The Economist seems to have a thing about potatoes this week. There’s a story about how Peru is trying to cash in on its spud heritage. (Note to editor: the olluco is not a type of potato.) There’s a book review, of John Reader’s Propitious Esculent. And there’s even an editorial explaining how the humble tuber is at the root — as it were — of globalization. The International Year of the Potato cannot be over too quickly.
Note to Luigi: olloco is yet another reason why I hate common names. A lot of people call it ulluco. And Ullucus tuberosus is even better.
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Furthermore, readers of The Economist may be wondering what on earth this Yellow Potato thing is. I believe it may be referring to the tubers of Solanum phureja, which is indeed wonderfully delicious, to say nothing of being rather more resistant to some diseases than S. tuberosum. Breeders at the Scottish Crops Research Institute have been trying for ages to get a supermarket friendly variety of either pure S. phureja or at least a variety that contains some of S. phureja‘s tasty genes. Look for references to Mayan Gold, but please don’t believe everything you read in them.