We retrace our steps back to the sixteenth century. A time the potato was exotic. Nowadays children eat pastas, pizzas, burgers, shawarma, sushi, noodles, fried rice, et cetera. That is why they find it a treat when you serve them boiled potatoes for supper once in a while. With a bit of salt and lots of gravy, of course. It is special and exotic again. And, that is no applesauce. We, therefore, wondered how serious we should take the grim image of Van Gogh’s Potato Eaters.
There are many, many words for the tattie or the potato. Only in the Netherlands the variations are endless. For example aardappel, erpel, jirpel, patat and pieper. But many more. In Germany it is officially Kartoffel, but many more variations exist here too, including Pipper, Tüfte and Tüffel. The last two variants probably derive from the word truffle. We will stick to potato in this post. Besides all the different names for potato, there are more than 5,000 different varieties of potatoes, all with a different name. Do not even bother to list those. Furthermore, you have the confusion of French fries, chips, patat/petat and friet/frieten, all names for the fried, elongated strips of potato. The European border between friet/frieten and patat/petat on this map below.
The cradle of the potato is according to DNA research southern Peru. Nevertheless, Chile and Peru are almost in a state of war still about who can claim being the birthplace of the poisonous plant. We do not know why they argue about it, since it is too late the get a patent anyway; world claim for potato fame. We, bastards of the Frisia Coast Trail, do know from our own experience that southern Chile and Peru is excellent hiking material, e.g. National Park Torres del Paine. But this aside, and, actually, not relevant to mention here.
The earliest proof of the potato crossing the Pond was in 1573, when the vegetable was recorded in Spain. Once in Spain, monks were probably responsible for spreading the plant further into Europe. Perhaps first via Italy. At the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the potato reached Germany and the Netherlands. By then it still was a curiosity. Only mostly grown at cloister gardens and at universities for study. People figured the weird-looking and tasteless potato was more suitable as food for pigs, and maybe for the poor. We will come back to Peppa Pig later this post.
Things changed because of clashing religions, as it often does in history. Already before the arrival of the potato in Europe, Martin Luther had nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg in the year 1517. Eventually, this schism too led to (civil) wars and prosecution, between Catholics and Protestants. This, of course, also led to refugee flows within Europe to, among other, the Low Countries. People adrift included the Huguenots from France at the end of the seventeenth century.
The Huguenots in general did not bring much wealth with them or other particular valuable skills, contrary to what is sometimes romanticized. Something that might be influenced by today’s emotional migration debates. But, the Huguenots did not came totally empty-handed either. What they did bring with them was a different cuisine, which had the potato as staple. The noodles, nasi goreng or pom of today’s immigrants, you could say. In the period between 1680 and 1720, religious refugees also settled in province Friesland. Here they started to grow potatoes in their small, private kitchen gardens. Small-scale and for themselves, at first.
In the year 1761 it was this area, between the terp-villages (a terp being an artificial settlement mound) of Firdgum and of Tzummarum in the northwest of the province Friesland, where the first commercial field of potatoes ever was harvested. Firdgum is depicted on the cover photo of this post with its remarkable freestanding, slim church tower. The first load of potatoes was being shipped to Amsterdam via the harbor of the town of Harlingen by skipper Johan Pieters. A skipper from the town of Franeker. To this very day, the potato is the main crop in this area, although farmers have specialized into seed potatoes now.
The reason behind the fact the potato was, and still is, so successful in this area, has to do with the rich clay soil in combination with the salty sea winds. The latter giving greenfly a very hard time. The clay soil used to be tidal marshland which was reclaimed from the Wadden Sea in the High Middle Ages, and therefore is very fertile.
Clothes for the Pope - Before the introduction of the potato, the area of Firdgum was known for its flax production. Flax is the basis for linen cloth. The local story is that even the Pope in Rome wore clothes made in Firdgum. If you want to have a clue what is true of this local rumor (and it is more than you think!) read our post Haute couture from the salt marshes. Traditional carbohydrate crops of the salt marsh were barley, especially sea barley, and emmer wheat. Possibly spelt and (bread) wheat too. But archaeological research has to further substantiate the growing of these two crops.
Because it was a great and nutritious addition to the diet, the potato became known as the poor man’s food. Cheap food and the only food the grey masses could afford. In the year 1843, an economic crisis set in and most people lost their jobs again. This was 'supplemented' with a malaria epidemic, an influenza epidemic, cholera and, last but not least, with potato blight. The latter causing crop failures and serious famine. Despite people were literally starving, the few healthy potatoes that were harvested, were exported. Shipped from the port town of Harlingen. Malaria hit Harlingen relatively hard because the mosquito dwells very well in brackish environment.
