Potatoes--An Irish Aphrodisiac

Two hundred years of Irish reliance on potatoes proved an abundance of the staple assured an equal abundance of progeny. Size of families in the Emerald Isle was taken as proof that potatoes were an astounding aphrodisiac. It commenced with the introduction of Solanum tuberosum in 1586 and by an Englishman at that. Or was two or even three Englishmen? Sir Frances Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh and Thomas Cavendish have all been credited. In all likelihood it is all a myth. Indeed History Ireland, Ireland's history magazine, dismisses the popular tale of Walter Raleigh bringing back potatoes from exploring the Americas, to plant them on his Irish estate at Myrtle Grove, Youghal, near Cork. Raleigh was never potato-producing areas. A variation of this story is that Raleigh received is potatoes from Francis Drake. The privateer stopped off at Cartagena, Colombia in 1586, to lay in supplies for the voyage home after a profitable season sacking and pillaging cities and ships in the Caribbean to the despair of the Spanish there. Included in the stocks were said to have been potatoes, a few of which were later given to Raleigh to plant in his Irish estate.