Native to the Americas, it was first brought to Europe in 1573 and introduced to Ireland about 1590. By 1780 it was the staple of the Irish diet.

The traditional Irish method of planting the potato was in "lazy beds". Low drenches were dug at about three foot intervals. The sod and dirt were piled in between the trenches. The beds were enriched with manure, rotted straw, and/or sea weed. Whole potatoes were cut into pieces so that each piece contained an eye. These seed potatoes were usually put in the ground in May. The beds were tended to keep the weeds from chocking the potato plants.

The leaves and flowers of the potato plant are poisonous. The tubers themselves can be poisonous if sunlight hits them and turns them green. Consequently, during the growing season more dirt was taken from the trenches to cover the tubers and prevent them from turning green in the sunlight.

Early potatoes were ready after about 100 days with a second crop in about 110-120 days. The main crop matured in about 130 days. The first two crops were harvested when the plants was still green. The main crop was harvested after the mature plant has died.

In 1836 the Poor Inquiry survey determined that one acre could yield and average of 6.5 to 8.5 tons and sometimes more. One acre could feed 6 people for a year.

The potatoes were stored over the winter in pits outside of the house. They did not last more than nine months before they turned bad. There were, therefore, lean months in the summer until the new crop was ready in the fall.

The Potato Pit as described in Famine by Liam O'Flaherty when Brian Kilmartin discovers that his potato crop is rotten:

"The old man at once dug into its end with the spade and laid bare the covering of ferns. These he hurriedly pulled aside with his hands. Then he slowly raised himself to his full height, some rotting ferns still in his hands. He stared, speechless, at the mass of corruption into which the potatoes had turned.

In addition to being the staple of the diet, potatoes were used to make poteen, a strong liquor.

There were multiple failings of the potato crop before and after the Great Famine of 1845-1849. In 1820 bad weather in the summer and fall caused the crop to fail and people to suffer from hunger, malnourishment and in turn typhus and dysentery.

Other Foods

Before the introduction of the potato, the Irish typically ate oat porridge.

Other crops included wheat, cabbage and turnips. Turnips and cabbage were mashed with potatoes and stewed (colcannon). Wheat became more widespread toward the late 1700s. It was grown mainly for export.

Herring, cockles and other seafood were eaten by those who lived near the sea. The Irish seldom ate meat or bread. The average Irish peasant had meat and bread only once or twice a year. They did drink milk. It is impressive in Ireland in the pubs today to see grown men drinking milk. Butter and buttermilk also featured heavily in the Irish diet.

Utensils

The poor man's cabin did not contain many utensils. There were perhaps a few knives and fewer forks. Food was mainly eaten with the hands. See image below.

Potato Images

Harper's Weekly, December 6, 1879

To read the article that was published with the above print, click HERE

Women preparing the "lazy-beds". Four feet wide strips are fertilized with manure. A trench is dug on either side. In the wet climate of Ireland the trench provides drainage. The potato "seed" is planted in rows in the four feet strips.

Ciaran Walsh (who is not related to the Walshes of Ballinrobe and whose family were Welsh mercenaries who settled in Kilkenny, around Ballyhale) emailed in April 2006 to say that this photo was taken by a Belfast photographer named RJ Welch and was "part of a photographic record of improvements being undertaken by the Congested Districts Board."

"The women breaking clods are are the Misses McAllister, tilling their father's field near Terioch Post Office, Armoy, Co. Antrim. The original glass plate is held in the Ulster Museum."

Description of the potato fields in bloom from The Famine by Liam O'Flaherty.

.....the potato plants grew to an enormous sized and their luxuriant foliage, dotted with beautiful white and pink blossoms, made Black Valley look like a flower garden.

Again I cannot find any images of the potato crop in Ireland.

August Hagborg was a Swedish artist so this most likely represents a potato harvest in Sweden.

DISTRIBUTING SACKS OF SEED POTATOES IN CLARE ISLAND

The Illustrated London News, April 24, 1886

There was "distress" in the west again in 1886. Particularly hard hit were the area along the Atlantic seacoast in Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Clare and Kerry.

"In the whole of Ireland, there are 538,000 poor tenants of very small holdings whose average rent is under £6, and this means nearly three millions of human beings dependent for subsistence on the precarious crops of potatoes and oats, or rye in some places, grown in those western districts from the poorest soil, among bogs and rocks, where a bad season, like that of last year reduces them to positive starvation.

CARRY HOME SEED POTATOES

The Illustrated London News, April 28, 1888

Boiling and packing partially deseased tubers, THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON TIMES October 25, 1890

Buring Stalks and Poor Law Inspection: Investicating Potato Blight, THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON TIMES October 25, 1890

Ploughing Out Potatoes, THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON TIMES October 25, 1890

Potatoes

"An Irish Mash"

Poteen is made from barley or potatoes. It is one of the most potent achohilic beverages in the world.

Also known as moonshine, poteen or homemade wiskey, was outlawed in Ireland in 1661. The purpose of the law was not to save the peasant from some potential harm from the homemade brew but to levy a tax on whiskey. The Irish ignored the law and went ahead making poteen for generations.

THE WESTERN HIGHLNADS CONNEMARA — POTEEN

Illicit Still from Sights and Scenes in Ireland, 1908

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With primitive solid wheels"

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Posted 1958