On June 24, 1847 hungry masses exploded in this small but crowded and jammed town at the Wadden Sea coast. It became known as the Aardappeloproer ‘potato riot’. First, they plundered a ship loaded with potatoes. After they had secured the potatoes, mobs looted houses of the wealthy, including that of mayor Rodenhuis (Vuyk 2011). The next day the King’s Governor and military arrived and restored the order. Fifteen persons were arrested. Furthermore, the Minister of War send a gunboat to Harlingen to secure the steam navigation with England (Schroor 2015). By the way, in 1917 Amsterdam followed with its own Aardappeloproer. Here too, the fact that those few potatoes that could be harvested were being exported to England and Germany provoked the masses (Historiek 2022).
In the ’50s that followed things were not much better. Poor people still dying like flies because of cholera and tuberculosis. And, potatoes still being scarce and too expensive. The second half of the nineteenth century was also a period many Frisians emigrated to Canada and the United States. Including well-known names like Folkert Kuipers alias Frank Cooper, Sybrigje Viersen, Douwe or Dow Drukker, and the parents of William Sake Hofstra, Wiebe Klaas Frankena, Rod Jellema, and Lenny Dykstra alias Nails.
Not long after these troubles, in the year 1885, Vincent van Gogh painted the grim life of the poor. The painting is named De aardappeleters ‘The Potato Eaters’. The name is not to be confused with those youngsters in the Netherlands today, who are known as patatgeneratie, literally meaning ‘French fries generation’. A generation of the period early ’70s to mid ‘80s, and typified for their passiveness. Indeed, real potato-heads.
Kids and potatoes have another connection. Headmaster Kornelis Lieuwes de Vries from the village Suameer in province Friesland, cultivated at his school potatoes. A famous potato variety he developed in 1905 is the Bintje. He named this variety after one of his pupils, an eager girl named Bintje Jansma. Other pupils in his school after whom potato varieties are named after, are Cato, Sipe and Trijntje.
And now, after being so many centuries of service, potatoes are slowly disappearing from the staple. Especially from city folk’s tables. It is considered old-fashioned, tasteless food, and above all, not quick to prepare. The bags are heavy to carry from the supermarket and you have to peel the skin too. Too tiring. Too much of a hassle for a family where both skinny parents work and only have a few minutes to prepare a meal. Too many carbs anyway, especially since bikes have become electric. But everything that is scarce always becomes popular. Therefore, go the extra mile and treat your children once in a while on this former poor man’s food again: boiled potatoes with a bit of salt and lots and loads, loads of gravy. If they need a final push to be convinced, show your kids this short movie of Peppa Pig about when Mr Potato Head Comes to Town (and good to see Peppa Pig lives on a terp too).
Your kids love it and not grim at all (anymore)!
Note 1 - Credits images go to Fotogorter and Vincent van Gogh
Note 2 - When hiking stage 4 of the Frisia Coast Trail you pass through this area and you have the option to visit the Yeb Hettinga Museum in an old school building and the Zodenhuis, a sod-house replica made of clay grass-sods being the practice in the Early Middle Ages.
Note 3 - If you happen to be in the Queen of the Hanseatic League, the city of Lübeck in Germany, you have the chance to go out eating in the Kartoffel Keller. A restaurant dedicated to the potato. Now, how cool is that!
Further reading
Buist, G., Bintje, vernoemd naar een ijverig schoolmeisje uit Friesland (2019)
Haan, de P. & Huisman, K. (ed), Gevierde Friezen in Amerika (2009)
Historiek, De Aardappeloproer ontspoort (1917) (2022)
Nicolay, J., Schepers, M., Postma, D. & Kaspers, A., Firdgum: pioniers, boeren en terpbewoners (2018)
Oliemans, W.H., Het brood van de armen. De geschiedenis van de aardappel temidden van ketters, kloosterlingen en kerkvorsten (1988)
Pot, G.P.M., Arm Leiden. Levensstandaard, bedeling en bedeelden 1750-1854 (1993)
Schroor, M., Harlingen. Geschiedenis van de Friese havenstad (2015)
Scheltema, J., Geschiedenis van de dagelijksche kost in de burger-huishoudingen (1830)
Stichting Bildtse Aardappelweken, Poetic Potatoes (2014-2018)
Vries, de E., Ype Baukes de Graaf. De laatste Fries die de doorstraf kreeg (2003)
Vuyk, S., De blikken dominee. Een verboden liefdesaffaire die eindigde in moord (2011)
Wiersma, J., Noord-Nederland na de bedijkingen (2018)