Spuds

Ireland

Frances S. Walker

The Irish love their potatoes to this day.  Just ask my sister-- she spent 10 days touring Ireland last summer with her family.  Of course you can get Dominoes Pizza in Ireland, but she said the traditional meals all included a big pile of taters.  

After the Spaniards conquered the Inca empire, they returned to Europe with their plunder and the potato.  When they enslaved the natives in gold mines, they used potatoes as a cheap, compact food to feed the poor miners.  Potatoes are loaded with proteins and complex carbohydrates. Add water, and you have a diet than can sustain life almost indefinitely. 

Anyway, the cloudy and cool climate in Ireland was perfect for potatoes.  On just an acre, Irish tenant farmers could produce much more food growing potatoes than grain. The typical Irish peasant ate from 8 to 14 pounds of potatoes each day, providing 80 percent of caloric intake.  As a result, the Irish grew big and healthy and soon towered over their English counterparts, who lived mostly on bread. The Irish population doubled between 1780 and 1840.  And then, the Great Potato Famine hit. 

Have you seen the movie "The Martian?" I just finished the excellent book and looking forward to the movie when it comes out on Netflix.  Matt Damon plays an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars. He manages to grow potatoes which help keep him alive until he is rescued.