Dole Superkids

It is thought that potatoes came from the Andes Mountains of Peru, where they were planted more than 6,000 years ago by ancestors of the Incas.

Peruvians, the people of Peru, were very proud of their potatoes. They made potato-decorated cooking pots and potato-shaped whistles for kids. Because potatoes have been so important to this region, modern descendants of the Incas, the Quechua Indians, have more than one thousand different names for potatoes.

In the early 1500's, Pizarro and his Spanish explorers discovered potatoes in Ecuador. From here, the explorers brought potatoes to Spain, Italy, and France. At first, potatoes were not accepted by the Italians and French because of their appearance and chestnut flavor.

In the late 1500's, potatoes were brought to England from South America. On their sea voyage home from the Carribean Sea, Sir Francis Drake and his explorers stopped in Cartagena, Colombia to pick up supplies. Their ship now loaded with potatoes, made another stop at Roanoke Island in Virginia where they picked up colonists before heading home to England.

From this ship, leftover Colombian potatoes were given to herbalist John Gerard who thought they were "mighty and nourishing." Later in 1633, he wrote a chapter on potatoes in his publication entitled "Herball."

In 1621, Captain Nathaniel Butler brought potatoes to America. It is believed that Irish settlers in New Hampshire were the first to cultivate potatoes extensively for North America. As more and more Irish immigrants moved to America, the demand for potatoes grew, and potatoes became a major crop in the United States.

It is believed that a few potatoes from Sir Francis Drake's ship were given to Sir Walter Raleigh who planted them on his estate near Cork, Ireland. He later gave a gift of potato plants to Queen Elizabeth I. Because her cooks were not familiar with potatoes, they mistakingly threw out the tubers and instead boiled the stems and leaves. Instantly, royal family members became very ill, and potatoes were banned for more than a century.

It wasn't until the 18th century that potatoes became popular in Europe. Potatoes became fashionable when Marie Antionette paraded through the French countryside wearing potato blossoms in her hair.

The word potato comes from the Caribbean word batata, which meant sweet potato.

The Royal Society of London proclaimed potatoes to be a nutritious food for the poor and regarded them as a food for people without status. The Irish were the first to recognize the food value of potatoes, and in the late 1600's Ireland became the first European country to plant potatoes as a staple food crop. For the next 200 years, every factory worker received 12 pounds of potatoes every day and a typical family ate more than 250 pounds of potatoes every week.

Irish Potato Famine of 1846-1848

In the 1840's, a fungus (Phytophthora infestans) destroyed potato crops in Ireland creating one of the most devastating famines in Irish history, and killing more than one million people. During the famine, food was very scarce and the Irish people were given food ration tickets to exchange for food. Thousands of Irish people moved to the United States, because of the lack of food in Ireland. Later, a wild potato plant resistant to the fungus was discovered in Chile and offered to Ireland.