Get the history behind Irish Potato

joan

June 30, 2015 6:05 PM

If Potato originated in Peru, South America, how come it's now called Irish Potato like it came from Ireland?

5 reasons Irish potatoes are good for your health

According to Kitchenchef.com, they are called Irish Potatoes because they look like potatoes – but they are really not Irish at all.

Potato became the only staple food in Ireland towards 1600 because it did extremely well with their chilly soil. But in 1845, after three weeks of wet weather, the Irish potato crop began to die. The leaves and subsequently, the tubers were infected with a fungus known as the Potato Blight disease (Phytophthora infestans) which led to the death of nearly 1.5 million Irish (original population 8 million) between 1846 to 1851.

However, Potato only got into Ireland in 1590 from the Andes Mountains of Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia and was spread into the rest of the world by Spanish conquerors to become a staple crop in many countries.

It was originally called Patata but when it was taken back ito Europe and eventually reached England, the name was changed to 'POTATO'

Irish farmers quickly discovered they thrived in their country's cool moist soil with very little labor. An acre of fertilized potato field could yield up to 12 tons of potatoes, enough to feed a family of six for a year with leftovers going to the family's animals.

By the 1800s, potato had become the staple crop in the poorest regions with more than three million Irish peasants subsisted solely on the vegetable which is rich in protein, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins such as riboflavin, niacin and Vitamin C. Irish peasants became healthier than peasants in England or Europe where bread, far less nutritious, was the staple food.

Irish farmers utilized an ancient 'lazy bed' planting technique called the potato bed. Using a simple spade, they first marked long parallel lines in the soil about four feet apart throughout the entire plot. In between the lines, they piled a mixture of manure and crushed seashells then turned over the surrounding sod onto this, leaving the grass turned upside down.

Today, Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the fourth largest yielding crop plant in the world, behind wheat, rice, and maize, but compared with these three cereals, its production (nearly 225-285 million metric tons) occurs on 10% of the area.

It's species are cultivated in 126 countries (1980 data), although Europe and the former Soviet Union contained 70% of the global potato area. One area in Switzerland produces 42 tons per acre, and other high yields come from the Netherlands and Israel. Five billion pounds of potatoes are made into fries every year!

Potatoes entered Africa through colonists, who consumed them as a vegetable rather than as a staple starch. Potatoes were first resisted by local farmers who believed they were poisonous but after colonialists promoted them as a low cost food and so it became a symbol of domination. It quickly became staple food in countries like Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.

Source: Wikipedia

joan