I am a true Idaho girl. Potatoes run through my veins. I grew up in a small, potato farming town and I would say my family ate them with our meals at least 5 times a week. They were a huge staple for our big family and I love them about every way imaginable: baked, mashed, twice baked, scalloped, hash browns, fries, etc. So it comes as a complete shock to me that just about the only way my offspring will eat them is in the potato chip form!!! I can’t believe it. I think potatoes are just about the best food there is.

In trying to convince my daughter how awesome they are, I went to go find some fun facts about them and I found some really interesting things that I wanted to share. I don’t think these were all that exciting to my five year old, but I found them really fun. But then again, I am quite a potato nerd :)

*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.

*Thomas Jefferson gets the credit for introducing “french fries” to America when he served them at a White House dinner.

*The world’s largest potato chip crisp (on exhibit at the Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho) was produced by the Pringle’s Company in Jackson, TN, in 1990. It measures 23″ x 14.5″.

*In October 1995, the potato became the first vegetable to be grown in space. NASA and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, created the technology with the goal of feeding astronauts on long space voyages, and eventually, feeding future space colonies.

*To grow potatoes, you plant ACTUAL potatoes, not seeds. Alternatively, you can plant pieces of potato, as long as each piece has at least two eyes.

*Marie Antoinette reportedly wore potato blossoms in her hair and Louis XVI wore them in his buttonhole to try to get French farmers and people hyped about eating potatoes.

*A potato is quite powerful. A potato battery can supply enough power to light a room for a month.

*Mr. Potato Head toys originally used a real potato.

George Learner, the toy’s inventor, designed a set of point-backed facial features as a way to get kids excited about vegetables. When it debuted in 1952, it became the first toy to get its own TV commercial — and it sold like crazy. The plastic potato didn’t enter the scene until 1964.

*Are Pringles potato chips?

To answer that question, we’ll refer to the 1975 court case that sought to answer that very question. So, Pringles, a Proctor & Gamble product, aren’t made from sliced and fried potatoes—they are made from a mixture of rice, wheat, corn, and potato flakes, which is then pressed into the distinctive shape. In the 1960’s, P & G started marketing their new creation as potato chips, which made a bunch of smaller potato chip companies mad who took P & G to court to stop using the phrase “potato chips”. In 1975, the FDA ruled that P & G could label Pringles “potato chips” but they also had to add “made from dried potatoes” to the label…..and it had to be written in a font that was at least half as large as the size of the largest font used to write “potato chips.” So there’s the long answer to that important question :)