At the low temperature of minus 50 degrees, a round sunset dyes the sky blue, and inadvertently, the invisible giant hand sets off a sand wave from the eyes. On this planet where even bacteria can't survive, a lone bully is using knowledge to change his fate. In the movie "The Martian", Mark, an astronaut who is a botanist, successfully planted potatoes on Mars with a 62-square-meter habitat capsule, miraculously spent 500 days, and was finally rescued.
Although the movie "The Martian" beautifies the real living environment of Mars, it is still very reasonable from the point of view of the astronauts choosing to grow potatoes. Because potatoes are not afraid of harsh environments, they are rich in nutrients, not only easy to grow but also have high yields. Potatoes are the fourth largest food crop in the world after rice, wheat and corn. Its appearance is simple, its appearance is not proud, silently growing underground, can be used as a staple food, but also as a side dish, and even as a snack, but the low-key appearance can always surprise our taste buds again and again. Although there is no high value, it cannot take the idol route. But the little potato did not believe in fate, and he rewrote the modern history of the world with his strength.
【Potatoes, an open spare tire】
Potatoes originated in the distant Andes of South America and were brought to Europe by Spanish colonists in the 16th century as a spoil of war. When it first arrived in Europe, the potato was actually prejudiced, for example, many places called the potato "the devil's apple", on the grounds that it is not mentioned in the Bible, and some people say that it looks like a leprosy-stained organ. It was not until the late 16th century that the Spaniards and the British began to grow potatoes. At first, it was just a play, but later it was found that this thing can really be eaten as a meal, and can even be used to prevent bad harvests. Isn't this the perfect spare tire that comes and goes? In 1740, potatoes were like hangings, helping the Netherlands survive a super cold winter, so they were entrusted with heavy responsibilities and vigorously promoted. Just look at van Gogh's 1885 painting "The Potato Eater" to see how real the Dutch people's feelings for potatoes are.
The Germans recognized the value of potatoes because of the "Seven Years' War" of 1756-1763. During the war, although Prussia was invaded by France, Russia, and Austria-Hungary many times, and almost all crops on the surface were destroyed, the potatoes that grew underground were miraculously resupplied by Prussia. This miraculous crop stunned the invaders, and the potato became "famous in world war I" and became the most powerful food weapon in the wartime. The Bavarian Succession War of 1778-1779 gave the war the nickname "Potato War" because the soldiers lived by digging potatoes in the fields.
The French did not take potatoes seriously at first, and in the "Seven Years' War", a Frenchman named Parmentier was captured by the Germans, and he relied on potatoes in prison to fill his hunger and die, and when he returned home, he began to vigorously promote potatoes. The French word Parmentier has become an adjective meaning "potatoes." Parmentier's blessing of the potatoes went down in history. After the French accepted the potatoes, they launched a vigorous potato popularization action, and their unassuming potatoes finally got rid of the drag of appearance and knocked on the door of the French royal family with strength. Louis XVI pinned the potato flower to his chest and Queen Mary simply wore it on his head, which is definitely a living inspirational story, more inspirational than Cinderella riding in a pumpkin convertible.
By the time the French Revolution overthrew The Bourbons in 1794, potatoes had become permanent residents of French farmland. The 1850 French painter Miller's "Evening Vespers" reflects the living conditions of potato farmers at that time. As the peasant couple toiled, they heard the bells of the distant churches and naturally bowed their hats and prayed. Since the French of Fashion have fallen in love with potatoes, the other European countries must not be able to sit still, and a gust of wind follows, and potatoes spread throughout Europe. At this point, the potatoes, which had been silent for a century after landing in Europe, finally seized the opportunity and won their own stage.
After the potatoes spread to Ireland, they completely got rid of the role of spare tires and directly became the true love of the Irish. Of course, this is also a necessity, in the cold of Ireland, the land is barren, the peasants have nothing, they are almost at first sight with the potatoes, dry firewood. With a passion for blood, the Irish had to harvest potatoes on the barren land spurned by the British colonists, and the potatoes produced on a few acres of land could be fed by the family and livestock. For the Irish, this period is the most romantic thing to live.
It is true that potatoes are relatively nutritious, in addition to the energy of carbohydrates, they also contain a variety of proteins and vitamins, and their rich vitamin C content far exceeds that of other food crops. Although it lacks vitamin A, it can solve the problem perfectly with a sip of milk. Moreover, potatoes, a tuber crop, are more resistant to harsh environments than seed crops such as corn and wheat, and can be grown in all types of soil except saline land, can calmly cope with daily average temperatures as low as 8 degrees to 30 degrees, and have little demand for water. This is also the reason why the Irish, who have many barren lands and are located in a cold and mountainous region, are addicted to potatoes.
