Universal virtues

Apart from providing us with food, the potato has given evidence of many other virtues over the years. It can be recommended for all kinds of rejuvenating cures. A raw peeled potato gives a tired face a fresh glow. “It lights up one's complexion and smooths out wrinkles" said our grandmothers who, unlike us, did not have a vast choice of beauty products at their disposal. They would certainly have advised us to keep potato liquour to remove black stains caused by eggs from our cutlery, to polish up our copper and silver, and to touch up the colours in our carpet. Objects which do not stand washing can be cleaned with a thick puree and brushed after the puree has dried. Cleaning a painting is a tricky job. The potato can help us. Dust the painting carefully and thoroughly clean and halve the potato. Rub the canvas without pressing on it. As soon as the surface of the potato gets dirty, cut off a slice and continue. When the work is finished, remove starch traces with a damp cloth. These are some of the interesting remedies from our past.

The potato is a medicinal plant and is included in books on traditional medicine. A balsam of raw potatoes is a good decongestant, and relieves the pain of a burn. Don't forget your slice of potato when your skin has reddened from sunburn. Jean Follain* recommends the use of a round slice to "reduce... the swelling of a painful bump. It can replace one of the old silver five‑franc coins which sometimes had the laurelled profile of‑the first emperor on it". It appears that potato juice as an aperitif is a miracle cure for bad digestion. Certain "old wives" remedies should be regarded with suspicion: they are ineffective! However, they at least have one advantage: they do not deteriorate the patient's condition! For instance, a poultice of boiled and mashed potatoes placed on your abdomen is supposed to soothe your stomach‑ache.

It was said that if you kept a potato in your pocket all year round, it would protect you from catching a winter cold or flu, because the potato would catch every virus and bad bacteria around you. Attached around your neck, the potato will writhe with pain for months, but would it really relieve you of your rhumatism?

We must have dreamed it, but at the 1976 congress on sterility in Madrid, women who wanted to conceive a male child, were advised to eat artichokes, chestnuts and potatoes.

The first colour photos: the autochrome plates of the brothers Lumière. Small potato starch grains dyed red, green or blue are crushed on a glass plate.The superposition of the three plates reconstitutes the colours.

Could the potato be a divine being?
The people of our planet did not know which deity the potato served. The Incas worshipped it. Its cooking time became a unit of time for them. The Peruvians gave their high priest the name "papas", a curious and prophetic homonym. In Poland, it played a part in supematural pratices. Capped with moss and spiked with twigs, it was transformed into an evil mask for casting spells and exorcizing demons. In Ireland, it was considered sacred. "Potatoes and marriage" an Irish saying goes, "are two things too serious to joke about”. It was a satanic creature for the Scots who refused to eat it because it wasn't mentioned in the Bible. In the 19th century, it became passionately romantic, and Lord Byron who wrote of the "sad result of passions and potatoes" seems to think that it served the Greek goddess Aphrodite.

The potato has talents which we have forgotten. Does it still have some secrets which have never been revealed?

* For the calorie value of the potato, see Chapter “A fat little fat-free friend”.
* « Célébration de la pomme de terre »by Jean Follain, published by Robert Morel.