Aroostook Agriculture: Potatoes

History of the Potato

Potatoes were grown in Peru more than 6,000 years ago by the Inca Indians. The potatoes they grew came in all different sizes and colors, and were used for many different things. Among the uses the Incas had for them were to measure time by how long it took the potatoes to grow, several medical purposes, as well as decoration. Because potatoes were so prominent in this region, more than a thousand names have been created for them.

Potatoes first left this region in the mid 1500s, carried out by Spanish explorers. These explorers brought the potato to Spain, Italy and France. Many people in Europe considered the potato evil and refused to accept it into their meals. In Germany, however, King Frederick William ordered his peasants to plant the potatoes. King Louis XIV of France also helped to popularize the potato by holding a feast with nothing but potato dishes. Queen Elizabeth helped by giving Sir Walter Raleigh 40,000 acres in Ireland to start growing potatoes. This became the main reason that late in the 1600s the Irish recognized the value of the potato as a nutritious food and began to plant it as a primary food crop. Over the next couple hundred years in Ireland, a typical family ate 250 pounds of potatoes every week.

As potatoes began to gain popularity in Europe, the first potatoes arrived in America in 1621 when Captain Nathanial Butler, the governor of Bermuda, sent two cases of vegetables to Francis Wyatt, governor of Jamestown, Virginia. The Irish immigrants began to cultivate the potatoes extensively throughout North America, starting near Londonderry, New Hampshire.

In Ireland in the 1840's over one million people died from a potato famine. A fungus had infected and destroyed crops. Because of the lack of food thousands of Irish moved to the United States.

Today, potatoes are a common in many meals. Here in Aroostook County, it is our largest crop, and a big part of many of our lives.