No such thing as a humble spud

IN an increasingly hungry world, the potato plays a crucial role - nutritious, cheap, easy to grow and use.

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IN an increasingly hungry world, the potato plays a crucial role - nutritious, cheap, easy to grow and use. In the Peruvian capital, Lima, Centro Internacional de la Papa (The International Potato Centre, a not-for-profit research institution with UN links) has been working since 1971 on sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty. Potatoes come third after rice and wheat in world consumption stakes. CIP's genebank includes 7000 native, wild and improved potato varieties (cipotato.org).

Historically, potatoes have played diverse roles in the panorama of European food. They belong in the historic store cupboard alongside such staples as chestnuts, wheat, buckwheat and corn. All form a basis for bread. But it was a contest.

When potatoes arrived in Europe from the Americas, regional acceptance was determined by terrain (infertile areas without wheat plains loved them), by prejudice (potatoes were often mere animal fodder) and climate. In northern Germany, Flanders, places such as Lancashire, where stews were eaten, potatoes fitted right in.

Elisabeth Luard (European Peasant Cookery) allots these vitamin C, potassium-rich tubers a chapter to themselves. Irish dishes (boxty, grated potatoes baked in batter cakes; colcannon, with kale, leeks, cream) head dishes from Germany, Sweden, Norway. A Dutch recipe browns buttered mash in empty oyster shells, a clue to the ingenious uses potatoes could be put to in poor communities. Labskova (lobscouse), potato stew with meat or fish, is known from the Baltic coast to Liverpool, England. Rustic but less hearty French gratins and Swiss rosti (grated potato cake) accompany mains.

Potatoes originated in Peru. All those intriguing black, purple and pink varieties, now so fashionable and worth the hunt, when they turn up in markets such as Eveleigh in Sydney, date from earliest times. The Incas cultivated them in the high Andes where maize couldn't survive, but they were grown thousands of years earlier. Villagers high above Lake Titicaca largely live on them still.

In 1540, the conquistadores carried plants from Peru to Spain. Francis Drake took them to England from North America. At first, the Spanish and Elizabeth I's English court planted them as ornamental flowers.

Sir Walter Raleigh took the first plants to Ireland, where the potato became a staple. Frazer's Magazine (April 1847, after the infamous Irish potato famine) described its importance to Ireland's peasants: "Easily boiled in an iron pot, served in a turf-basket or rolled on a table, peeled with the fingers, and palatable in its own sweet moisture."

In Albany, Western Australia, Graham Waugh grows potatoes on the state's first vegie patch, set up in 1827, he says. He'll have Kestrels tomorrow at Albany Boatshed Market; a beautiful white potato with pink eyes, "good for everything".

Also in Albany, Bathgate Farm awaits its slow-growing winter crop (summer potatoes are sold throughout winter). Harvest is expected in about three weeks, at Albany Farmers Market mid to late-November.

In Tassie, our traditional potato-growing island-state, Bob Smith "got them in late, trying to avoid frosts" at Tinderbox ("a nice place, usually mild") on the coast south of Hobart. Bob has Pinkeyes first ("they do so well here") then, about a week before Christmas, heirloom Scottish Up-to-Dates ("a very old potato, really floury and crisp, great for baking"), also old King Edwards ("nearly as good"), Dutch Creams and Pontiacs. Hobart's Farm Gate manager says Bob's Pinkeyes, grown in sandy soil, are "quite famous".

Wayne and Susie Adams (Erinvale Potatoes) grow 8-9ha of potatoes on their 200ha farm. They have fresh Pinkeyes, Bismarks and King Edwards at Harvest Launceston. Also Dutch Creams and Kennebecs dug in April and cool stored. Wayne says new ones are "soft fleshed, their skins lifting", but they keep well in cold storage, 2C suspends shooting.

For Sydney markets, Robyn Jackson and Norman Gair (Highland Gourmet Potatoes) grow a staggering 43 varieties (Burgundy Beauty among them), ready in time for Christmas they hope, at Eveleigh Farmers Market and Camden Produce Market.

Homework: Pale greens complement creamy white in chilled leek and potato soup (vichyssoise); potato, mayonnaise and spring onion salad; potato, garlic, olive oil and almond puree (Greek skordalia).

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MARKETS

WA

Albany Boatshed Market (Sundays, 10am-1pm, Princess Royal Drive)

TASMANIA

Harvest Launceston (Saturdays, 8.30am-12.30pm, Cimitiere Street carpark)

Farm Gate (Sundays, 9am-1pm, Elizabeth & Melville streets, Hobart)

VICTORIA

Ballarat Lakeside Farmers Market (2nd & 4th Saturday, 9am-1pm, Windmill Drive, Lake Wendouree)

NSW

Camden Produce Markets, (2nd & 4th Saturdays, 7am-12noon, Exeter & John streets)

Eveleigh Markets (Saturdays, 8am-1pm, 243 Wilson Street, Darlington)

Yerong Creek Spring Picnic and Farmers Market, Sunday, 8am-4pm, Recreation Ground, Cole Street, yerongcreekspringharvest picnicandfarmersmarket. com.