SC - Russian dishes

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/24/99 2:46:39 AM Eastern Daylight Time, ddfr at best.com 
writes:

<< Do we know how fast potatoes went into use in the countryside? My general
 impression is that where new food crops had a substantial advantage over
 old ones, as potatoes in some areas clearly did, they could go into use
 pretty fast. Peasants may be conservative, but they are also hungry.
  >>

In general, from the time a new food crop is introduced until it can be said 
to be 'commonly' used appears to average about 20 years. Some crops become 
popular sooner than others (e.g., capsicums, tobacco and New World 
cucurbits). For other crops the time is inexplicably longer (e.g., tomatoes 
and sweet peppers). Some crops seem to have been cultivated commonly 
relatively early after their initial introduction but appear to have been 
used for animal food (e.g., potatoes and maize).

In the case of potatoes, Russian peasants were apparently forced to grow and 
eat potatoes by their government.

Ras
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