Did you know that over 1 billion people around the world eat potatoes, they're grown in 125 countries, and there are over 4000 varieties?
Potatoes are one of the most universal crops appearing in cuisines on virtually every corner of the planet.
So how did the potato become a staple around the globe?
The history is way more complicated than you think.
Unlike other root vegetables, the potato is a starchy tuber.
Think of it as a storage unit that reserves the plant's energy underground, allowing the plant to grow back each year and reproduce itself.
They were first cultivated in the Andes around 8000 B.C.E. Pre-Hispanic civilizations relied on potatoes as a nutrient dense food source.
And over millennia, they found they could be prepared in a multitude of ways.
In addition to boiling, mashing, baking and stewing potatoes, the people of the Andes would make chuño, a naturally freeze dried potato that would carry communities through years when crops were not as successful.
In addition to being preserved for long periods of time, chuño was lightweight, making it a portable source of sustenance for Incan armies.
