Today in History: Potatoes first introduced to England
There were other somewhat important things that happened today such as the official end of the Cold War being announced by Gorbechev and Bush and the first human heart transplant but I think we can all agree that potatoes are probably a bigger part of our daily lives.
The year was 1586
source
It's hard to imagine this being the case, but England, and the rest of Europe either didn't have potatoes at all or were unaware they were growing under their feet. I'm pretty sure it was the first thing.
They were brought back to England by an astronomer, mathematician, translator, and all around scholar named Sir Thomas Harriot. Just to show that not much has changed about how humans attribute celebrity he was a pioneer in all of those fields and made tremendous advancements in the world of academe... He was also the first person to ever make a somewhat accurate drawing of the moon months before Galileo... so what do we remember him for? Potatoes!
source
he wouldn't be known as "Bron" until G.O.T. was released many years later
It's a little embarrassing for the English that Spain had "discovered" the potato nearly 50 years prior and England wasn't even aware of the fact that this had happened. This could have a lot to do with the fact the when the potato first arrived in Spain it was first declared poisonous and later the church was against its consumption (they were pretty religiously sensitive back in 16th century Spain.)
One would presume that something as ubiquitous as the potato is at British dinner-tables would dictate that the kids would at least get a day off school to shoot off some fireworks (or potato canons!) but believe it or not, there are almost no mentions of this achievement at all. It's a bit insulting if you ask me. Dude goes to all that work to bring potatoes all the way back from Colombia, it immediately takes off as a major part of pretty much everyone's diet, and they are just like, "yeah thanks whatever... why don't you go draw some moon pictures or something..."
To be fair there is a lot of grey area about who should really be attributed with introducing the potato to England and some potato history nerds (and yes there really are potato historical societies out there) will argue that it was actually a number of other people but for me anyway, it doesn't really matter - I'm just happy the potato exists and will grow in pretty much any environment.
source
Happy potato day to all my friends in the U.K., now let's go get some french fries!
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.
The biggest fact about potatoes was Ireland's potato famine. When the British government induced famine in Ireland, attempting to carry out genocide through starvation. As people were starving in Ireland, their government (controlled by Britain) was exporting mass amounts of food without any concern for the people they were supposed to represent.
"Throughout the entire period of the Famine, Ireland was exporting enormous quantities of food. In the magazine History Ireland (1997, issue 5, pp. 32–36), Christine Kinealy, a Great Hunger scholar, lecturer, and Drew University professor, relates her findings: Almost 4,000 vessels carried food from Ireland to the ports of Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, and London during 1847, when 400,000 Irish men, women, and children died of starvation and related diseases. She also writes that Irish exports of calves, livestock (except pigs), bacon, and ham actually increased during the Famine. This food was shipped from the most famine-stricken parts of Ireland: Ballina, Ballyshannon, Bantry, Dingle, Killala, Kilrush, Limerick, Sligo, Tralee, and Westport. A wide variety of commodities left Ireland during 1847, including peas, beans, onions, rabbits, salmon, oysters, herring, lard, honey, tongues, animal skins, rags, shoes, soap, glue, and seed."
yeah, i have heard references to this in a number of movies and what not. However, it isn't generally taught in schools or, i don't have any recollection of it. Perhaps because it is a terrible blemish in the history of the world.
I bet early farmers already ate potatoes but hadn't given it a name until the Game of thrones guy finally did. Come to think about it, did the potato asociation speculate who gave it the name? And then we have to find out when tomato came to existence and flag one of them for plagiarism 😑
the suggestion is that it didn't exist in Europe until brought over by Europeans who were flocking to the "new world" .. Tomato must have been in Italy for millions of years or something :P
I pronounced it with my best Italian accent lol
Thanks for review
Posted using Partiko Android
ij scared of this potatoe guy
You can find the community announcement on Discord :) and it has also been shared on our FB Page and Twitter feed.
Oh yeah, that's Bron.
French Fries?? It's chips I'll have you know m'lad here!
i know, i was trying to rope you in.... mission accomplished! :P
LOL :)
Happy Potato Day!
This post was curated by @theluvbug
and has received an upvote and a resteem to hopefully generate some ❤ extra love ❤ for your post!
JOIN ME ON TWITTER
In Proud Collaboration with The Power House Creatives
and their founder @jaynie
JOIN US HERE
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
Mmmm I'll have an order of those fries!
I think the Spanish Inquisition was still a thing in the 16th century, so their religious negativity for the potato and Spain's declaring it poisonous "fits." Was it the church that also declared tomatoes to be poisonous? Someone did.
i don't know but i do know that when one of Chris Columbus' people came back with tobacco that he was imprisoned because of something along the lines of "only the devil could make a man breathe out smoke"... they kept him in jail for 15 years or so too, well after tobacco was already in widespread use.
LOL, that sounds so typical of the people in those times. It must have been horrible, trying to survive under all those ridiculous offenses they made up out of thin air!
