SC - RE: Potatos Again (Was Is Arrowroot Period)

[RANDALL DIAMOND]

Stefan writes:
>>>>And yes, the potato was probably eaten quite a while before it found
it's
way into culinary manuals and cookbooks. Basically the books were written
for the upper and later the middle classes. The potato was looked down
upon because it was thought to make people lazy and while it might feed
the slovenly lower classes, decent people didn't eat them. However even
the peasants don't seem to have started planting them until the 18th
century. Peasants are notoriously conservative. If what you plant means
whether you and your family starve or manage a meager existance, you
don't gamble on new, unknown plants. Potatos started being cultivated
for very specific reasons and they varied from area to area.<<<<

Did somehow you miss the comments I posted last month on potatos?
I have several  sources that indicate that WHITE potatos were widely
planted and consumed in the EARLY 16th century by peasants and nobles
alike throughout the Mediterranean areas of Spain, France and especially
Italy.  I disagree entirely with your statement about the conservatisn of
the peasantry too.  Both potatos and turkeys seem to have spread rapidly
when the peasants realized the profitablity of the new foods (profit in
terms
of yield labor to harvest more than actual money).  I mentioned the sources
I quoted in those posts.  I have about 150 folks coming for the weekend
at my house this weekend (SCA event), so I can't re-research it again
right now.

Akim Yaroslavich
"No glory comes without pain"