40 Potato Fun Facts About This Delicious Vegetable

• Well, potatoes are pretty plain but you can easily make them absolutely great.

What’s better than potato fun facts? Here are all the things you ever needed to know about potatoes.

• Idaho has a potato museum.
• The average American eats 138 pounds of potatoes each year. Of that, half is fresh and half is industrially processed (chips, dehydrated potato, canned potato).
• Idaho is known as the potato state.
• Spain was the first European nation to accept potatoes into their cuisine.
• Spain introduced the potato as invaluable military and navy ration that prevented formation of scurvy.
• Potato tubers grow as a part of the nightshade family.
• Potatoes are 20% solid and 80% water.
• China is the world’s largest producer and exporter of potato in the world. In 2010 they produced 75.8 million tons. WOW, may the best of potato fun facts.
• Potatoes came from the Andes. They were first domesticated around 8 thousand years ago in South America. They were introduced into Europe via Spanish conquistadors.
• The potato was not easily accepted by European commoners. Its popularity started to grow only when the long wars and isolated economy of France forced its rulers to promote potato production to both commoners and nobility. King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette played very important role in the rise of potato during late 18th century.
• In 1890s Alaskan Klondike gold rush, potato was valued very high because of its Vitamin C. In some cases potatoes were traded directly for gold.
• Each day over billion people eat at least one potato. This is one of the best potato fun facts. How cool.
• Potato comes from the Spanish word “patata.”
• The largest amount of potato created from one plant was 370 pounds! This was achieved in 1974 by Englishman Eric Jenkins.
• A potato has around 100 calories.
• In 1995, potato was successfully grown in outer space onboard space shuttle Columbia.
• In total, 100 grams of potato has 75 grams of water, 19 g of carbohydrates (15 grams of Starch and 2.2 grams of dietary fiber), 2 grams of protein, 0.1 gram of fat, and trace amounts of many vitamins (C, E, K, B6) and minerals and metals (magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and more.)One baked potato contains 21% of recommended daily dose of Vitamin B6. 40% of vitamin C, 20% of potassium and 12% of fiber.
• One medium sized potato contains 110 calories opposed to a one cup serving of rice with 225 calories and one cup of pasta with 115 calories.
• Potatoes are used to make some alcohol. Potatoes are the second most consumed food in United States, behind milk.
• A man can survive on diet that consists only from potatoes and milk. Milk must be present because potato does not have large amounts of vitamin A and D.
• Potatoes are perfect for breakfast. What a fun, potato fun fact. Yum!
• A potato has more Vitamin C than orange, more potassium than a banana and more fiber than apple.
• You can eat potatoes with sprouts.
• The world’s largest potato was produced by Pringle’s Company in Jackson, TN, in 1990. It was 23? x 14.5?.
• Potatoes have gone bad once they are shriveled and wrinkled.
• In Ireland average person eats 120 kg of potatoes per years. In Italy that number is only 30 kg.
• Currently there are around 100 varieties of edible potatoes. Did you know this as one of the potato fun facts?
• Potatoes can be poisonous. This is one of the most important potato fun facts.Potato is the world’s fourth most produced staple – after wheat, corn and rice.
• Keep potatoes fresh in cool and dry places.
• One of the most basic measurements of time for ancient civilization of Incas was the time it took to cook potato.
• Wash potatoes only right before cooking them.
• Potato was introduced to Europe by Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada in 1550, and was popularized even more by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585.
• Potato skins are the healthiest part of the potato so keep them on when you cook and eat them.
• United Nation declared that 2008 was the year of the potato and tried to promote this plant as an excellent way of feeding hungry countries in Africa and Asia.
• Potatoes are vegetables.
• Over the centuries, botanists have created many varieties of potatoes. Some of the best known are Sebago (common potato), Pontiac (very popular because of his thin red skin), Desiree, Pink Fir Apple, Kipfler, Pink Eye (or Tasmanian Pink Eye), Russet Burbank, Spunta and Nicola.
• Prissioa and Australia both wanted to starve each other by stealing their food, so there was a brief war in 1778 fought over the potato.

Did you know these potato fun facts? What is your favorite of all the potato fun facts?