Can you imagine life without French fries? Potatoes are very popular today. They are the fourth most nt crop in the world, after wheat, rice, and corn. But in the past, potatoes were not always popular. People in Europe to eat them only 200 years ago! In the isoos, the spanish went to South America to look for gold. There, they found people eating potatoes. The people of Peru in America had been eating potatoes for 7,000 years! The Spanish brought the potato back to Europe with them. But people in Europe did not like this strange vegetable. Some people thought that if you ate your skin would look like thRakin of a potato. Other people could not believe that you ate the underground part of they the nt leaves instead. This made them sick because there is poison in the leaves. Others grew potatoes for their flow At one time in France, potato flowers were one of the most expensive flowers. Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis XVI, wore potato flowers in her hair.