This place is weird. This was supposed to be an in joke for a very small subset of people #Wulferhampton, not the trigger for a widespread discussion on the literary merits of the humble spud.
Also ‘The History and Social
Influence of Wulfhelm’s Potato Related Announcements’ would be of more interest to the more learned of #Wulferhampton ‘s residents.
Not really, the potato is a really useful cropped introduced late in europe, so it has a significant impact on the history of agriculture and thus social history in general
Well, the species are still called maize. It cannot be considered god-like, it both lacks nutrients ,being mainly a sugar source, and is far less convinient to grow. Maize failed in Eurpoe and Russia (twice, it was re-introduced in USSR), neither climate nor soil are favorable for it.
absolutely not, maize has allowed for the growth of huge civilizations and is also a greedy grass that can deplete the soil and lead to the destruction of those same civilizations. it’s got a built-in lesson on hubris, that’s nothing but godly!
Not just Europe. Look at every global cuisine that has potatoes dishes and the major potato producers: China, India, Egypt… for a food virtually unknown until it was brought over in the 16th century from South America.
Tied to one of the worst famines in recorded history and the subsequent diaspora of the Irish around the globe. A very important plant even before we get to it's indigenous history in the Americas.
Unlike most grain crops potatoes can mostly be left in the ground through the season til you want to eat them. So tax collectors or invading armies rolling through town and emptying the storehouses doesn't get as much stuff and doesn't leave everyone starving.
Hey! Do you *know* the potato's history: taken from its native Peru to Europe w/the conquistadors; sustained Europe's poor once they found it wasn't poisonous; everyone in Ireland nearly died when insects nearly wiped out the potato crops, thus starting MAJOR emigration to the US...?
OK; I learned most of my food history from various chefs, and I'm just parroting their info. I do know a lot about New World food, just because it interests me (ie, the world would be f'ked w/o chocolate & vanilla, for example. And tomatoes. And chilies. And corn).
Fair enough.
As a grower of potatoes and tomatoes blight is still a problem today and especially bad in some years.
Add in my interest in history and I am in a position to share this sort of information.
I could manage without chillies and corn but love potatoes and tomatoes.
Chocolate is vital!
1949. What do you want, that was before Internet. Meme creation required ability to paint, shitposting required printing press. Although this particular one had alot of good points and fact, potato quickly became invasive culture in entire world - it took roughly 40 years to take roots worldwide.
... However, it shows the hardship experienced by many English people during that period, since they forgot their "disgusts" and started eating food intended for horses.
The worst thing is that this book was considered a classic by the historiography that studies the Industrial Revolution. The idea is that potatoes gave workers enough energy to keep them from starving to death. Strange, isn't it?
Throwing a lot of shade on the potato there. Ask yourself: If YOU stopped going to work one year, would people still be talking about it nearly 200 years later?
Excuse me, but the potato has caused and solved famines, it has caused mass migrations, and they're yummy. And I happen to own this book. Yes, I really do have this book on my shelf.
The introduction of potatoes in Europe lead to one of the biggest population booms before the green revolution. To paraphrase Steven Lee Hawkins Jr. "It's kinda a big deal"
Pov you’re a European peasant during the Seven Years War, roving armies are seizing crops: “since potatoes do not need to be dug from the ground until it is time to eat them, potato gardeners escaped the problem of having to protect stores of valuable food” sod off, war machine! ref William McNeil
Primary School? The only educational facility in Wülferhampton is the hour of basic instruction that the Orphans in Mother Turnip's Sunshine Home get before bed. And that mainly covers picking pockets and dodgy book-keeping
Thankfully cricket is not one of the things that has wormed it's way through the temporal anomaly back to C7 #Wülferhampton, otherwise the 2nd Test between Mercia and Wessex would still be on the 19th innings. (Mercia declared at 453 for 27 dead and 106 wounded)
Ha ha.... Now we have seen this we're going to chuck a couple of extra newts in the reaction chamber, widen the anomaly and send you back a bat, ball and copy of Wisden
Bon chance, the Wessex illuminati
The people there starved because the occupiers took all the food except the potatoes. There was a lot of other food being grown, but under foreign rule the only food left for the Irish was the potato.
Yes.
The grain crop was all owned by the English landowners and was exported while the peasantry starved.
