than 10,000 years ago on the shores of Lake Titicaca, in present-day Peru. The Incas are believed to have been the first to cultivate potatoes all the way up in the Andes mountain range, at 3,800 metres above sea level.
Wild potato plants already grew around the lake, and communities of Inca farmers began domesticating the potato and learning how to preserve this sturdy veggie.
The Incas discovered that by dehydrating the potatoes into a substance called chuño, they could store it for up to 10 or even 15 years. Peruvian potatoes were versatile too. The Incans boiled, mashed, roasted, fermented in water to create a sticky toqosh, and ground to a pulp and soaked to create almidón de papa (potato starch).
Peruvian potatoes soon formed the basis of the Incan diet, sustaining great cities and Incan armies. It became a revered food, as the Incans also used potatoes to treat injuries, predict the weather, and make childbirth easier. The Incans even used the modest potato to measure time, as Incan units of time corresponded with the length of time it took to cook a potato to different consistencies.
malaise
(267,847 posts)Thanks to the Incas, Peruvians have the most fabulous potato festival on the planet
https://www.euronews.com/2019/05/31/watch-peruvians-flock-to-annual-potato-festival
https://www.trafalgar.com/real-word/peruvian-potatoes/
The humble potatos story began more than 10,000 years ago on the shores of Lake Titicaca, in present-day Peru. The Incas are believed to have been the first to cultivate potatoes all the way up in the Andes mountain range, at 3,800 metres above sea level.
Wild potato plants already grew around the lake, and communities of Inca farmers began domesticating the potato and learning how to preserve this sturdy veggie.
The Incas discovered that by dehydrating the potatoes into a substance called chuño, they could store it for up to 10 or even 15 years. Peruvian potatoes were versatile too. The Incans boiled, mashed, roasted, fermented in water to create a sticky toqosh, and ground to a pulp and soaked to create almidón de papa (potato starch).
Peruvian potatoes soon formed the basis of the Incan diet, sustaining great cities and Incan armies. It became a revered food, as the Incans also used potatoes to treat injuries, predict the weather, and make childbirth easier. The Incans even used the modest potato to measure time, as Incan units of time corresponded with the length of time it took to cook a potato to different consistencies.
Diamond_Dog
(31,672 posts)Interesting!
malaise
(267,847 posts)The lumper fed Ireland for a time, but it also set the stage for human and economic ruin. Evolutionary theory suggests that populations with low genetic variation are more vulnerable to changing environmental conditions than are diverse populations. The Irish potato clones were certainly low on genetic variation, so when the environment changed and a potato disease swept through the country in the 1840s, the potatoes (and the people who depended upon them) were devastated.
https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/agriculture_02
Had they planted potatoes with the genetic variety of the Peruvians, the volcano-induced global cooling in the mid 1840's may not have so devastated their crop.
FakeNoose
(32,356 posts)Response to FakeNoose (Reply #4)
malaise This message was self-deleted by its author.
malaise
(267,847 posts)I thank anyone who grows it
Diamond_Dog
(31,672 posts)whenever I can get my hands on some. It is WONDERFUL
FakeNoose
(32,356 posts)malaise
(267,847 posts)FakeNoose
(32,356 posts)... was Zabar's Jamaican High Mountain! It's so awesome, but almost impossible to find. I used to go to Zabar's in Manhattan and they usually had it on the shelf. Can't find it anywhere in Pittsburgh.
You're so lucky my friend!
malaise
(267,847 posts)I drink a blend now with pure Blue Mountain on Sundays.
uppityperson
(115,674 posts)All potatoes originated in South America. Until recently, it was thought that all potatoes currently in North America were first rerouted through Europe by the Spaniards before arriving in North America via European colonization. However, in 2004 a phylogenetic analysis conducted at Washington State University provided evidence that the Makah Ozette potato (Solanum Tuberosum Group Tuberosum) was certain to have been imported directly from South America. After their conquests in South America, the Spanish began a mission to further establish their empire on the western shores of North America. In the spring of 1791 they established a fort at Neah Bay and as was the custom, a garden was planted that surely included potatoes they brought directly from South America through Mexico. Over the winter, the Spanish found the weather conditions in the harbor too severe to maintain their ships and they abandoned the fort.
The Makah people likely found remnants of this rather weedy plant left in the garden of the abandoned fort and became its stewards, growing it in their backyard gardens. Until the late 1980s this potato was rarely seen outside of Indigenous communities.
malaise
(267,847 posts)bakes beautifully.
Response to uppityperson (Reply #5)
malaise This message was self-deleted by its author.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)abqtommy
(14,118 posts)that: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215881336
For instance, coffee originated in North Africa and bananas in Southeast Asia.
Diamond_Dog
(31,672 posts)Irish_Dem
(45,661 posts)Thank God my Irish grandparents are not alive to read this.
Diamond_Dog
(31,672 posts)malaise
(267,847 posts)Apparently there is an Irish potato
LeftInTX
(24,560 posts)Kinda like Colombian Coffee probably has a variety developed for their specific climate.
Irish_Dem
(45,661 posts)So the lack of genetic diversity lead to the downfall of the potato in a shifting climate.
Which lead to the starvation and poverty which caused my grandparents to leave their home in Ireland and immigrate to the US.
They arrived here in the 1920's, Ireland had been starving and poor for a long time.
Response to Irish_Dem (Reply #16)
malaise This message was self-deleted by its author.
Mary in S. Carolina
(1,364 posts)an entrepreneur missed their childhood dishes, so they set up a building, similar to a storage unit with a garage door, where each unit was a different little restaurant with different types of ethnic food, run by ethnic women. I would give anything to have this in my area.
csziggy
(34,120 posts)Part of the Smithsonian Museums. Their dining area has booths with food from various areas. Lunch there was delightful and very reasonably priced.
Unfortunately, "The Mitsitam Cafe is temporarily closed." https://americanindian.si.edu/visit/reopening#museum-map-and-guide
But here is more about it:
Mitsitam means Lets Eat! in the Native language of the Delaware and Piscataway People.
The Mitsitam Cafe enhances the museum experience by providing visitors the opportunity to enjoy indigenous cuisines of the Americas. The cafe features native foods found through out the Western Hemisphere.
Northern Woodlands Region that spans from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi and from Southern Canada to the Chesapeake
Mesoamerica Home of the Papago or Bean People and spans from the American Southwest to Mexico and Central America
South America Region that encompasses the entire southwestern hemisphere
Northwest Coast Region that stretches from Southern Alaska to Northern California
Great Plains Region that stretched over the great landscape from Alberta, Canada to Texas
Each Station depicts the life ways and related cooking techniques, ingredients and flavors found in both traditional and contemporary Native dishes.
http://www.mitsitamcafe.com/content/about.asp
Retrograde
(10,073 posts)but it's worth a visit
csziggy
(34,120 posts)When we were there in 2017 (I think) they had the Inka Road exhibit with a short piece of a reconstructed bridge. It was really neat, so much so that my husband and I spent all day there rather than trying to get into the newly opened African American Museum that had just opened.
Now, if you're talking about the cafe, I can see why they would be post-Columbian. It's been 500 years, the Columbian exchange has integrated so many foods from the different hemispheres, trying to recreate the original foods would be nearly impossible. I doubt flat bread of similac vine roots would be sustainable or appealing, for instance, though they were a staple of the Indians of the American Southeast. (Though if they wanted to buy a lot of smilac roots, I could make out like a bandit since we have them every where and dig up roots the size of a human head.)
Mary in S. Carolina
(1,364 posts)Klaralven
(7,510 posts)Retrograde
(10,073 posts)most beans -pinto, navy, red, black, lima, among others - squashes, maize, wild rice, peanuts (although there's a similar type of groundnut in Africa), Jerusalem artichokes, avocados - and maple syrup!
LeftInTX
(24,560 posts)Summer squash, such as zucchini is simply a smaller and earlier ripening variety
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucurbita