Arrival of the potato to the Canary Islands
The exact arrival date of the potato to the Canary Islands is not known. Probably it was introduced direct from Peru or Colombia in the first years of the decade of 1,560, because in 1567 a Dutch vessel loaded potatoes in Las Palmas Gran Canaria heading Antwerp (Lobo-Cabrera, 1988):
". .. And likewise I receive three medium barrels you say contain potatoes and oranges and green lemons"
(reproduction of the note dated 28-9-1567 from the public notary Lorenzo Palenzuela)
There is similar information, seven years later, related to a shipment of goods from Tenerife (via Gran Canaria) to Rouen:
". .. Likewise two barrels with potatoes from Teneriffe and eight ( ... ) full of liquor"
(reproduction of the note dated 24-4-1574 from the public notary Louis de Balboa)
The first printed text in Canary Islands, where the cultivation of the potato o the Islands is mentioned, is the work “Elementary lessons of theoretic agriculture, practice and economic” by Dr. D. Juan Bautista Bandini, published in the printing house Bazzani, in La Laguna, in 1816 (although the text was written up among 1808 and 1813). About the grown potato varieties, Bandini says:
"There are many varieties of it: early and late ; with white, pink, or blue flowers; with white, brown, yellow, red or purple epidermis; o f round, long or oval figure, cornered or with excrescences"
Regarding to the arrival of the potato to the Canary Islands, Bandini shares the opinion of his friend Viera y Clavijo, who in his Dictionary of Natural History, written in 1799 and published in 1866 by the “Land Friendship Society of Las Palmas, says:
" ... the first potatoes were brought from Peru by Don Juan Bautista de Castro by the year 1622. This mister made them sow at his lands in Icod el Alto from where so happily they have spread all over the Canary Islands".
Although the presence of the potato in the Canary Islands since 1560 seems to be confirmed, its cultivation probably was in a sporadic way, without much diffusion. Same occurred in Europe, where it began as a garden curiosity. It seems logic to think the introduction was 1622, quoted by Viera, with ideal soil and climate conditions. This caused a great impact and contributed to spread out the cultivation on the islands. The potato's first cultivation zone, Icod el Alto, is still one of the places where it has the most established, with presence of primitive varieties, disappeared in other places of the island.
With the arrival of the crop to Icod el Alto also the basic cultivation knowledge came. The potato adapted to the climate and the soil of islands and the canarian farmers adopted it as one of their important crops.
Source:
• D. Eovaldo Hernández Pérez. Profesor Fitotecnia y Bioquímico. Libro las Papas Antiguas de Canarias (pag. 1-14). APAC, 2002.
