The average American eats about 124 pounds of potatoes per year while Germans eat about twice as much. In 1974, an Englishman named Eric Jenkins grew 370 pounds of potatoes from one plant. Thomas Jefferson gets the credit for introducing “french fries” to America when he served them at a White House dinner.
What is the history of potatoes?
The humble potato was domesticated in the South American Andes some 8,000 years ago and was only brought to Europe in the mid-1500s, from where it spread west and northwards, back to the Americas, and beyond.
What is the historical importance of potatoes?
More than that, as the historian William H. McNeill has argued, the potato led to empire: “By feeding rapidly growing populations, [it] permitted a handful of European nations to assert dominion over most of the world between 1750 and 1950.” The potato, in other words, fueled the rise of the West.
What are 5 facts about potatoes?
10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Potatoes
- Each spud has a use.
- There are many, MANY potatoes you haven’t heard of.
- When you buy them, potatoes are still alive.
- A sweet potato isn’t actually a potato.
- Potatoes were first grown in South America.
- Potatoes were the first vegetable grown in space.
- Potatoes can turn green.
What were potatoes originally called?
Two Tubers, One Name
The Spanish called it patata and that morphed into potato in English. The sweet potato, still called just potato at the time, would have been known as an exotic import, something for royal tables, as early as the 16th century, but wasn’t being grown in England.
Who first ate potatoes?
The Inca Indians in Peru were the first to cultivate potatoes around 8,000 BC to 5,000 B.C. In 1536, Spanish Conquistadors in Peru discovered the flavors of the potato and transported them to Europe.
Where was the first potato found?
Peruvian Andes
The earliest recorded trace of the spud was found in the Peruvian Andes at around 6000BC. Research implies that communities of hunters initially came to the South American continent 7000 years before harvesting wild potato plants. The plants sprouted around Lake Titicaca situated high up in the mountains.
Did you know facts about potatoes?
The potato is about 80% water and 20% solids. An 8 ounce baked or boiled potato has only about 100 calories. The average American eats about 124 pounds of potatoes per year while Germans eat about twice as much. In 1974, an Englishman named Eric Jenkins grew 370 pounds of potatoes from one plant.
How did potatoes evolve?
The story of potato started around 350 million years ago, when they started to evolve from the poisonous ancestor of the plant nightshade (this family of plants eventually evolved not only into potatoes, but also into tobacco, chili peppers, bell peppers and tomatoes).
How the potato saved the world?
The introduction of the potato to Europe in the 16th century changed agriculture, allowing farmers to grow more crops on less land. In turn, this allowed communities to feed themselves on smaller amounts of land. As a result the price of land dropped.
What’s a cool random fact?
1 in 5,000 north Atlantic lobsters are born bright blue. There are 10 human body parts that are only 3 letters long (eye hip arm leg ear toe jaw rib lip gum). A skunk’s smell can be detected by a human a mile away. The word “lethologica” describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.
How big was the biggest potato ever?
10 lb 14 oz
What Is the Largest Potato Ever Grown? The largest potato ever grown measured was 10 lb 14 oz or 4.98 kilograms. The potato was grown in the UK by a man named Peter Glazebrook.
What’s a fun fact for the day?
Fun Facts and Trivia
- It is impossible for most people to lick their own elbow.
- A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
- A shrimp’s heart is in its head.
- It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
Who named potato?
The English word potato comes from Spanish patata (the name used in Spain). The Royal Spanish Academy says the Spanish word is a hybrid of the Taíno batata (‘sweet potato’) and the Quechua papa (‘potato’). The name originally referred to the sweet potato although the two plants are not closely related.
How long have humans been eating potatoes?
The potato was the first domesticated vegetable in the region of modern-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia between 8000 and 5000 BCE. Cultivation of potatoes in South America may go back 10,000 years, but tubers do not preserve well in the archaeological record, making identification difficult.
Is a potato a fruit?
More specifically, potatoes are tubers, a type of root vegetable. They aren’t the roots of the potato plant themselves, but rather they grow off of those roots. Potatoes are certainly edible, and they’re almost exclusively used in savory dishes, with or without a protein. Potatoes are not fruit, however.
Is potato A origin?
Where is the potato originally from? The potato is native to the Peruvian-Bolivian Andes. It was cultivated in South America by the Incas as early as 1,800 years ago. The Spaniards who colonized South America introduced potatoes into Europe during the second half of the 16th century.
What did potatoes originally look like?
The first potatoes seen in Europe had tiny tubers the size of peas or cherries. This was because the formation of tubers was regulated by the length of day. Being close to the equator, the Andes experience days and nights of equal length.
Who made potatoes popular?
Antoine-Augustin Parmentier was the man who made potatoes popular in France in the 1700s. His interest in potatoes began after he was captured during the Seven Years’ War and found himself imprisoned in Russia eating mounds of potatoes.
Why were potatoes illegal in France?
In 1748 France had actually forbidden the cultivation of the potato (on the grounds that it was thought to cause leprosy among other things), and this law remained on the books in Parmentier’s time, until 1772.
What did Europe eat before potatoes?
grain
Fertile food
Before the introduction of the potato, those in Ireland, England and continental Europe lived mostly off grain, which grew inconsistently in regions with a wet, cold climate or rocky soil. Potatoes grew in some conditions where grain could not, and the effect on the population was overwhelming.