SC - Potatoes

[Decker, Terry D.]

> Aelfwyn at aol.com 
> writes:
> 
> << It isn't super scholarly, but 
>  does give a good overview we could use to answer the 
> perennial period 
>  question.  >>
> 
> I don't know what you mean by not super scholarly but the  
> site appears to be 
> very accurate so far as my own research is concerned. Sure, 
> they don't list 
> bibliographies, citations and other notations but who really 
> expects those 
> things in such a presentation. 
<clipped>
> 
> Ras

I tend to think the scholarship was sloppy and the fact is obscured by
facile writing and a lack of references.

"Particularly in highly elevated regions where maize and wheat would not
grow, the potato became the primary food." 

In context, this suggests that the Quechua grew wheat.  Unfortunately, wheat
is an Old World plant imported into South America sometime after the
conquest.

IIRC, the description of how the Quechua processed potatoes to flour occurs
in Pedro Creca's Chronica del Peru (1553) as well as the first serious
description of Solanum tuberosum.  The author doesn't even mention Creca,
but does spend time on Castellano's "truffles".

"Potatoes became a common food for Spanish sailors during their arduous
crossings of the Atlantic."

Did they?  I've found no references to suggest this was common practice
although I would not be surprised to find it was true.  

"Gerard's mistake stemmed from Sir Francis Drake's remarkable
circumnavigation of the globe from 1577-1580. On his voyage, Drake
encountered potatoes while collecting supplies on an island off the coast of
Chile. Later he took on board a group of starving Virginians and later it
was assumed that the potatoes were associated with these Virginian
passengers."

This is just sloppy research.  Drake began his circumnavigation on December
13, 1577 by sailing down the coast of Africa then across to South America.
He made passage through the Straits of Magellan in September 1578, raided
his way up the South American coast, and on March 3, 1579 took the Nuestra
Senora de la Conception (Cacafuego) off the coast of Ecuador.  He then
sailed north along the west coast of North America, crossed the Pacific,
then travelled south through Asiatic water around Africa to Plymouth,
arriving September 26, 1580.  The closest he came to Virginia on this voyage
was about 3,500 miles and any potatoes he took aboard would have had to
survive a year and a half of travel to reach England.

It is also a little difficult to understand how he took aboard a group of
starving Virginians prior to 1580, when the Roanoke colony was not
established until 1585.

The voyage most authorities associate with potatoes is the West Indies
expedition of 1585.  In February 1586, Drake siezed Cartagena, Peru where he
reprovisioned his ships.  On June 7, he burned San Augustine, Florida, then
sailed north along the coast to Roanoke Island, where he found what was left
of the colony.  He embarked the survivors and set sail for England on June
18.  Only about 6 months at sea for these potatoes.

The facts are easily checked, but the author didn't.  And the only thing I
remember associating Drake, potatoes and the west coast of the Americas was
a singularly bad movie.

"In England, after its early introduction by John Hawkins in 1563, the
potato took a long time to take hold."

John Hawkins is believed to have introduced the sweet potato, Ipomoea
batatas, as a food stuff for the African slave trade.

"The potato has played an important role in Irish history but it was not
until 1663 that the potato was established as a field crop. In Ireland, the
potato found a perfect growing climate and the Irish people quickly embraced
the crop as the common daily food."

In 1663, the Royal Society argued for the widespread planting of potatoes to
avoid famine.  Market records show potatoes as a cash crop around 1770 and
they apparently became a major Irish food stuff around this time.

As for Raleigh introducing potato cultivation to Ireland, those were
probably sweet potatoes.  He was a man who liked a profit and white potatoes
weren't profitable.

I'm sorry, but I can't take this site too seriously.

Bear