|
|
|
The Potato
Food Facts
 |
There are a lot of fun facts about potatoes, one of the most common foods in the world. We eat them all the time. But how much do you know about them?
For example, did you know that the Irish call potatoes "spuds"? The name comes from a type of shovel used to dig up potato hills. The Irish also invented the word "pothole." According to tradition, Irish cooks set boiling pots of potatoes on an earthen road to cool. When they mashed or smashed the potatoes, the pot got pushed into the ground, forming a hole. That is how potholes got started, or so the legend says.
Here are some other interesting potato facts. Did you know that . . .-
potatoes belong to the same family of plants as tomatoes, tobacco, chili peppers, eggplants, and petunias?
- potatoes are not related to sweet potatoes, which come from a different plant family?
- the white potato is sometimes called the "Irish potato"?
- the average person in the United States eats about 124 pounds of potatoes each year?
- Germans eat twice as many potatoes as we do?
- potato-based alcohol fueled German planes in World War II?
- Thomas Jefferson introduced "French fries" to the United States after he ate them in France?
- King Louis XVI popularized potatoes by wearing potato flowers in his buttonholes?
- as of 2005, the largest potato grown weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce?
- potatoes are 80 percent water and 20 percent solids?
Expand this list by finding other interesting facts about potatoes. Then turn the list into a poster.
|
|
|
|
|
|
