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[Christi Redeker]

Ron and Laurene Wells wrote:

>    I had seen that comment before that "Potatoes aren't period" but I don't
> see how this is possible.  There were Irish people living during Medival
> times, and  potatoes in Ireland are a STAPLE food!  In fact, I saw on TLC
> once, where hundreds of thousands of Irish men women and children starved to
> death at one point (sorry, it was a few months ago, and I dont' remember the
> date cited) because of a blight brought in from England that destroyed ALL
> the potato crops on the Island.  It left the poor with nothing (as the show
> stated it , "not very little to eat but NOTHING to eat") to eat for many
> months, and the population was devastated.  I'm far from an expert in
> Medival cooking, but I do not see how potatoes could be anything but period!
> 
> -Laurene

Hmmm. I'd better think about how to respond to this, before I say
another word.

Okay. A rough, sketchy explanation. Sweet potatoes were discovered in
the New World, by Spanish and Portuguese explorers in  South America,
roughly in the 1560's. White potatoes were discovered some time later,
apparently. Both ended up in Spain, with the white potato arriving
somewhat later. They began to be grown as a novelty in various European
court gardens. As they began to be regarded as food, which only occurred
in some parts of Europe in the 19th century, they were brought to North
America, where their value as a "cash" crop began to be perceived.

Enter Ireland. Specifically, enter the English in Ireland, stage left.
Since a ridiculously low percentage of the arable land in Ireland
actually belonged to Irishmen, since the time of Cromwell, the Irish
farmers were more or less compelled to switch production to potatoes,
which have a relatively high proportionate yield, compared to most
grains. Eliminate all crops but one, in a country of subsistence
farmers, and you have pretty well mandated the diet of the people.

Over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the potato became pretty
much permanently entrenched in Ireland. To add to the fun, there were a
number of relatively minor blights on the potato, necessitating a switch
to a hardier variety of potato. Of course, in the 1840's, the Irish
would come to regret the switch to all one variety of potato, when the
potato blight, a fungus that attacked that specific variety of potato,
they were pretty much stuck between a potato and a hard place.

Once again, while it may be the case that potatoes were eaten in some
instances in Europe, before 1600, it is extremely misleading to say
"they are period", without the qualifier of rarity, in very late period,
and only in some places. They most certainly were not an article of diet
in Ireland throughout the Middle Ages.

Forgive me if I sound a bit harsh: that isn't my intention. It's just
that the question you have raised was difficult to interpret and answer.
Please bear with me.

Adamantius   
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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