The Farmer’s Market hosts this appointment with gastronomy and agriculture from ten in the morning. In its facilities you can also see the exhibition Garoé: on the trail of water in Peru, from Isidoro Sanchez and Manuel Mendez, and enjoy tastings and recipes made with the pretty potato as the main ingredient. In this activity of fusion of Canarian cuisine with Peruvian cuisine, the chef will be live Pablo Pastor, and the chef will participate via streaming Jhosef arias, who proposes “innovative cuisine and authentic style” in its four restaurants located in Madrid. In audiovisual format there will also be Leydi Palacios, the cook of the Peruvian restaurant located in Tenerife Aroma y Sabor. The day can be followed through the social networks of the town hall
The mayor of villero, Francisco Linares, and the mayor of Agriculture, Alexis Pacheco, accompanied by the agronomist Yaiza González and Pablo Pastor, president of the Association of Cooks and Pastry chefs of the Canary Islands, presented these conferences on Thursday. At that event, Linares stressed the importance of “carrying out initiatives such as these days that allow us to recover our customs and traditions, the union between cultures, and also revalue and give the prominence that this unique product deserves: the pretty or old potato.” The mayor stressed the need to include “teaching units that give greater value and promotion to our Canarian culture so that it is not lost and reaches new generations.”
The concilor Alexis Pacheco He added that from the area he directs, continuous actions are carried out to “support all sectors linked to the field and promote the products of the land”, also thanks to the support and work of the Farmer’s Market, where these days are closed today between ten o’clock the morning and two in the afternoon.
The Doña Chana Cultural Park on Friday hosted the technical conference aimed at farmers in the municipality. The talks focused on the cultivation of the potato and its varieties, the historical bond that unites Peru with the Canary Islands and the Andean legacy to the world, through this tuber, as well as the use of chestnut basketry in a traditional way in La Orotava potato cultivation.
The talk Old potatoes and chestnut basketry, taught by Yaiza González, detailed how the traditional cultivation of potatoes was closely related to cracked chestnut wood basketry. The Peruvian Hispanic consultant, Manuel Mendez, gave the conference Peruvian native potato the Andean legacy to the world, highlighting “the ties between the Canary Islands and Peru, and how it later spread in Europe and later around the world thanks to figures such as King Philip II, King Frederick II of Prussia and the French agronomist Antoine Parmentier.” Domingo Rios, Head of the Rural Development Service of the Cabildo de Tenerife, spoke about The old potatoes of the Canary Islands: introduction in the Canary Islands, varieties and cultivation, sharing the experiences that from this institution and the Tenerife Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation Center.
Part of the local identity
The Villero City Council recalls that “according to various historical studies, potato cultivation began in southeastern Peru about 8,000 years ago, on the terraces or platforms of the valleys of Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire, where it continues to be cultivated. , as in ancient times. From there the potato passed to Europe in the 16th century through the Canary Islands, the Orotava Valley is one of the areas of the Canary Islands with the greatest roots in the cultivation of old potatoes in a traditional way. The potato in Tenerife is the third most important crop behind the vineyard and the banana, not only from an economic point of view, but also from a cultural point of view ”. For the City Council, the pretty potato in its different varieties (white, black, red, bird’s eye) are part of the territorial, economic and social identity of the La Orotava Valley.
