[Sca-cooks] International Year of the Potato was Rumpolt's Earth Apples

Johnna Holloway johnnae at mac.com
Tue May 13 05:16:25 PDT 2008


Would this be the wrong time to mention that 2008 is the International Year
of the Potato?
http://www.napsnet.com/articles/58112.html
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/world/05/11/0511yearofpotato.html
http://media-newswire.com/release_1065348.html
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/independent/2008/04/a-nice-green--8.html

Johnnae

>> snipped
>> Given how late the Andean potato arrived in Europe (around mid-16th 
>> century) and how inconclusive the evidence is for its use (some 
>> evidence that a few daring men eat them, no evidence of their common 
>> and frequent use), i certainly am not going to be cooking them for an 
>> SCA feast until there's more concrete information, and i would not 
>> encourage anyone to cook them.
>> Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
>
> My problem with equating Rumpolt's erdepffle to the white potato is 
> the recipe is from 1581.  John Gerard did not receive a sample until 
> 1586 and Carolus Clusius, who was the head of the Hapsburg Botanical 
> Gardens in Vienna, did not receive a sample until 1587.  Rumpolt and 
> Clusius were contemporaries in time and place, so if Rumpolt was 
> preparing white potatoes, I would expect Clusius to already have 
> samples. snipped
> Bear




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