Can't touch that

I prefer the swedish method, show people that you can make alcohol out of them =D

@Lavrentivs But, heists. They're just so much fun.

The "French scientist" was called Antoine Parmentier.
He has numerous streets called after him, and whenever you see a dish called "[something] parmentier", it's mean there is lot of potatoes in it. Way to become an unforgettable famous scientist :-)

I can´t live without potatoes, I love it :3

@NorseNorwegian They are legitimately lovely.

And you can cook them in so many different ways!

@Lichruler Boil them, mash them, cook 'em in a stew.

@Dena Fry them, roast them, bake them, make dumplings, make hash-pancakes. ^^

The story, is partly wrong, the potato got hold in France on great scale only after the revolution, Yet this happened not in France but in Prussia. King Frederik II wanted that feed his vast growing people but only a small country of majorly useless land. So the potato was the answer, yet many peasant though it was poison. The king used many tricks to convince the people, one was that he would eat some potato before the people eyes, which were forced to watch. The other was to let fields guard by soldiers to let the people think they were valueable.

@Pusia I heard that story too. My grandpa told me, general opinion later was, the germans would have adopted the potato much earlier if someone had bothered to explain to the farmers that they should eat the yummy roots, not the poisonous fruits ...
Old Fritz the only King my socialist Opa had some good words for, in addition to force-feeding potatoes to the general populace, he banned torture, started general schooling, tried to abandon serfdom. He is said to have established religious freedom too, but it was practiced before him. He wanted to get more population and invited immigration and indeed remarked "If muslims and pagans come, we shall build them mosques and temples".

So they called them ground apples because you sneak into people's gardens and steal them?

In sweden the potato didn´t become widely popular until people figured out that they could make booze from it! After that, potatofarming boomed!

Wait, why is the French scientist bald and naked? What was he working on before potatos?

@Jaegerwolf Because science is creepy...

@Jaegerwolf SATW countries and cultures are shown as one or two figures, usually a male and female. They represent the country as a whole. Citizens are usually shown as little gray lumps with faces, running around or being carried by a country persona. This scientist is an individual citizen, not important enough to be named and detailed. However, since he's interacting with the personae of the French people, he has to be shown with a human form. Otherwise you'd be seeing some tiny gray lump being smug to the giants of the civilizations, which would just be silly.

@Jaegerwolf He is bald and pale I think as a nod to dealing with Radiation, who Marie Curie, made huge breakthroughs with.

In Norway they were apparently considered the devil's vegetable I think, heard it on a radio program some years ago. It was hilarious. Long live the potato! <3

@Emmez have you tried maltese potato? http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/arts/entertainment/26737/i-dreamed-a-dream-of-potato-blood-20130514

@StevenU : No I haven't. We harvest potatoes here in my country, so we don't need to transport from other countries. ^^

@Emmez dutch and germans love our potatoe

@Emmez Devil's vegetable? Is that anything like a devil fruit? http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Devil_Fruit

@Cersox : No, not at all. The potato was considered the Devils vegetable because it was planted in soil. I think it was said to make you sick or cursed if you ate it, but don't quote me on that since it's been a while since I heard about it. I might research it if I remember it and got the time. X)

I thought the guards guarded around the clock, but if someone tried to steal a potato the guard would do nothing. The guards were honestly just there for show.

@ApplesRock That's what I heard too.

Well, Potatos kinda have a lot of starch in them, thus making them unhealthy.

@nemoleeexe You still need starch, just not too much.

@nemoleeexe Starch is just a carbohydrate, which means it should be consumed in moderation. Just like anything else.