POTATOES

The potato, an herb of the nightshade family, originated in the Andes Mountain region of South America about 3000 B.C.. Thousands of years later the Inca Indians cultivated it as a vegetable crop. Because the plant is able to withstand heavy frost, the potato was suitable for the Andean region's high elevations— as high as 15,000 feet (4,500 meters). From the potato the Inca produced a flour-like substance called chuno, which was used to make bread. When Spanish explorer Gonzalo Jiminez de Quesada (c. 1495–1579) arrived in the Andes in 1530, he found the people growing and eating the tubers. On returning to Europe, the Spaniards took samples with them, introducing it there in the 1539. In 1586 when English admiral Sir Francis Drake (1540 or 1543–96) returned to England from an expedition to North and South America, he carried with him potatoes he had picked up in Cartagena (present-day Colombia), thus introducing the potato in the British Isles. The potato became a major crop in Ireland and Scotland where it was readily grown. (The edible, starchy tuber of the potato is often called the Irish potato.) Since it is also cheap to cultivate, the potato soon became a dietary staple and is credited with spurring a population growth in those countries. The potato did not arrive in North America until 1718, when Irish immigrants landing in Boston brought it with them. They began growing potatoes the following year in Londonderry, New Hampshire. The potato did not become a popular American food until the 1800s.