Born July 10th, 1724, Eva Ekebald would have turn 293 years old today. Google has taken to update their Doodle in honor of Countess Eva Ekeblad. Thank you Google for pointing out this amazing Swede!
So what exactly did she do?
Potatoes where introduced to Europe in 1658 by Spaniards, from the Andes in South America, but where mostly in the greenhouses of the rich and where reserved for animal feed.
In 1746, at the young age of 24, Eva Ekebald wrote to the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, telling them she had discovered a way to make flour from potatoes (first gluten free flour!) and how to make alcohol from potatoes, like vodka.
During that time there was a food crisis in Sweden (people kept taking the wheat, rye and barely to make alcohol instead of eating it!), and her discovery of potato flour and alcohol from potatoes helped save the wheat, barley and such for food instead of alcohol.
Eva Ekebald was the first women to be ever elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Science. It wasn’t until 1951 that the second women was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Science.
Now you know! The next time you have some potato vodka, you can thank the Swedish Countess Eva Ekebald for her discovery almost 300 years ago.
Want to know the process? Learn how to make potato flour here, or learn how to make potato vodka here. Pretty impressive that she came up with this process herself!