Money was far more important than Irish lives.
Many of the English looked on them as barely human and felt that fewer Irish would be a good thing.
Hint, see Gaza and the West Bank today.
All because the Bread basket for England was deemed Surplus to retirement.
Population before the Great Hunger 8 million. ONS.
Population 1922.2.2 million
2024. 5.2.
Irish Diaspora 70+ Million.
🇮🇪🇪🇺
Corn strikes me as different bc I don't think it has ever come to dominate an Old World food culture the way the potato or tomato did. Its use as feed, however, is another thing.
I was thinking about how New World crops affected/changed Old World food culture. The potato and tomato are the two that I think had the great impact on the Old World diet. Both are in widespread use in the cuisine of every continent.
I hate tomatoes but I do like tomato sauce, I just hate it in it's raw form. I worked in a pizza place and would come out smelling like tomato sauce and dough everyday
I never said otherwise. Nevertheless, the tomato-based sauce haa become nearly synonymous with Italian cuisine. In a way no other ingredient available in Europe prior to Columbus is save, arguably, pasta itself.
1500 specific potato. With many more cultivars. Specially bred to suit all climates. From Peru. To Canada. Alaska. Ireland and Europe. India. And the Antilles.
And every country has their favorite way off cooking them
🇮🇪🇪🇺
Sadly I don’t have a photo but as a librarian I once encountered a little book entitled “The Social Organisation Of Termites” on a local library shelves
My very first research assistant job was for analysis of data on potato farming / trading in small Andean communities. Super cool to see differences in socioeconomic impact of crops of more commercial "papas blancas" and more heirloom "papas de color" varieties.
"To you, it's a potato. To me, it's a potato. But to Sir Walter bloody Raleigh, it's fine carriages, luxury estates and as many girls as his tongue can cope with! He's making a fortune out of the things: people are smoking them, building houses out of them... they'll be eating them next!"
'Once there was a potato named Sam. His owner noticed he had a bruise on one end. So he was sent flying into a large dark can. The next day he went on a journey. Soon Sam met another potato named Shelly. They fell in love but not for long.
Potato is a staple crop for million people around the world. Potatoes were brought from Bolivia and/or Perú by the Spanish conquistadores to Europe long time ago.
Comments
Influence of Wulfhelm’s Potato Related Announcements’ would be of more interest to the more learned of #Wulferhampton ‘s residents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redcliffe_Salaman
There are people of Irish descent living in Mexico because of the potato.
“Ah yes, fellow of the ‘tism, I see thee.”
What the heck is this?
Unlike most grain crops potatoes can mostly be left in the ground through the season til you want to eat them. So tax collectors or invading armies rolling through town and emptying the storehouses doesn't get as much stuff and doesn't leave everyone starving.
Read a book!
It was blight that destroyed the crop.
As a grower of potatoes and tomatoes blight is still a problem today and especially bad in some years.
Add in my interest in history and I am in a position to share this sort of information.
I could manage without chillies and corn but love potatoes and tomatoes.
Chocolate is vital!
First, the potato.. then, guano!!
If we imagine what Europe must have been like before tomatoes and potatoes were introduced then I kinda feel like a book or two might be warranted.
Imagine Italy with no tomatoes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato#History
A proto-tubers, if you will.
IMO if not the most important, definitely better than corn cause they don’t cause pellagra.
COD: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World
I’ll leave…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)
There are historians and chefs on this thread.
This is how seriously academics take potato announcements @wulfhelm.bsky.social
At the University for Lord’s children only
Bon chance, the Wessex illuminati
The grain crop was all owned by the English landowners and was exported while the peasantry starved.
Money was far more important than Irish lives.
Many of the English looked on them as barely human and felt that fewer Irish would be a good thing.
Hint, see Gaza and the West Bank today.
Population before the Great Hunger 8 million. ONS.
Population 1922.2.2 million
2024. 5.2.
Irish Diaspora 70+ Million.
🇮🇪🇪🇺
https://gastropod.com/this-spuds-for-you/
The way little things affect big things is fascinating to me.
And every country has their favorite way off cooking them
🇮🇪🇪🇺
A biografia da ícone
mas é isso, mesmo neurônio coisa e tal... a gente sempre pensando igual ❤️
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