POTATOES – they make the world go round.
Actually, that's money, or love or technically some scientific gravitational law.
Spuds are pretty important though. It'd be fair to say just about every nation on earth has potatoes as a staple.
It's higher up the menu chain for some nations than others.
In Peru, it's super important. That's where I'm heading as part of a Crawford Fund-funded trip to gather stories from the International Potato Centre and to also attend the 10th World Potato Congress.
There will be insights into potato breeding techniques, disease management, rare variety preservation and other scientific presentations that will all provide for valuable reading for Australian growers, researchers and supply chain stakeholders.
There'll also be (hopefully) a lot of potatoes.
And that's where this blog comes in. I'm on a quest to eat as many different types of potatoes in as many different forms as possible.
Now this all might fizzle out to less of a gastronomical adventure than I expect but I'm going to give it a crack all the same.
I'll throw in the odd video to give you some visual stimulation, as well as keeping a count of my potato formats consumed (ie. how it's served).
The blogs will be posted here on the Good Fruit & Vegetables website and sent out through its social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter.
And away we go.
- Ashley Walmsley travelled to Peru with assistance from the Crawford Fund and with financial support from DFAT Council on Australia Latin America Relations.