This day in history: On this day (July 28) in 1586, Sir Thomas Harriot brought the first potato to Europe from the New World. Since then, the potato has mashed its way into a world culinary staple. As of 2014, potatoes were the world's fourth-largest food crop after corn, wheat, and rice. Following millennia of selective breeding, there are now over 5,000 different types of potatoes.
Dan Quayle was also not wrong about the spelling of Potatoe with an e on the end. Potatoe is an older but still correct spelling of the word more commonly word spelled potato. The e at the end of potatoe was largely dropped during the 20th century. If you check google books and search for "Potatoe" among 19th century books you quickly find out that this was the way it was spelled.
In 2000 there was a conservative website called www.thepotatoe.com (a nod to Quayle) which served as a home for writers who have been dismissed or otherwise disenfranchised because of their views.
The failure of the potato crop in Ireland led to mass starvation in the mid 19th century. During the Great Hunger, about 1 million people died and more than a million fled the country, causing the country's population to fall by 20%–25%, in some towns falling as much as 67% between 1841 and 1851. Wikipedia has a sentence that is unintentionally humorous about this famine: "...the impact of the blight was exacerbated by the British Whig government's economic policy of laissez-faire capitalism." In truth, an economic policy of laissez-faire capitalism is one that excludes government involvement.
The Irish have 90 different names for potatoes.
Potatoes can be toxic and a cellar full of potatoes actually killed a family in Russia in 2013. Potatoes come from the same family as deadly nightshade.
Potato chips (crisps) are a favorite snack made from potatoes that are so popular, your grocery store has a "potato chip aisle." Equally popular are french fries, a thin slice of potato that has been either deep fried or baked. McDonald's has one of the best fries on the market. Up until 1990, McDonald's used a mixture of 93% beef tallow and 7% cottonseed oil. They afterward switched to vegetable oil with beef flavoring.
Fun potato facts:
Megyn Kelly recently tweeted, "I am going one year without eating french fries. It’s a personal test of willpower. Q: is a tater tot a violation?" One response was "WHY?"
The original Mr. Potatohead toy used real potatoes.
The biggest producers of potatoes in the world are now China and India.
Apparently, humans can survive on a diet of nothing but Potatoes and Milk or Butter.
French fries were introduced to Americans when President Thomas Jefferson served them at the White House.
August 19 is National Potato Day.
The world’s biggest potato weighed 18 pounds, 4 ounces, according to Guinness Book of World Records.
Amazon sells Potato Guns.
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2021/07/help-mark-jones-stage-4-cancer-journey.html
No comments:
Post a Comment