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Potato Facts Did
you know?
 Today potatoes
are grown in all 50 states of the USA and in about 125 countries
throughout the world.
The sweet
potato belongs in the same family as morning glories while the white
potato belongs to the same group as tomatoes, tobacco, chile pepper,
eggplant and the petunia.
The potato is
about 80% water and 20% solids.
An 8 ounce
baked or boiled potato has only about 100 calories.
The average
American eats about 124 pounds of potatoes per year while Germans eat
about twice as much.
In 1974, an
Englishman named Eric Jenkins grew 370 pounds of potatoes from one
plant.
Thomas
Jefferson gets the credit for introducing "french fries" to America when
he served them at a White House dinner.
According to
the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest potato grown was 7 pounds
1 ounce by J. East (1953) and J. Busby (1982) of Great
Britain.
The world's largest potato chip (on exhibit at the Potato Expo) was produced by the Pringle's Company in Jackson, TN, in 1990. It measures 23" x 14.5".
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