A generous grouping of delicate, white fingerling potatoes was among the organic bounty in last week’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box from my local food co-op.

 

The varied shapes of these long, slender potatoes captured not only my eyes, but my imagination, beginning a train of vegetable rumination that hasn’t quite stopped.

 

We are a nation of potato eaters. Each year more than a million acres of farmland in the U.S. are devoted to growing potatoes, and our per capita consumption each year is a whooping 126 pounds.

 

Worldwide, the potato is the fourth largest food crop, following rice, wheat and maize (known to us as corn).

 

Much of the potato’s popularity in the U.S. is due to the fast food industry and the deep-fried potatoes served up in these neon bright establishments. Snack foods such as potato chips also contribute their share.

 

But despite these not-so-healthy offerings, the potato stripped of such fatty preparation is a surprisingly healthy food choice.

 

I’m not sure if I meet the average per capita consumption of 126 pounds – especially since I stay away from fast food restaurants and rarely eat potato chips – but I do know that I enjoy nearly every potato I consume. They’re among my favorite foods; there’s just something about them that’s immensely nurturing.

 

Being a favorite comfort food for many – myself included – it’s not surprising that its scientific name, Solanum tuberosum, is derived, in part, from a Latin word that means soothing.

 

The potato's name also reflects that it belongs to the Solanaceae family, otherwise known as nightshades, whose members include tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and tomatillos.

 

The potato is a tuber, rather than a root, meaning the edible portion underground is a swollen part of the stem that develops to feed the leafy green portion of the plant. If allowed to flower and bear fruit, some varieties will yield small, inedible, green tomato-like globes.

 

There are more than 100 varieties of potatoes (some sources claim more than 1,000), and they come in varied colors such as golden yellow, deep blue, lavender or rosy red. Size and shape varies, as well, with the aptly-named fingerling potatoes in my CSA box a fraction of the size of heavy, lumpy, brown Russets stacked high in supermarket bins.

 

The potato wasn’t always such a popular fellow, however, and its history is a checkered one.

 

Potatoes originated in the Andes mountain range in South America, and the Inca Indians of what is now Peru were the first to cultivate them. Not many other cultivated foods were able to withstand the high altitudes of this area, making potatoes the staple food crop of the people there.