By 1845, potatoes were almost the only food for the Irish, and as many as two million acres of land were planted that had caused the Irish population to soar from 4 million in 1780 to 8 million in 1845. However, this single grain chain was ultimately too fragile, and the over-reliance on potatoes also sowed the seeds of disaster for the subsequent famine in Ireland. In 1845, a fungus called the "potato late blight" quietly arrived, and the infected potato leaves became moldy and decayed, and then the rhizomes also blackened with the infection and died directly under the ground. In the first year of the invasion of the "potato late blight" bacteria, there had been a reduction in production in most farmers in Ireland, but it had not yet led to famine. However, Irish farmers bet on further widespread cultivation rather than changing varieties, betting more soybean seeds the following year on fields already riddled with the virus. This led to a great famine of 1846-1849 that made the Irish unforgettable, and more than 1.1 million people died in Ireland, which originally had a population of 8 million, and nearly 2 million people left their homes.
The famine also gave a new understanding of potatoes, which are asexual propagating plants with tubers, and viruses are generally less likely to kill seeds, but they are easy to take root in tubers. The "potato late blight" can be transmitted by spores in the soil, and when it invaded the potato fields of Ireland, it swept through all the adjacent fields with lightning speed. The Famine led to a wave of nearly 2 million immigrants, most of whom went to North America, and profoundly changed the demographic composition of the United States.
Today, 55 million Irish-Americans out of 300 million people in the United States are second only to Germans. Irish immigration has also had a great impact on American history, with 14 of the 45 presidents of the United States being of Irish descent or of Irish descent, including Kennedy, Nixon, Bush Sr., Clinton, George W. Bush, and so on. In addition to the upper echelons of society, in the process of industrialization in the United States, the Irish among the toiling masses are willing to build railroads, dig canals, build houses, and so on in the United States as the lowest labor force in order to find a way out, and their contributions cannot be underestimated. Its unassuming potato thus changed the modern history of Ireland, and at the same time added a lot of color to the history of the United States.
【The influence of potatoes on China】
The time when potatoes came to China is not clearly determined in history. The earliest record of potatoes in China is the "potato" in the "Fangxian Chronicle" during the Qianlong period, and by the second half of the 18th century, China successfully introduced potatoes. The reason for growing potatoes is very simple, during the kangqian xiaosheng period, the population multiplied too quickly and the cultivated land area was not enough, in order to reclaim the barren mountainous areas, the wise Chinese farmers used foreign weapons: drought-resistant corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes. Of the three, potatoes perform best, and in the alpine mountains where even corn cannot survive, only potatoes can grow against the trend. The spread of potatoes in China is very smooth, and it is not as smooth as in Europe, and the Chinese who are not picky eaters can easily accept the gifts of heaven. Potatoes have been successfully flopped in the vast gravel barren soil, high hill slopes, deep mountains and old forests and other places. Rice in the south and wheat, millet and sorghum in the north are still the main force of Chinese grain, so potatoes are more like a booster in China's modern history, alleviating the contradictions between man and land that have plagued ancient China for thousands of years
Potatoes are not only easy to grow, but also have a short growth period, three ripening a year is no problem, and even the mu production capacity is as high as two or three thousand catties, which is greatly in line with the "appetite" of Chinese. After being widely planted, potatoes have been promoted all the way to Kangqian Xiaoshengshi. From Qianlong to Daoguang, the Chinese mouth rose from 140 million to 430 million.
To this day, China is still the number one potato producer. In 2010, a total of 324 million tons of potatoes were produced worldwide, of which China alone accounted for 75 million tons. According to the planning of the Ministry of Agriculture, the total potato production of the mainland will reach 130 million tons in 2020, and potatoes are still a large proportion of important ingredients in the great northwest region, such as Gansu and Xinjiang. Of course, potatoes are not perfect, and the storage and transportation of tubers are very difficult, and they can only be dug up and eaten, which is its limitation as a food. After all, tubers are living tissues that are constantly metabolized, so the water content is relatively large, and if the storage conditions are too hot, too dry or too unventilated, the potatoes will either rot and turn green and sprout. At the same time, germination will greatly increase the content of longalin in potatoes, which may cause poisoning after use
But the potato does not have the role of a spare tire because of its own limitations, and it breeds a spirit of daring to fight against fate in the barren land. For many children who come out of the mountains, the potato knots that their mother cooked and boiled are always the most powerful encouragement. The small potatoes carry the taste of the mother, the sweat of the father, and also symbolize the hardships and glory of the struggle. At present, potatoes are still carrying the dream of changing the world and are constantly forging ahead, it has become potato chips, and french fries, an industrial food, have penetrated into every corner of the world in a new form.