In the “researched” greengrocers, never and in … sophisticated stalls of the layman, one can count many different origins or even varieties. Naxos, Cypriot, Cranidio, sweet, Peruvian, organic Yukon or North American yellow peel. For the pan, for the pot, for the oven… They are all tested, approved, delicious and loved. Even if the nickname of “potatoes” is claimed by other peoples, the acceptance of the potato is universal and non-negotiable by the Greek public as well. Her reception in Greece again, was an adventure worth mentioning…

Initially, the potato – “potato” on the Greek side – it is cultivated (since the 6th century) by the indigenous peoples of Latin America (Chile, Peru, Colombia), as plant with medicinal properties. In Europe, to be precise in Spain, it is imported together with tobacco – which is also used for its healing properties – by the navigator Francis Drake, in the 15th century. From there it is channeled throughout Europe. The famine that affected Ireland in the middle of the 17th century. it makes citizens see the potato with a different eye and discover in it an edible product, with limited use. Until the middle of the 18th century. it is mainly recommended as feed for pigs only. It is rumored that its consumption by humans causes leprosy and in some areas its cultivation is prohibited by law! Since the potato is a substance harmful to health and its cultivation can cause leprosy, its cultivation on the land of Sallins is prohibited under penalty of fine, states a decree of the Franche-Comte region, at the beginning of the 18th century.

At the beginning of the next century, scientific research will exonerate the potato. It will turn out that it belongs to the same family (Solanids) as many other species, such as pepper, tomato and eggplant, which are already consumed in abundance. Its spread will be unimpeded.

On Greek soil

It is generally known that it was brought to Greece in 1828 by the country’s first governor. It is not accurate. Kapodistrias promotes its cultivation, but he is not the one who introduces it to the Greeks.

One piece of information brings him “scrape the tuberous rhizome“, as is the scientific name of the bulb, first appeared in Corfu in 1800. A local private citizen received a potato as a gift from Trieste where his friend was growing it and decided to sow it on the Corfu soil as well. From there it spread to the Ionian Islands and became a popular edible species long before Kapodistrias spread it to the Greek territory. According to another, unofficial information, Dimitrios Gasparis, consul of France in Greece (“French consul” is described by Ioannis Benizelos in the History of Athens), with family origin from Corsica, cultivated potatoes in his field, in Patisia. It seems that thanks to its European association, the family imported from time to time various species from Europe, decorative or edible, which it tried on its territory of Patisia. Apparently one of them was the potato.

In any case, all this information is unofficial. The first extant documents, concerning the introduction of the geomilos to Greece and its “acquaintance” with the Greek public, refer to the first governor of the country.

A tickling story, in fact, about how Kapodistrias managed to introduce the potato into the life of the newly created Greek state is published by Babis Anninos. “Kapodistrias ordered two loads (of potatoes) and after they were delivered, he invited by proclamation to the people, making known the properties of the unknown product and providing instructions on its cultivation, to those who were willing to take a quantity of it in order to plant it. But the invitation remained without result” the author narrates and quotes what the governor devised to arouse the interest of the citizens. So he gave an order “The load of potatoes should be landed on the beach, a guard should be placed around it during the night, but these guards should be ordered that if they saw the citizens coming and secretly taking potatoes from the pile, they should pretend they didn’t see them and let them receive what they wanted”!

Kapodistrias’ clever… advertising ploy led to the overnight seizure of the cargo, under the “taught” noses of his guards! The news that something valuable is hidden in the port, which is indeed guarded, spread by word of mouth and on that same night of his exposure, the Greek “demon” was activated…

According to one version, which is examined in the light of the legend, Kapodistrias implemented what Louis XVI had done in 1772 in the Sablons plain of Neuilly, where potatoes were experimentally grown on 30 hectares of land. There was a ditch dug around the site and a guard posted, but only for the day! In his book “A history of Food” the French author Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat notes that “when the crops were green, soldiers were stationed to guard them, with a gun-lance (!), for the guy, in hand, which soon aroused curiosity… During the night the false guard ostentatiously withdrew and the thieves (sic) on which the Authorities calculated well, made their supplies… and at the same time advertising the product”. Frederick II of Prussia allegedly used the same trick two years later.

Ye iretai of Geomilos are innumerable…

A document, entered in the annals of Greek history, however, reveals that the real initiator of the introduction of potatoes into Greece was the merchant George Antonopoulos.

In this document, which he addressed on January 19, 1826 from Nafplion to the “Respectable Parliament”, Antonopoulos notes that “potatoes can provide as much food as man needs” and concludes: “…The virtues of this potato are innumerable. So how necessary its cultivation is in Greece and indeed in its fortresses is undeniable, and yet it is neglected.

According to them, I received some of them from Europe, I brought them to Argos, where they are already being cultivated due to my promptings. I wrote to the guard of Acrocorinth inviting him to send a man to receive potatoes in order to plant them in Acrocorinth.”

From the next archived document, dated January 21, 1826, it appears that the reaction of the Parliament to Antonopoulos’ request was not delayed.

“... The patriot G. M. Antonopoulos, representing through the enclosed report the benefit from the cultivation of potatoes, says that he received some of them from which they gave a few tins to the Argives to sow, and that he also wrote to the guard Acrocorinthos to send and take also to sow in Acrocorinthos. He also suggests that they should be sown in the Acropolis of Nafplion (Itzkale) as beneficial.

The Parliament deems the proposal useful and approves that Mr. Adam Doukas take this burden, and to oversee the scattering and imprisonment of them. The Honorable Executive is therefore notified, in order to order the proposal to be acted upon” refers to the relevant letter to the Executive, this time, House.

In two years (1828) Ioannis Kapodistrias undertakes the establishment of the Greek state and in a letter to his relative in Geneva he notes: “From the cultivation of potatoes, this modest institution-bearing will of my state begins”.

From the extant correspondence of Kapodistrias it appears that the governor assigns the Philhellenic Irish agronomist Bennet W. Stevenson the mission of finding land suitable for sowing and cultivating potatoes. At the same time, through the lieutenant colonel, director of the Engineer and commander of the Ordnance, Theodoros Vallianos, he directs a population that wishes to engage in agriculture, as well as Ottoman prisoners, to the cultivation of potatoes.

From a Decree dated January 22, 1828 and issued in Aegina, the first seat of Kapodistrias, it is known that from the very next day, Vallianos will lead 22 captured Ottomans and other laborers (“contractors”), men, women and children, who will want to work in planting the potatoes. The male workers will be divided into groups of 25, the women and children into larger groups. Each group will have a foreman appointed by Vallianos. The tools will be supplied by the mayors of Aegina. The caretakers are volunteers and unpaid. The daily wage and bread for the captives (10 parades, 300 drams of bread) and laborers (20 parades and 300 drams of bread) are determined. Two soldiers will watch over the prisoners.

In 1829, in his book under the title “Grecian Landscape” the English historical researcher HW Williams after a long tour of Heptanisa, Patras, Delphi, Livadia, Athens, Corinth, he mentions, among other things: “I saw the first signs of civilization: potatoes, fresh butter and hangers!”

The potato is slow to take the place it deserves on the Greek table. Cultivation is limited and production even more so. Time will vindicate her.

The German botanist Theodor Heinrich Hermann von Heldreich, in his 50 years (!) stay in Greece, conducts a systematic study of its flora. In his report on the “PLANTS OF THE ATTICA FIELD”, published in 1877, in contrast to the rest of the edible wealth of the country for which he records even the appropriate time of cultivation and harvesting of the fruit, he is frugal about the potato: “The strychnos condylorizo ​​or gaiomelon is treated (cultivated) sometimes and on a small scale in vegetable gardens”.

The good reputation of the potato, however, in Europe will be established at the end of the 18th century. through food crises and mainly through grain shortages, during which the potato will be deemed suitable to replace bread. Science has already done its experiments and has solemnly declared the potato the winner and many peoples from its critics to its fanatical fans…