The potato first appeared in Peru about ten thousand years ago. The potato was an early food source, and likely a highly traded good in early South America. Having been traded for several thousand years, and enduring much artifical selection, the explorers of the sixteenth and seventeenth century brought the potato back to Europe, where the crop grew. Originally thought to be poisonous and evil, the crop didn't become a major food for another hundred years.
Following its introduction into China toward the end of the Ming dynasty in the seventeenth century, the potato immediately became a delicacy of the imperial family.
A lack of equal rights for potatoes led to a disease spreading between them and endangered the tradition of forking the potato in Ireland. Fortunately, other areas of the world maintained their healthy, diverse potatoes, and so the tradition lives on.
