[Huck]

A while back I was reading the history of the potato. Did you know, the potato was brought back to Europe from Peru by Spanish plunderers. And it caught on with regular folk. Know why?

Because back then, armies would show up and take whatever they "needed." They'd clean you out of your food, your crops, etc. Potatos grow underground, and were not widely known. Word spread through the grapevine, and people planted their own stashes of potatos so they'd have hidden food that the armies wouldn't find and steal.

[blam]

"A while back I was reading the history of the potato. Did you know, the potato was brought back to Europe from Peru by Spanish plunderers. And it caught on with regular folk."

The population of Europe exploded with the introduction of the potato.
Note what happened in Ireland when it was removed...the Irish famine... about 1.5 million starved to death.

There are 2,000 varities of potatoes still in Peru. If the Irish had chosen two or three others to grow there is a good chance they would have had one that was immune to to the fungus that killed their potato crops.

[simplesimon]

Very very interesting.

Do you know how one can safely keep ‘taters in the ground without rotting or “going bad” ?