The Catani potato

I grew up on a potato farm at Cora Lynn, the town next to Catani, so naturally the potato as a vegetable is close to my heart. There is, in fact, a potato variety named Catani. This is what I know about Catani the potato so far - it was developed by Roger Kirkham of the  Potato Research Station at Toolangi in 1986. It had trials at various locations throughout the State, including  the Chatfield farm at Catani, thus the name, so it is a potato that is born and bred in Victoria. The potato is grown mainly for chips i.e. French fries and the main (only?) growers of the variety on Koo Wee Rup swamp are the Chatfield family who supply a processing factory at Hallam who supply chips to fish and chips, catering companies, chips you would buy at the Footy etc. Carlo Catani has had many honours, but surely there could be no higher honour for a man or woman that to have a potato named after them!

This is the typical shape of  a Catani potato - a longish shape.  I have to tell you that the Catani variety is being planted now (December 2018) so the potato shown here has been in storage  for six to eight months - so it is not as perfect looking as it would be if it was newly dug. 

Catani seed crop in the Otways.

I am sure Carlo's heart would be filled with joy to see such a grand vista of a field of potatoes named after him.

Image: 2020 Seed Buyer's Guide published by Seed Potatoes Victoria www.spv.org.au

Here's some information about potatoes* -  Potatoes can be grown world wide, they are nutritious, relatively quick to grow and an effective use of land as 85 per cent of the potato plant is edible. Potatoes have been grown in the Andes for over 8000 years and came to Europe via the Spaniards in the 16th century and then spread throughout the world.  They have been grown on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp right from the time of settlement - the western end of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp was said to have produced 3000 tons of potatoes in 1894, just one year after the blocks were allocated to settlers, after the major drainage works. The importance of the potato to the economy of the Swamp was reflected in the Koo Wee Rup  Potato Festival, which ran from 1973 until 2000. 2008 was declared the Year of the Potato by the United Nations. 

 A composition of Catani potatoes.

*This information comes from a blog post I did for my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to Our Past - http://caseycardinialinkstoourpast.blogspot.com/2008/01/year-of-potato.html