Potato Museum and blogging
One of the most interesting current trends in food history (according to my very biassed self) is how many people care about a particular aspect and want to make sure that we’re informaed and that the knowledge isn’t lost. What’s really fascinating is that there’s an audience for this. One of the most-used parts of this food history blog, for instance, is the growing number of recipes about scones and biscuits.
There are museums of cutlery and cookbook collections. There are collections of childhood memories and there are displays of fashion in school lunchboxes. Most of these I’ve already looked at at least briefly.
Food is important to us. It’s not just a matter of nutrition. There are memories of place and time and social patterns. Foodways help preserve who we are and how we live in the world, and they also help us live in the world. Formal afternon tea in Australia is full of unwritten codes that help particular social groups communicate and remember and bond.
So where does a potato museum come into this? it shows us some of the ways that potatoes have been grown and eaten and thought about over the years. The pototato has a complicated history but not (for Westerners) a long one.
It’s worth checking out and thinking about.
What’s really interesting is that there’s enough information out there, and enough interest in potato history, for the museum folks to maintain a potato blog. There’s nothing humble about recent spud history.
food history, potatoes, potato museum
October 9th, 2007 at 5:41 am
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