Potatoes definitely take priority!!! haha! And as for the whole "down play" or disregard to the magnitude of the potato and its "presenter"... just take a look at how the Enlish reacted to South Africa winning the rugby world cup... hehehehe
i know the reaction inside of the pub i was in on that day was not a good one. I was happy though because since the majority of them were England supporters and being very "its coming home" arrogant about it, i was the only person in the bar that took the bet for SA to win. Got some pretty nasty looks as the game went on. :P
WAAHAHAHAHAHHA!!! Good for you! They were outplayed by a world class team and they behaved like petulant children afterward LOL
I love spuds in all shapes and sizes fried, boiled and any other way too..
Hahahaha and that the day after SPUD where the potato is in the leading role,
Have a great day
Gr from Holland
I hadn't even thought of that. What a wonderful coincidence.
Year thats really funny and it reminds me off the toys the guys play with too
Amazing! Potatoes really are that popular. My daughter loves fries. I just enjoy it with her. I totally enjoyed reading this post 😊😊
!trdo
Posted using Partiko Android
Congratulations @iamraincrystal, you successfuly trended the post shared by @gooddream!
@gooddream will receive 0.04850888 TRDO & @iamraincrystal will get 0.03233925 TRDO curation in 3 Days from Post Created Date!
"Call TRDO, Your Comment Worth Something!"
To view or trade TRDO go to steem-engine.com
Join TRDO Discord Channel or Join TRDO Web Site
I didn't know many of those things, and in the comments I also found things I didn't know. The church has participated in everything, even in the wars, there is still much to tell, good post
hey! Thanks for stopping by and I'm glad you learned something. I also did :)
The potato is so cute! Thank you for the history. I didn’t know that for sure. We always learn something new on Steem :) Ooo and you must add #googlyeyes to your tags and join the @googlyeyes’ contest for Mr. Potato!
Posted using Partiko iOS
hehe... would be cute... but it wouldn't be qualified for the contest... the image is (as noted in the OP) sourced from https://www.veggieprezi.com/ ;)
Oh darn.. so sorry for the false alarm, I totally missed that :(
Interesting. Fun read
Than all along... I got that one wrong, I thought is was the Irish LOL....
Potato guns, we had awesome little toys when we were young, jamming a potato into the exhaust of a car (yup when we were young) fun memories, thanks for interesting read @gooddream and Happy Potato Day!
Interesting facts. I thought the potato was eaten since the beginning of time. 😂
They certainly are a food staple today.
I love me some fries @gooddream 💕
Posted using Partiko Android
Love this @gooddream! Where would we be without the good old potato! Hard to believe this guy doesn't get an annual tribute for his discovery, I know my family would certainly raise a cheer for him :)
Potato Day ?
Now that is a first time I've ever herd of it..
But yes, thank goodness we have potatoes.. it's in so many of our cuisine here in Asia
it's not really called that. I named it that to be silly. Potatoes are everywhere! Thank goodness :)
Thanks for your post. Some interesting facts about the potatoe that I didn't know. And a little bit of history refresher to go alone with it. Good job.
Have a great day, and take care.
I don't think I would want to live in a place that had never heard of the potato. That is just a crying shame. I would have thought it had been introduced the other way actually. It is just so synonymous with certain areas that it certainly seems like it would have been the English that introduced it to Colombia. Very cool post though. Nice information!
Haha! It's a staple in this house! Who doesn't love french fries, chips, pomme frites or whatever you want to call those delicately fried mouthfuls of deliciousness??
In moderation, of course.
OMG! Yes! So much for his status. Perhaps he should have sketched a picture of a potato?
Congrats on being selected for the Rally! Have a great day~!!
!tip .20
🎁 Hi @gooddream! You have received 0.2 STEEM tip from @dswigle!
@dswigle wrote lately about: The Magic And Goodwill Feel free to follow @dswigle if you like it :)
Sending tips with @tipU - how to guide.
That's really kinda neat. I love learning facts such as thing, particularly for something as universal as the potato(e). It's a staple for my kids diet. Sometimes I think they'd starve if it wasn't for the french fry.
Ha! I agree with Lady @joanstewart, as teacher that loved to cane me often found a potato stuck into the exhaust of his car. Of course it wasn't me Lol
Indeed a blemish on the English record!
Happy Potato Day - love me some potatoes. I had someone tell me over the weekend that baked carrot fries are just as good as baked french fries - I'm going to have to reserve judgment on that until I can try it myself, lol.
Ha ha this was great. I guess it's not something many of us think about. Certainly not me. But the potato is a staple in the diet of many cultures. I wonder when it came to America. Probably with the pilgrims.
Wonderful history lesson on potatoes, @gooddream! I really enjoyed reading this. Interestingly enough. I heard today that we are having a potato shortage in the U.S. I think the spring and summer were really rough with wildly varying amounts of rain that affected both planting and harvesting.
I was so interested to read in your post about the notion that potatoes have not always been around. At least not for all populations. And now I need to go look up the potato famine!
Congratulations @gooddream!
Your post was mentioned in the Steem Hit Parade in the following category:
hahaha. You're funny AND informative. That's my kind of learning.
Haha! very cool and interesting post gooddream! Very deserving of the Rally vote too, well done!
Congratulations @gooddream, your post successfully recieved 0.04850888 TRDO from below listed TRENDO callers:
To view or trade TRDO go to steem-engine.com
Join TRDO Discord Channel or Join TRDO Web Site
This post earned a total payout of 4.225$ and 3.177$ worth of author reward which was liquified using @likwid. To learn more.