Maine in winter can only mean one thing: potatoes. Okay, there's a bit more variety than that, but potatoes are a good place to start. Maine is a potato state. Aroostook County in northern Maine is responsible for a sizable portion of US potato production. And most of that is destined for export.
There are a lot of potato eaters out there. The UN Food and Agriculture Organizations lists potatoes as the most important vegetable crop in the world. After rice, wheat and corn, it's the fourth largest food crop over all. Collectively humanity grows 330 million metrics tons of potatoes each year. That's almost 1,500 billions servings or about ½ serving a day for every man woman and child on the planet.
We eat a lot of potatoes.
S. tuberosum started as a humble tuber in the moutains of South America around 5,000 years ago. The story of its success as a food crop is an excellent example a malleable genome combined with a lengthy history of cultivation. Today there are between 4,000 and 5,000 varieties of potatoes cultivated everywhere from the tropics to northern Europe.
I threw five or six of them in the oven for an easy dinner that I like to call 'Bake Po-Super-Taters.' Basically just baked potatoes. But the kids like it, because I put all the fixing out on a big plate and they can 'decorate' their own potato. I like mine with butter, sour cream, bacon, cheddar cheese, chives, and sauerkraut. Yum.
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