potato tale
Something that I read about the humble potato yesterday:
"During the seventeenth century, the potato attracted much attention from the herbalists, it being a member of the poisonous nightshade family and furthermore the first tuberous edible plant known to them. it was evidently prized by aristocratic gardeners as a curiosity and eventually served at court dinners as a highly platable novelty. But it made but little headway among the peasantry, who are proverbially suspicious of all innovations and had grave reservations about this one. By some it was thought that if the Lord had intended the potato for human consumption, it would have been mentioned in the Bible. it was alleged to be poisonous and a cause of leprosy. In 1630 the parlement of Franche Comte forbade its use for fear of leprosy and Burgundy followed suit."
"... The armies of the War of the Spanish Succession experienced the great famine of 1709, one of the worst in European history. Reduced to a diet of bark and grass, both peasants and soldiers took to the potato with the utmost gratitude and enthusiasm."
Wow...
Text taken from: Langer, L. William (1975). American foods and European's population growth 1750 - 1850. Journal of Social History. Vol. 8, No. 2 (Winter 1975), p53.
And Image taken from here... Cheers!
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