20 Facts About Potatoes
Potato is a very important food today, and it was in the past. This modest food has played an important role in the history of mankind. It has saved people of hunger many times during the war or in areas of bad weather.
In many countries potato has favored population growth and economic development.
Potatoes can be eaten on a daily basis, never to be bored. Baked, roasted, cooked in basket and peeled, crushed in pies or sliced into various types of salads, in addition to bread, cakes, soups. There is no one who does not like potatoes prepared at least in one way.
We bring you 20 interesting facts about potatoes…
Fact: Potato played a very important role in the history of the Irish people. More than a hundred years ago, the Irish people lived exclusively from potatoes, which were their main food. When, in 1846 was annual potato brewery destroyed by unknown fungi, over 600,000 people died of hunger, and many survivors left their homeland. This is known as “Irish Potato Famine”.
Fact: Potatoes, however, are not native to Ireland, ir+t comes from the Ecuadorian and Peruvian mountain regions of South America. Even today in these areas potato grows like a wild plant.
Fact: When the Spaniards arrived in Peru they found and discovered the potatoes and transferred it to Spain at the beginning of the 16th century. Hence the potatoes spread to all European countries and began to be used daily in human nutrition.
Fact: In the beginning, it was bred in Europe as an exotic ornamental plant, and there is the fact that Queen Anne Antoinette had even decorated a hat with a potato flower.
Fact: Potato is a herbaceous plant and belongs to the same family as tomatoes and tobacco come from. In fact, the potato is thickened underground tree.
Fact: Today potatoes are much different than their South American “ancestor”. These changes were made using various methods of potato breeding. Farmers are trying to improve their quality and increase potato yields.
Fact: Potatoes usually does not grow from seeds but from pieces of potato. From these pieces grow a plant that reaches a height of 30 centimeters to 1 meter and the flowera are white or pink. When the flowers are dry, it is a sign that potatoes can be removed from the ground.
Fact: Every inhabitant of our planet eats 33 kilograms / 72 pounds of potato per year. It is still the most eaten in the countries of eastern and central Europe so the record is kept by Belgians with more than 150 kilograms / 330 pounds per person per year. The largest increase in production and consumption is recorded in Asia, especially China. Europeans consume twice as much potatoes as Americans.
Fact: China, along with India, now produces one third of the world’s potato.
Fact: The Incas have been fed by it 6,000 years ago, and in Quechua language they devised around 1,000 words that mean or describe different types of potatoes. The potatoes are also called “bread from the Andes”.
Fact: Potatoes can also be beneficial for minor health problems. Chopped can reduce pain and relieve burns on the skin.
Fact: The potato is rich in vitamin C, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) and vitamin K, and contains minerals rich in copper, zinc, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, manganese … The potatoes also contain high quality starch, protein and dietary fiber.
Fact: The potato is the first food that is grown successfully in space. Thanks to NASA technology and the efforts of scientists from University of Wisconsin, the potato was successfully brewed in space in 1995.
Fact: The year 2008 was proclaimed a year of potato. The UN believes that potato is the food of the future, which could suppress hunger in the world.
Fact: During the golden fever in Klondajk, potatoes were used as a currency. The potato was so appreciated because of the high content of vitamin C that changed it for gold.
Fact: Removal of rust from metal can be done with this plant. Cut the raw potatoes and simply rub it on the rusty surface. The acid in it will dissolve the rust.
Fact: Potatoes are one of the main ingredients used to produce vodka. If you have a surplus of potatoes (at least ten kilos) and a lot of free time, you can make your own vodka!
Fact: The largest potato in the world, weighing almost 4 kilograms / 9 pounds, were grown by an English farmer, by Peter Glazebrook in 2010.
Fact: It is estimated that there are more than 3,000 types of potatoes in Peru and some of them can not be grown outside Peru because they require specific climate and agroecological conditions.
Fact: Potato is also used for the production of important acids; citric and fumaric, and also for ethanol, which serves as fuel and for obtaining bioplastics.
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