Why+did+people+depend+so+much+on+the+potato?

Why did people depend so much on the Famine?

The potato was introduced to Ireland as a lovely garden crop. By the late seventeenth century it had become really popular all over Ireland. The main diet still revolved around Butter,milk and grain products. In the first two decades of the eighteenth century, it became a base food of the poor, mostly in the winter. The expansion of the ecomny between 1760 and 1815 saw the potato in the diet of the people and become a staple food.