The Four Corners potato

December 12, 2021 11:27 AM

Solanum jamesii, aka the Four Corners potato, has sustained Indigenous people in the American Southwest for 11,000 years; USDA is now studying its 8-year shelf life, and its resistance to disease, heat, and drought. The future of this remarkable little potato remains unwritten.
posted by ShooBoo (17 comments total)

Fascinating!
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:45 AM on December 12, 2021

The writer does not seem to be in any hurry to tell you (or at least to stress) whether these features are unusual for potatoes.

Did the writer say?
posted by Baeria at 2:20 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

In addition to that unfettered access, the Four Corners potato was stacked with useful traits. Over years of research, Bamberg’s group discovered it to be extremely resistant to potato scourges like late blight—the fungus responsible for the Irish Potato Famine—as well as the Colorado potato beetle, all without the use of fungicide or insecticide. They found it was packed with antioxidants, and possibly more nutritious than common potato varieties. In addition, the potatoes were able to remain viable for as long as eight years in the fridge. And even as their desert habitat suggested they tolerated drought and heat, the tubers were impressively resistant to cold: jamesii growing in the Bamberg’s garden survived the Wisconsin winters at 20º below. “It does stuff no other species does,” Bamberg said.
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:33 PM on December 12, 2021 [14 favorites]

I want to know what they are like to eat!
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:43 PM on December 12, 2021 [5 favorites]

There was a line in the article about baking it with clay to allay some of the bitterness which made me think it might not be as bland as most of our commercial varieties, which I think would be all to the good, since with the exception of some heirloom varieties from the Andes, including one which was long, very pale-skinned, and so wavy it looked like extremely fat lasagna noodles, and which an eccentric local farmer used to sell at a Seattle street farmer's market, I have rarely had potatoes which were bitter enough.

As a kid I used to eat red potatoes raw, sliced as if for country fries and heavily salted, and they satisfied a hunger few other foods could (I also liked raw peanuts and pecan pith).
posted by jamjam at 5:05 PM on December 12, 2021 [3 favorites]

Buy them all up. We'll half cook them, mash them up with sugar and salt, load them with oils and few other things that help them from disintegrating during transport and the inevitable overcooking. Freeze them and tell people they have to be cooked at a ridiculously high oven temperature - otherwise they just turn to mush (because of all the oils we needed to stabilise them) . We'll call them Spuds McGregors: the Kid Size Irish Fighting Potato Bites. Celebrity endorsement is pretty much in the bag. Heh, it only takes 11,000 years for me to come up with one smart idea.
posted by Elmore at 5:07 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

I want to know what they are like to eat!

Somewhat dangerous? There's a toxin called solanine that has been selectively bred out of domestic potatoes (and other cultivated nightshades) for centuries - wild potatoes will have much higher levels. Solanine is also what makes green potatoes dangerous.
posted by kickingtheground at 5:17 PM on December 12, 2021 [5 favorites]

They’re small enough you could deep fry them intact and call them potato pebbles.
posted by jamjam at 5:18 PM on December 12, 2021

Monument Valley is a very special place. Very.
posted by Oyéah at 6:05 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

As a kid I used to eat red potatoes raw, sliced as if for country fries and heavily salted, and they satisfied a hunger few other foods could

It must have filled you up, but raw potatoes are basically indigestible. You need heat to break down the starch into something your body can use.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 6:47 PM on December 12, 2021 [4 favorites]

Somewhat dangerous?

According to the article this is a "domestic" potato that was eaten for eleven thousand years, so I assume they're safe.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:36 PM on December 12, 2021 [12 favorites]

I wouldn't assume that. In both South and North America, there are indigenous traditions of eating wild potatoes with clay, where the clay apparently absorbs some of the toxic and bitter solanine.

Quoting the second of those links:

“The use of Solanum jamesii by the Hopi people is not so much now, but in the past as the famers would be out in their fields down below the mesas they would dig the wild potatoes and bring it home to add to their diet,” says Max Taylor, botanist at the Hopi Tribe Water Resources Program. “There were many ways to prepare the potatoes, but one way for sure was to boil the potatoes in a white clay to draw out the toxins from the potato to make it edible. The particular clay is called the potato clay for that reason, it’s a clay similar to the one from which the potteries are made.”

posted by kickingtheground at 8:23 PM on December 12, 2021 [6 favorites]

Well then, problem solved!
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:59 PM on December 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

pomme de terre en terre
posted by ryanrs at 9:31 PM on December 12, 2021 [6 favorites]

It must have filled you up, but raw potatoes are basically indigestible. You need heat to break down the starch into something your body can use.


That's a good point, ChurchHatesTucker. I do remember they gave me gas, which I now know signals that my internal microorganisms didn’t find it quite as intractable, so I looked into that this evening, and here is what I found:

Resistant Starch Content

Raw potatoes are loaded with resistant starch, a type of starch that your body doesn’t digest or absorb. Instead, it’s used to provide energy for your beneficial gut bacteria (3).

Adding resistant starch to your diet has been associated with an array of potential health benefits.

In fact, studies show that it can lower blood sugar levels, improve insulin sensitivity and keep you feeling full to help enhance weight loss (4, 5, 6).

Resistant starch is also converted into butyrate, an important short-chain fatty acid that can improve digestive health.

Test-tube studies have found that butyrate can suppress inflammation in the colon and block the growth of colon cancer cells (7, 8).

Plus, according to one review, treatment with butyrate could also help decrease several symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), including bloating and stomach pain (9).

A little too good to be true, I'd say, but interesting.
posted by jamjam at 10:25 PM on December 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

i love you little potato
posted by JmacDotOrg at 7:27 PM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

Monument Valley is a very special place. Very.

John Ford quite agreed.
posted by y2karl at 10:26 AM on December 15, 2021