The introduction of potatoes to Greece by first Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias after the liberation from the Ottomans is a story rich in lore.
It is a famously anecdotal story that involves a shipment of potatoes in a warehouse guarded by soldiers and curious Greeks stealing the “strange” vegetable at night.
The governor who knew the nutritional value of potatoes brought the first shipment of potatoes to Nafplio, the capital of the newly independent Greek state, and offered to distribute them for free. The Greeks were indifferent. They were not even curious as to what potatoes tasted like.
Since the Greeks were distrustful of the new food that the governor from abroad was promoting, Kapodistrias cunningly decided to make the bulk of potatoes seem like a precious product that needed to be guarded by soldiers.
Indeed, potatoes suddenly seemed like something of great value to the Greeks. They stole the potatoes, and, after they tasted them, they realized it was an excellent food. Hence, they began cultivating the potato.
And the myth ends there because, in another part of Greece, the cultivation of potatoes had commenced almost thirty years earlier.
Potato cultivation began on the Ionian Islands
After the Treaty of Campo Formio which was signed on October 17, 1797, between France and Austria, the Ionian Islands passed over to French possession. Three years later, however, an extraordinary alliance between Russia and Turkey, two enemies that had been fighting for centuries, forced the French out and granted the islands of the Ionian Sea relative independence. The islands became a new state called the Septinsular Republic (Republic of the Seven Islands) which was in existence from 1800 to early 1807 and had its own flag.
It was then that Ioannis Kapodistrias started his great political career. He was born in Corfu, but the new state of the Ionian Islands helped him become the Governor of Kefalonia and later Minister of Foreign Affairs. Through this position and other professional roles, he became acquainted with important Russian politicians. This led to his rise in the Russian state. He eventually became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the service of Tsar Alexander I in 1809.
The new air of liberty on the Ionian Islands brought along progress in several sectors, including agriculture. According to the memoirs of landowner Nikolaos Arliotis from Corfu, the first known mention of potato cultivation on the island dates back to 1800. Arliotis planted potatoes that a friend of his had sent him from Trieste. Until then, potatoes had been completely foreign and unknown to the people of Corfu.
In 1807, the Ottomans severed ties with Russia and allied with France, passing the Ionian Islands to the French yet again. In 1811, the French authorities in Corfu encouraged the new crop and issued official instructions for its cultivation.
In Corfu in 1817, Stefanos Paramythiotis, an administrative employee of the Ionian state, translated an Italian publication on potato cultivation and published the first Greek language book on the potato. Potato cultivation soon took off on the Ionian Islands. This is seen in the correspondence of Governor Kapodistrias in which he asked his brother Augoustinos in January 1828 to send potatoes from Corfu and Zakynthos to the Peloponnese.
George M. Antonopoulos introduced the potato to the borders of the Greek state before Kapodistrias. At the end of 1825, he sent a report to the Parliament of the Revolutionary Government, praising this new plant for its benefits. He informed the administration that he himself grew potatoes in Nafplio and simultaneously supplied the inhabitants of Argos and the garrison of Acrocorinth with similar seeds. Furthermore, he proposed growing potatoes at the Acropolis of Nafplio. It was a proposal that was accepted by the Parliament on December 21, 1825.
Kapodistrias and the precious potato
Before his arrival in January 1828 to assume the responsibilities of the first governor of Greece, Kapodistrias already had a program in mind to increase the popularity of the potato. On November 12, 1827, the Greek Parliament decided to arrange for the introduction of the potato as well as the re-publishing of the book on the potato that Stefanos Paramythiotis had translated in 1817.
A few days after the establishment of Kapodistrias in Aegina in an area southeast of the island, cultivation began. The governor oversaw the day-to-day operations of the plantation and five hundred workers were employed. This later became 1,500. Soon, potato plantations were established on Poros and Apatheia in Argolis. These plantations were the best solution to the hunger problem, employment of refugees, and wandering populations of liberated Greece.
In 1829, Christoforos Krateros, the first agronomist of the Greek state, pointed out that potato cultivation was more profitable than that of grains and raisins, the dominant crops until then in Morea (the Peloponnese). This was because potatoes ripen faster than raisins and other grains and provide a larger yield.
Krateros also issued instructions for the best cultivation of the potato. These were circulated in single sheets throughout the Greek territory. In the instructions, there was an early testimony of the way potatoes were cooked at the time: “Potatoes are delicious and very nutritious. They serve as bread, and as an offering – they are cooked boiled in water, baked in the oven, and cooked however you want them. They are also used to make excellent wholemeal bread.”
Another great contribution of Ioannis Kapodistrias to Greek agriculture was the establishment of the School of Agriculture of Tiryns right next to Nafplio. It was the first agricultural school of the Greek state and was dedicated to the theory and practice of the art of agriculture.
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