Black Potatoes June 15 Meeting

"In 1845, disaster struck Ireland. Overnight, a mysterious blight attacked the potato crops turning the potatoes black and destroying the only real food of nearly six million people. Over the next five years, the blight attacked again and again. These years are known today as the Great Irish Famine, a time when one million people died from starvation and disease and two million more fled their homeland.

"Susan Campbell Bartoletti tells the compelling story of men, women and children who survived against all odds: they defied landlords and searched empty fields for scraps of harvested vegetables and edible weeds, walked several miles each day to hard-labor jobs earn meager wages and to reach soup kitchens, and committed crime just to go to jail where they were assured a meal. Black Potatoes is the story of the heroes among the Irish people and how they held on to hope." (from Black Potatoes back cover)

We Pig Skullers will discuss Black Potatoes at our Sunday, June 15 meeting.