Hot Potato Facts

The Irish are the second largest potato consumers in Europe followed by the British.
Only the Portuguese eat more.

There are thousands of varieties of potato with differing colours including one with red flesh (Highland Red), a blue skinned variety (Salad Blue) and even a potentially controversial red, white and blue potato (Yetholm Gypsy).

The largest potato ever recorded was grown in the Isle Of Man and weighed seven pounds 13 ounces – the weight of a healthy newborn baby.

The potato was a real talking point after it was first discovered in Peru in the 7th century.
The Peruvian Quechua language had 1000 words to describe potato varieties.

The colloquial term “spud” came from a type of spade used to harvest the potato in the 19th century.

The idiom “hot potato” meaning a controversial problem that is best avoided, was coined in the 1800s.
The term alludes to the fact that potatoes retain heat after boiling because of their high water content.

An 18th century potato grower used reverse psychology to boost the vegetable’s popularity in France.
He posted guards around potato fields by day and left them unattended at night thus tempting thieves to steal the “precious” commodity.

The potato was once a fashion item in high society. French queen Marie Antoinette paraded the streets with potato blossoms on her hair. Louis XVI wore them in his button holes.

Since 2003 the Republic of Ireland has celebrated Potato Week, the highlight of the Irish potato calendar.

The potato was so heavily relied on throughout Ireland in the 1800s that a potato blight caused the potato famine leading to thousands of deaths by starvation.

Potato’s assumed interstellar status in 1995 when potatoes were taken aboard the shuttle Columbia.

Crisps are said to have been invented in the 19th century when a disgruntled chef reacted angrily to the complaints of a customer who said his chips were sliced too thickly.