#h1 Potatodown [about]
A potato-based visual reference for things you can do in Markdown.
Photo credit: Eric Miraglia
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family (also known as the nightshades). The word may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber.
In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species.
Potatoes were introduced outside the Andes region four centuries ago, and have become an integral part of much of the world's cuisine. It is the world's fourth-largest food crop, following rice, wheat and maize.
Wild potato species occur throughout the Americas, from the United States to southern Chile. The potato was originally believed to have been domesticated independently in multiple locations, but later genetic testing of the wide variety of cultivars and wild species proved a single origin for potatoes in the area of present-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia (from a species in the Solanum brevicaule complex), where they were domesticated 7,000–10,000 years ago.
Source: Wikipedia
Count Potatoes
- Potato
- Potatoes
- Potatoes
- !
Potato, raw, with skin nutritional value per 100g
- Carbohydrates 19g
- Starch 15g
- Dietary Fiber 2.2g
- Fat 0.1g
- Protein 2g
- Water 75g
Nutrient content of major staple foods
Staple Food | Maize / Corn | Rice | Wheat | Potato |
---|---|---|---|---|
Component (per 100g portion) | ||||
Water (g) | 76 | 12 | 11 | 79 |
Energy (kJ) | 360 | 1528 | 1419 | 322 |
Protein (g) | 3.2 | 7.1 | 13.7 | 2.0 |
Fat (g) | 1.18 | 0.66 | 2.47 | 0.09 |
// make french fry objects
function fries(style,ingredients,serving) {
this.style = style;
this.ingredients = ingredients;
this.serving = serving;
}
To make a side of french fries, make a new fries
object.
var side = new fries("shoestring","potatoes",2);
The major species grown worldwide is Solanum tuberosum (a tetraploid with 48 chromosomes), and modern varieties of this species are the most widely cultivated.
There are also four diploid species (with 24 chromosomes):
- S. stenotomum
- S. phureja
- S. goniocalyx
- S. ajanhuiri
PotatoScript example:
> side.style "shoestring"
Factatoes
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French physician Antoine Parmentier studied the potato intensely and in Examen chymique des pommes de terres (Paris, 1774) showed their enormous nutritional value.
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King Louis XVI and his court eagerly promoted the new crop, with Queen Marie Antoinette even wearing a headdress of potato flowers at a fancy dress ball.
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In Ireland, the expansion of potato cultivation was due entirely to the landless laborers, renting tiny plots from landowners who were interested only in raising cattle or in producing grain for market.
A single acre of potatoes and the milk of a single cow was enough to feed a whole Irish family a monotonous but nutritionally adequate diet for a healthy, vigorous (and desperately poor) rural population.
In 2010, the European Commission cleared the way for 'Amflora' to be grown in the European Union. Nevertheless, under EU rules, individual countries have the right to decide whether they will allow this potato to be grown on their territory. Commercial planting of 'Amflora' was expected in the Czech Republic and Germany in the spring of 2010, and Sweden and the Netherlands in subsequent years.[1]
In 2010, a team of Indian scientists announced they had developed a genetically modified potato with 35 to 60% more protein than non-modified potatoes.*
Protein content was boosted by adding the gene AmA1 from the grain amaranth. They also found 15 to 25% greater crop yields with these potatoes.[2]
Learn more