Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1911 — HAIL TO THE DASHEEN. [ARTICLE]

HAIL TO THE DASHEEN.

It's a New Royal Relative to the Potato and Will Grow In Marshy Land. The great event in the recent annual dinner in Washington of the National Geographic society was the ushering into the gastronomic world of a new debutant the dasheen, which was served stuffed in place of the orthodox potato. The cordial welcome given to this new. arrival by the 500 guests present at the dinner has a distinct economic significance to the proprietors of lands that are wet for anything but ducks and rice. The dasheen is a tuber of chemical content similar to that of the potato, and it has for many centuries been a staple crop and article of food in China, Japan, the Pacific islands, Africa and the West Indies. In appearance it resembles an undersized cocoanut, having a similar reddish brown color and a coating of fine, short, hairy fibers. The tubers average about the size of a duck’s egg. Here are some of the impressions overheard of the dasheen: “Artichoke flavor," “like salsify." “sweet potato without sugar,” “halfway between t sweet and a white potato." “a sort of gamy potato." “texture mucilaginous," “reminds me of a potato cooked with cheese,” “decided improvement over potatoes grown on river bottom land.* The commercial prospects of the dasheen are signified by the fact that two large metropolitan hotels have entered orders for as large a portion of the 1911 crop as can be spared.