Meet the Lumper! (the spud that caused the Irish famine)

[farminator3000]

"soapy" doesn't sound very tasty, but still interesting.

Meet the Lumper: Ireland’s New Old Potato
An Irish farmer has revived a potato not seen since the Great Famine.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130315-irish-famine-potato-lumper-food-science-culture-ireland/

“It struck down the growing plants like frost in summer. It spread faster than the cholera amongst men.”

That description of Ireland’s historic potato blight—from English writer E.C. Large’s book The Advance of the Fungi—may sound extreme, but it’s not. The devastating disease nearly wiped out many Irish potato varieties, igniting the country’s Great Famine in the mid-19th century.

But now, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, one of those blighted potatoes is making a comeback. Meet the Lumper.

[fasttense]

1. I had no idea the taste of the potato was sometimes not very pleasant.

Imagine all those people surviving on one scrappy, and bad tasting, potato.

But the Great Famine was caused by more than just a potato blight. Laissez-faire capitalism, much like "free" trade economics, killed as many people as the blight.

[FedUpWithIt All]

2. I recently read The Great Hunger by Cecil Woodham-Smith

It is shocking how much of the famine was due to politics.

It was appalling how much of the suffering was due to the prejudicial limiting of available resources. Sir Charles Trevelyan's behavior during the crisis was essentially genocidal. I highly recommend the book. Be warned, it is very depressing.

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Hunger-Ireland-1845-1849/dp/014014515X

[oneshooter]

3. The only thing good that came out of the Great Famine was

SODA BREAD. Yes the development of soda coincided with the famine. Irish soda bread was used to replace the potato as a basis of the Irish laborers diet. A simple bread that only had three common ingredients, and soda. It was both cheap, and easy to make.