Facts about Potato
In 1588, the claimant to the Portuguese throne, Antуnio, Prior of Crato, sold exclusive trade rights on the Gambia River to English merchants; this grant was confirmed by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I.
The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is another crop plant with large, starchy, tubers (from roots), but is only distantly related to the potato (Solanum tuberosum).
Food energy for the next year's growth, in the form of protein and starch, and also water is stored in tubers, called potatoes, which are rhizomes (modified stems) attached to the root system.
By 1650, potatoes had become a staple food of Ireland, and they began to replace wheat as the major crop elsewhere in Europe, serving to feed both people and animals.
Peru has the largest number of wild potato species (Hijmans and Spooner 2001).
English landlords also encouraged potato-growing by Irish tenants because they wanted to produce more wheat—if the Irish could survive on a crop that took less land, that would free a greater area for wheat production.
The potato became such an important food for the Irish that the popular imagination automatically associates the two today, but its early history in Ireland remains obscure.
The first mention of potatoes in North America comes in an account of Scots-Irish settlers in Londonderry, New Hampshire during 1719.
Potatoes (particularly mashed potatoes) are known to have a high Glycemic index (rate at which a food raises the blood sugar level), a disqualifying factor in many diets.
Potatoes also provide starch, flour, alcohol dextrin (low-molecular-weight carbohydrates produced by the hydrolysis of starch), and livestock fodder.
Hundreds of varieties of potatoes were, and still are, grown in South America.
Potatoes are an important part of the diet in many countries, especially in Northern Europe and North America, and are featured in a number of their national dishes and most popular dishes.
By the seventeenth century, the potato had become firmly established as a staple of Europe's poor, leading richer people to spurn it.
Potatoes contain glycoalkaloids, toxic compounds of which the most prevalent are solanine and chaconine.
At some point, it was discovered that by replanting stored tubers a larger crop could be produced and potato cultivation began.
The below-ground part of the potato plant continues to live after the above-ground part has died in winter.
Most potato species grow at high elevations in mountainous regions with hot summers and cold winters.
Each contains up to three hundred seeds, which are sometimes planted in an effort to create new potato varieties.
Peeled, long-stored potatoes have less nutritional value, especially when fried, although they still have potassium and vitamin C.
Popular legend has long credited Sir Walter Raleigh with first bringing the potato to England.
Potatoes were an important part of the diet of the Incas and other peoples of Western South America.
Whatever the source, the potato became popular in Ireland both because of its high productivity and because of the advantages of both growth and storage hidden underground.
Today, potatoes grow widely in Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, and other Northern or Eastern European nations, due to their ability to thrive in cold, damp climates.
A single devastating event, however, looms large in the Irish history of potatoes—the Irish potato famine.
Some varieties of potato contain greater glycoalkaloid concentrations than others; breeders developing new varieties test for this, and sometimes have to discard an otherwise promising cultivar.
Agriculture (a term which encompasses farming) is the process of producing food, feed, fiber, fuel, and other goods by the systematic raising of plants and animals.
After many years of cultivation, the potato has lost much of its ability to produce seeds.
Some stories say that Raleigh first planted the potato on his estate near Cork.
The concentration of glycoalkaloid in wild potatoes and raw potatoes suffices to produce toxic effects in humans.
The skin of potatoes has dietary fiber and cooking potatoes in their skin tends to result in less leaching of vitamins and minerals.
After the potato was brought over to Spain, it gradually spread across Europe.
Another story credits the introduction of the potato in Ireland to Sir Walter Raleigh, a financier of transatlantic expeditions, at least one of which made landfall at Smerwick, County Kerry in October 1587.
The National Toxicology Program suggests that the average American consumes 12.5 mg/person/day of solanine from potatoes.
The potato plant (Solanum tuberosum) is a member of the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family, a family of flowering plants that also includes the eggplant, mandrake, deadly nightshade or belladonna, tobacco, tomato, and petunia.
A potato plant grows anywhere from three to 20 tubers during its growing season.
After many years of cultivation, the potato has lost much of its ability to produce seeds.
New and fingerling potatoes offer the advantage that they contain fewer toxic chemicals.
By the end of the eighteenth century, the potato had become popular in France due to the advocacy of Parmentier.
The first European record of the potato came in 1537 from the Spanish conquistador Castellanos, who discovered the tuber when his group raided a village in South America.
One speculation has it that the potato may have originally arrived in Ireland washed ashore from wrecked galleons of the Spanish Armada (1589).
The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is another crop plant with large, starchy, tubers (from roots), but is only distantly related to the potato (Solanum tuberosum).
Idaho grows 30 percent of the total U.S. potato crop, Washington state another 20 percent; Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Colorado, and Oregon round out the top producers.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the worldwide production of potatoes in 2005 was 322 million metric tons which makes it the fifth highest production crop in the world.
Potatoes are an excellent food providing carbohydrates, protein, vitamins (especially Vitamin C and Vitamin B6), and minerals (especially iron and potassium).
Potatoes also provide starch, flour, alcohol dextrin (low-molecular-weight carbohydrates produced by the hydrolysis of starch), and livestock fodder.
Official State Vegetable of Idaho. Idaho's rich volcanic soil, water from melting snow in nearby mountains, clean air, sunny days, and cool nights all combine to produce consistently high-quality potatoes that have made Idaho famous worldwide.