As it was quite easy to grow it has become a staple food for the Irish population…

There’s a lesson in this. One way the potato was easy to grow was that it was easily propagated: cut one up so each piece has an ‘eye’, and plant. The problem is that all the resulting plants are genetic copies of the one cut up, so all have the exact same susceptibility to any particular blight. Eventually everyone was growing the exact same potato (called the ‘lumper’) with the same susceptibility to that same blight. A disaster waiting to happen — and it eventually did.

We have a similar issue in the US. There’s a particular Russet potato strain that is perfect for mass produced french fries. Farmers use a lot of chemicals to grow that strain. Organic farmers simply sidestep the issue by not growing that strain.

Potatoes are from South America. Ever heard of a Peruvian or Bolivian potato famine? You won’t have — as they grow multiple kinds of potatoes, understanding that some might be lost to blight in any season.

I’ve had something of a fascination with the ‘lumper’ over the years. What was so wonderful about it that everyone was growing it? It’s been reintroduced in the UK (by someone else who was also fascinated). From the reports, it’s not the taste that got it into such widespread usage in Ireland. I’d have to guess it was something like how much could be produced in a small plot, or tolerance of poor soil or poor drainage.