Potato History
Archaeologists have found evidence that the earliest forms of the potato plant cultivated by humans date back at least 7,000 years to the Andes Mountains of South America. Pre-Columbian farmers (precursors of the Incan civilization) of this region cultivated potatoes originally, and were impressed by their ruggedness, storage quality, and nutritional value. The Incas, who worshipped potatoes, even buried potatoes with their dead.
The Western world did not come in contact with the potato until the late 1540s when the Spanish conquistadors tramped through Peru in search of gold. The Spanish thought they were a kind of truffle and called them “tartuffo.” Though potatoes were fruitful and hardy, the Spanish used them very little and considered them food for the under classes. However, others began to recognize the potato as a medicinal plant. Its popularity soared when claims were made that it could cure illnesses, and soon the potato became a delicacy in Spain.
It took nearly four decades for the potato to spread to the rest of Europe. In many countries, when the potato was introduced, it was considered weird, poisonous, and evil. Potatoes were also thought to be the source of serious diseases and early death.
Eventually, agriculturalists in Europe found potatoes easier to grow and cultivate than other staple crops, such as wheat and oats. Most importantly, it became known that potatoes contained most of the vitamins needed for sustenance, and they could be provided to nearly 10 people for each acre of land cultivated.
Although potatoes had been introduced to the United States several times in the 1600s, they were not widely known until 1719 when they were planted in Londonderry, New Hampshire by Scottish-Irish immigrants. From there they spread across the nation.
A single devastating event, however, looms large in the Irish history of potatoes – the Irish Potato Famine. In the 1840s a major outbreak of potato blight, a plant disease, swept through Europe, wiping out the potato crop in many countries. The Irish working class lived largely on potatoes and when the blight reached Ireland, their main staple food disappeared. This famine left many poverty-stricken families with no choice but to struggle to survive, or emigrate out of Ireland. Over the course of the famine, almost one million people died from starvation or disease. Another one million people left Ireland, mostly for Canada and the United States.
In the 1850s most Americans regarded the potato as food for animals rather than for humans, until an effective fungicide against potato blight was found in 1883 by French botanist, Alexander Millardet.
Today, the potato is so common and plentiful in the Western diet that it is taken for granted. We forget that it has only been grown in the U.S. for a few hundred years.
