The potato, like the tomato and the chili pepper, is a New World crop. It was unknown to Europeans until the conquistadors found it in the Andes and sailed back with it in the sixteenth century. Potato cultivation spread quickly, with the starchy tuber proving so useful in the kitchen that it became essential to several national cuisines. Potatoes were boiled in Ireland, mashed in England, and fried in the Low Countries. Perhaps they even figured in murders, since the potato is a member of the nightshade family. Like all nightshades, it contains deadly toxins, mostly in its leaves and fruit. The tuber—the part we eat—ordinarily contains low concentrations of the poison, which is readily recognized by its bitter flavor.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization is a premier purveyor of potato facts through its Potato 2008 website. 2008 was the Year of the Potato, you see, and the United Nations was interested in "Disseminating information on potato-based systems," as it says. But seriously, don't miss their diagram of the potato plant and their account of the potato's origins in the Andes. History magazine describes efforts by European royalty to popularize the potato: Marie-Antoinette wore a potato blossom in her hair, while Frederick the Great cultivated a potato field from which he expected the peasantry to steal plants. If you're interested in growing your own potatoes, peruse the University of Illinois Extension's gardening guide. The National Institutes of Health, in their encyclopedia entry on potato plant poisoning, advise against eating new sprouts or green tubers of the potato.