The potato conspiracy

1. The potato conspiracy • What organic church planters can learn from the potato • Or: the basics of organic gardening

2. Some basic potato-facts • The fourth most important source of food energy in the world • Originally from Peru, imported into Europe through Spain (‘patata’) • One progenitor (original), but thousands of different varieties

3. The advantages of the potato • Easier to grow than other staple crops • Produces more food energy than any other European crop for the same area of land • Only a shovel is needed for harvesting • The only crop unaffected by war(the 30 Years War stimulated potato growth in Germany)

4. The advantages of the potato (2) • Not the outside (lack of) beauty matters, but the inside quality • They are simple and not self-promoting • They form an underground conspiracy of multiplication

5. The potato is a tough one • You can boil him • Bake him • Roast him • Cut him into pieces • And smash him So potatoes are ‘persecution proof’

6. How to grow potatoes • Turn the soil and remove rocks and weeds • Just plant a piece of a potato with at least one ‘eye’ • Plant them in rows or circles (relationally connected) • The closer together, the smaller the fruit;the further apart, the bigger • Add ‘organic matter’ to the soil

7. How to grow potatoes (2) • The plant channels excess sunshine energy to the tubers • Flowering is a sign that something is definitely happening underground • Water well at beginning of day • Don’t grow them in the same soil more than once in three years

8. How they multiply • They don’t need bees, but multiply themselves • The ‘seed potato’ pushes the new potatoes upwards • They have to stay underground, otherwise they become toxic • The more underground, the greater the harvest (average is 10-fold) • With tires (mobile version) they multiply more rapidly

9. The potato can change Europe