SC - Period Potatoes

[marilyn traber]

>    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
>

keep in mind the white[and ywllow and blue] potatos are new world, so
the earliest they could have been discovered by Columbus was 1492. The
real date was in the 1500s. The problem is that they are a member of the
deadly nightshade family, as are tomatos. The potato was considered a
decorative plant that had tubers to feed animals with. The reason the
poor people took t eating potatos was they were cheap. THey may have
eaten them in the rural areas by 1600, but not served in court, middle
or upper class homes until much later. The potato famine was in the
early 1800s iirc
margali

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