If you read Crazzieme's article, "Kiss Me, I'm Irish," you'll notice she mentioned potatoes are a symbol of St. Patrick's Day. Potatoes... Ireland... somewhere I had heard that combination before. Oh yes! My social studies book! The Potato Famine! Another applaud for me, I learned something else!

Wait a sec... that's way off subject... back to potatoes:

During the 1800's (specifically, 1845-1850), the Irish were very dependant on potatoes, ever since the "legumes" were introduce to Ireland around the 1700's, for reasons unknown.

Despite warnings, the Irish were continuously dependent on this one crop that grew in almost every farm. Yeah, I think you know what that crop is.

Well, due to too much rain, a disease began to spread among the plants. About 90 percent of all potatoes rotted in the ground, and the ones that did not rot were contaminated. If you ate those, you would get sick anyway. Millions of Ireland's people died, either from starvation or disease. Ireland's population decreased rapidly due to the deaths and that, to escape the disaster, lots of the Irish moved to the United States.

Ireland fixed its problem, and now, I don't think that they love potatoes so much anymore.

The moral of this story is never eat diseased potatoes! This is athena92, signing off, to eat potatoes (that word is getting on my nerves)!

Editor's Note: Actually, I think potatoes are still very popular in Irish dishes -- who wants to do a little recipe research? :-)