Forster, John 17th Century  

Forster was the author of the first book devoted entirely to the potato. The complete title is: England's Happiness Increased or A Sure and Easy Remedy Against all Succeeding Dear Years: by a Plantation of the Roots called Potatoes, Whereof (with the addition of wheat flower) excellent good and wholesome Bread may be made every year, eight or nine Months together, for half the change as formerly. Also by the Planting of these Roots, ten thousand men in England and Wales who know not how to Live or what to do to get a Maintenance for their Families, may of One Acre of Ground, make Thirty Pounds per Annum. Invented and Published for the Good of the Poorer Sort, by John Forster, Gent. (1664). The writer provided excellent recipes for cooking potatoes, such as potato bread, puddings, custards, cheesecakes and stewing potatoes in wine with butter and sugar. He stated that his book involved all "which ways they are a very wholesome and strengthening Food."

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