Bintje is a middle-early ripening

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

variety bred in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

by the Frisian schoolmaster K.L. de Vries in 1904 from (Munstersen x Fransen) and marketed for the first time in 1910. The name of the potato, a diminutive of Benedict, was borrowed from one of his former students. Bintje plants are medium-sized and erect, with purplish stems, dark green leaves and white flowers. Bintje produces large oval-shaped tubers with pale yellow skin and yellow flesh. It has shallow eyes. The sprouts are purplish. This high-yielding variety is widely grown in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

. It is used for boiling, baking, and for

fries French fries, or simply fries, also known as chips, and finger chips (Indian English), are ''List of culinary knife cuts#Batonnet, batonnet'' or ''Julienning, julienne''-cut deep frying, deep-fried potatoes of disputed origin. They are prepa ...

, mashed potato and

potato chips Potato chips (North American English and Australian English; often just chip) or crisp (British English and Hiberno-English) are thin slices of potato (or a thin deposit of potato paste) that has been deep frying, deep fried, baking, baked, ...

. It is the most widely cultivated potato in France and Belgium. Bintje is immune to potato virus A. It has moderate resistance to potato leafroll virus. It is susceptible to netted scab,

common scab Common scab is a plant disease of root and tuber crops caused by a small number of ''Streptomyces'' species, specifically ''Streptomyces scabies, S. scabies'', ''Streptomyces acidiscabies, S. acidiscabies'', ''Streptomyces turgidiscabie ...

Fusarium dry rot ''Fusarium'' dry rot is one of the most common potato diseases. It is caused by fungi in the genus ''Fusarium''. This fungi causes a variety of colored rots in potatoes. This pathogen, while having both a sexual and asexual form, stays in an asexua ...

(''

Fusarium oxysporum ''Fusarium oxysporum'' (Schlecht as emended by Snyder and Hansen), an ascomycete fungus, comprises all the species, varieties and forms recognized by Wollenweber and Reinking within an infrageneric grouping called section Elegans. It is part of ...

''), potato wart (''

Synchytrium endobioticum ''Synchytrium endobioticum'' is a chytrid fungus that causes the potato wart disease, or black scab. It also infects some other plants of the genus ''Solanum'', though potato is the only cultivated host (biology), host. Systematics Traditional ...

''), potato virus X,

potato virus Y Potato virus Y (PVY) is a plant pathogenic virus of the family ''Potyviridae'', and one of the most important plant viruses affecting potato production. PVY infection of potato plants results in a variety of symptoms depending on the viral str ...

, and

late blight ''Phytophthora infestans'' is an oomycete or water mold, a fungus-like microorganism that causes the serious potato and tomato disease known as late blight or potato blight. Early blight, caused by '' Alternaria solani'', is also often called ...

(''

Phytophthora infestans ''Phytophthora infestans'' is an oomycete or Oomycete, water mold, a fungus-like microorganism that causes the serious potato and tomato disease known as late blight or potato blight. Early blight, caused by ''Alternaria solani'', is also often c ...

''). Bintje is sterile, which prevents improvements in disease resistance through breeding. A mechanism to overcome sterility has recently allowed for breeding-based genetic improvements in disease resistance and potato tuber coloration. It was voted "potato of the year 2012".

Lieuwes Kornelis de Vries

Lieuwes Kornelis de Vries was born on February 25, 1854, in Hurdegaryp. In 1881 he married Grietje Hommes de Jong. From this marriage six children were born. After the death of his first wife (1895) he married Afke Glee in 1897. From this marriage two children were born. De Vries died on November 20, 1929. De Vries worked until he was 21 on the farm and then went to study for a teaching degree. In 1883 he became the head teacher at the primary school of Sumar. In 1894 he took the agricultural instrument test and in 1901 obtained a horticulture degree. Besides his work as a schoolmaster, he gave agricultural winter courses. De Vries was a member of the Frisian Society of Agriculture. In 1898 the Society asked him to organize a testing ground for growing potatoes, which he managed for 25 years. In twenty-five years, he grew about 150 varieties, of which only the Bintje was a success. The Bintje has been the most important potato on Dutch menus for a long time.

References

{{Potato cultivars Potato cultivars