The potato was domesticated 7,000 years ago by the ancestors of these Peruvian peasants on the shores of Lake Titicaca, between modern Peru and Bolivia, archaeologists say. The Potato Park is considered a center of secondary origin for the potato, which today is grown on all the continents of the Earth, except Antarctica. Scientists from the US space agency Nasa and the Peru-based International Potato Center have even been testing whether potatoes can be grown on Mars.
The descendants of the Quechua-speaking Incas have a myriad of descriptive names for the cornucopia of potatoes grown and consumed in the Andes of southern Peru, from a grayish and chubby tuber named after the nose of an alpaca to a yellow tail called puma maqui or puma leg. There is even a madly gnarled potato known as pusi qhachun wachachi, whose name literally means "make your daughter-in-law cry," since it has frustrated many future wives who have tried to pass the test of trying to peel her. They come in all colors and textures; red, yellow, blue and purple, sometimes striking pink surrounded by white when cut in half. Some have a powdery texture, others are zero and some moray or chuño are too bitter to eat until they soak, freeze on the roofs and trample on to remove their skin. These can be stored for months and used in winter soups.
