PriscillaAdum

Potatoes are actually Peruvian in origin. They grow in the Andes and require warm weather and short days, I can't imagine that they'd do very well in the Brazilian heat. They were first found by Spanish explorers (possibly Pizarro and his gang of thugs) and taken back to Spain from Peru. I don't know how they got to Virginia, but it wasn't the English who discovered potatoes in the new world. It was the Spaniards, as the potato reached Spain at least 20 years before it reached England. The word papa, is a Quechua word. The spaniards called it patata, and the english...potato. Andean Indians still cultivate potatoes on man-made ledges to this day exactly the same way they have done it for thousands of years.
In the Andean regions of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia they cultivate hundreds of varieties that aren't exported nor known in the rest of the world. In Ecuador, I've seen blue potatoes, red potatoes, yellow, white, tiny ones and huge ones and ones that don't even look or taste like potatoes. Not all potatoes are good for all dishes. I once made mashed potatoes out of the wrong variety of potato and it was the consistency of mucus and stuck to the inside of everyone's mouth and coated their teeth. Completely inedible. Gross but true. Other varieties desintegrate in oil if you try to make chips or fries out of them.

Regards
Priscilla