The Irish Lumper is a varietal white

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...

of historic interest. It has been identified as the variety of potato whose widespread cultivation throughout

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, prior to the 1840s, is implicated in the Irish Great Famine in which an estimated 1 million died.

Agricultural features

The 'Irish Lumper' is noted for its ability to flourish on garden beds that are poor in nutrients, wet-footed, or both. Until the 1840s, it was closely adapted to growing conditions in

, particularly western Ireland. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Ireland noted that the Lumper was a "very old variety, and ... probably well known when first recorded by Dutton (1808) in his Agricultural Survey of County Clare. ... It was described by Andrews (1835) as a 'coarse species' and was recommended by Howden (1837) as stock feed due to its enormous yield." In the 1840s, infestations of ''

Phytophthora infestans ''Phytophthora infestans'' is an oomycete or water mold, a fungus-like microorganism that causes the serious potato and tomato disease known as late blight or potato blight. Early blight, caused by ''Alternaria solani'', is also often called "po ...

'' devastated a series of potato harvests, leading to widespread

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompan ...

and

emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanent ...

. The cumulative effects of both catastrophes, exacerbated by British rule, lowered Ireland's total population by approximately 2 million, of which approximately 1 million were fatalities. After almost disappearing from cultivation, the 'Irish Lumper' was regrown, starting in 2008, by Michael McKillop of

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population ...

for harvest sale as an

heirloom variety An heirloom plant, heirloom variety, heritage fruit (Australia and New Zealand), or heirloom vegetable (especially in Ireland and the UK) is an old cultivar of a plant used for food that is grown and maintained by gardeners and farmers, particular ...

Culinary use

The 'Irish Lumper' has been characterized as a "wet, nasty, knobbly old potato". Its texture upon boiling is described as more "waxy" than "floury", indicating a starch content on the lower side of that typical for white potatoes.

Educational use

Schools in Ireland are starting to cultivate the Irish Lumper as a project of historical education. They are cultivated in raised garden beds, in the pattern of the 1840s.

References

{{Irish cuisine Potato cultivars Great Famine (Ireland) Irish cuisine Food and drink in Ireland