No one really thinks about or really knows much about the potato. The average person thinks about the Spanish exploration of South America in terms of how much gold or silver they found. "Unknown to the conquistadors, the humble potato was the greatest treasure of the Andes: the world's annual potato harvest is worth any times the value of all the precious metals looted from the Misca and Inca Empires." The humble potato, which migrated by an unknown means from the mountains of South America to Europe, was originally feared but brought health and prosperity.

There is some controversy about the European who discovered the potato. Historians are not sure about the exact date or what European first ate the potato. However, the Spanish crusaders first encountered the potato when they arrived in Peru in 1532. They were actually in search of gold when they noted Inca miners eating...