Candy potatoes are a really versatile tuber. You possibly can roast them. You possibly can bake them right into a pie. You possibly can flip them into the third greatest sort of french fry. And apparently, you may make them an integral a part of colonizing Polynesian islands.
Candy potatoes are usually not indigenous to Polynesia, having arisen 1000’s of miles away in Central and South America. Even so, the tasty root vegetable has grow to be a staple of the islands’ delicacies. Whereas it was identified that the crop had arrived in jap Polynesia a while after human settlement in 900 CE, after which unfold westward in direction of New Zealand, scientists have debated precisely how and when it received there. Some proof suggests candy potato seeds reached the area by way of pure means, akin to birds, wind, and sea currents. Now, new analysis hints that the crop’s presence was a significant factor in enabling human growth throughout the Polynesian islands.
A group of archaeologists, led by College of Otago professor Ian Barber, scoured the New Zealand island Te Wāhipounamu for stays of historic kūmara, because the Maori name candy potatoes. They discovered what they have been in search of at Triangle Flat, an space that was as soon as residence to a Maori farming complicated. Within the sand, they positioned candy potato granules, which they then carbon dated.
Outcomes confirmed that the crop might have been planted as early as 1290 CE, over 100 years sooner than beforehand believed on the island, and across the identical time that settlers first started colonizing the southernmost Polynesian islands. As Barber wrote in his ensuing examine, revealed Wednesday within the journal Antiquity, the findings counsel candy potatoes have been among the many first crops planted by colonizers. In reality, the supply of candy potatoes as a crop could have been among the many components that made settling the islands potential within the first place.
The vegetable is thought for its hardiness, in addition to for the velocity at which it grows. Polynesia is an enormous community of over 1,000 islands, and settlers wanted hardy crops to maintain themselves as they unfold to new territories with cooler climates than these of islands nearer the equator. In a press launch, Barber urged that Polynesians could have been galvanized by the information that they had such a sturdy meals supply at their disposal.
“American candy potato resilience, as bequeathed by continental evolution, could have helped encourage early migrants to cross cooler waters for southern Polynesian islands the place kūmara would outperform,” he mentioned.
There might be some better impacts of Barber’s analysis. In accordance with the Worldwide Potato Middle, greater than 105 million metric tons of the crop are produced globally annually, making it the world’s fifth largest crop. Local weather change, nonetheless, threatens to have an effect on manufacturing, as areas that produce a considerable amount of the provision might heat dramatically by 2070. Barber expressed hope that learning the unfold of candy potatoes might uncover new methods to enhance the crop’s resilience. If that occurs, you’ll know who to thank for saving your favourite Thanksgiving facet dish.
