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E. Duis’s The
Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois… recounts the following
incident from 1832:
Albert
Philips, his brother Calvin, and Andrew Barnard arrived at Indian Grove
and camped at an old town abandoned by the Kickapoos. The men had
little to eat with them because they expected to be joined by their
families the next day. But, for some reason, the families were detained
and did not show up for a week. As a result, the three men had to live
out their wait on feral honey and hog potatoes. These potatoes grew
wild on the creek bottoms and along the sloughs. Duis described them as
little black things about the size of an egg. They could be roasted or
boiled, but they had a flavor very different than that of an Irish
potato. They appeared tuberous and grew two or three per stem about
three to six inches apart.
Can
you help us identify the “little black things” the Philips brothers
and Andrew Barnard ate will they awaited the arrival of their families?
Does the hog potato still grow in McLean County?
Robert Dirks
Guest Curator
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