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10 Cultivated Facts about Potatoes 1. The Incas, native to Peru, were the first to grow potatoes. They began cultivating them in 5000 BC. 2. Potatoes and tomatoes are very closely related, even though they look and taste very different. They are both members of the nightshade family. 3. Potatoes contain almost every single nutrient a human needs to survive. Some scientists suggest you could live on a potato-only diet (so long as you had a little milk or butter). 4. Thomas Jefferson brought french fries to America when he returned to the states from France after the Revolutionary War. 5. The Irish Potato Famine was caused by “potato blight,” a disease that rots plants like potatoes and tomatoes. Blight ruined potato crops during the 1840s, causing one million people to die of starvation and another million to emigrate to the new world. 6. One of the most famous post-impressionist paintings features potatoes. Van Gogh’s Potato Eaters is one of his most complex, showcasing peasants with potato-colored skin and clothes eating a plate full of potatoes. (Photo by Photo 12 / UIG via Getty Images) 7. It takes four or five potatoes to make every bag of Lay’s potato chips. 8. Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor includes the line, “Let the sky rain potatoes.” 9. Each American eats about 124 pounds of potatoes annually. Germans eat about 250 pounds. 10. Potatoes were the first vegetable grown in space. For more fun potato facts, see our article: Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more amazing facts, trivia, history, and more:
