Potato Beach

Fancy a holiday on Potato Beach?

Praia da Batata (Potato Beach) is located 5km from the centere of historic Lagos, Portugal.

The beach is named for the potato like rocks on the beach and off shore.

Movie starch

You could once buy a ticket to the movies with a potato.

Thanks to our friends at The Potato Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico for that one!

Cooking tip of the week

Short of time?

TIP: Cut your potatoes smaller to reduce cooking time.

But not too small, eh, else you run the risk of them turning to sludge.

Pommes de terre

Just like the surface of the Earth, potatoes are only 20% solid, the rest is water.

French fried

"The great mass of the French nation is formed by the simple addition of homologous magnitudes, much as potatoes in a sack form a sack of potatoes."

Karl Marx

Potato royale - a PR masterclass

French royal Marie Antoinette famously promoted the potato during the 18th century, by wearing potato blossoms in her hair. But why?

The royals were introduced to the potato by French chemist Antoine August Parmentier, who had a penchant for potatoes and a real skill for Public Relations.

Parmentier had served as a soldier and been taken prisoner during the Seven Years War. During his captivity he was fed only potatoes, and on his return home Parmentier made it his mission to popularize the tuber, hitherto much dismissed by his countrymen.

After publishing his 1773 thesis, "Inquiry into nourishing vegetables that at times of necessity could be substituted for ordinary food", Parmentier was invited to court and brought a bouquet of potato flowers to the birthday of King Louis XVI. The King accepted the gift, deftly placing the flower in his lapel.

The king's wife, Queen Marie Antoinette, later wore the potato blossoms in her hair, and potato flowers quickly became a fashion among the aristocracy, just as potatoes became a staple for the poor.

Waxy or Floury - what's your preference?

There are over 4000 known varieties of potatoes, though only a fraction are commercially available.

But forget the variety, what's your favourite texture? Take our poll and tell us what you think:



Happy voting!

Allotmenteers! A Warning!

If you have an allotment and grow potatoes, a word of advice...

Don't be tempted to make Potato Leaf soup from your potato plant leftovers.

My Uncle Simon did this, the simple fool. Potato is a relative of Nightshade, and the solanine made him jolly sick.

Anya origins

The nutty Anya potato was first bred and grown exclusively for the UK's Sainsbury's supermarket chain.

It was bred at the Scottish Crop Research Institute.

Space potato

Despite the popularization during the 1970s of the idea that watery mashed potatoes were originally developed by alien robots from the planet S.M.A.S.H., the first time a potato (indeed any vegetable) was grown in space was during Space Shuttle Columbia's 1995 mission.

Pink Fir Apple

The Pink Fir Apple.

Not pink, not coniferous, nor an apple.

Hardly Ronseal is it?

Spud origins

A spud was originally a small, narrow, flat spade used for digging potatoes.

Rooney Potato Blight

England Manager Fabio Capello confirmed today that, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, England striker Wayne Rooney was suffering from blight.

Spud-u-like

Spud-u-like started in Scotland in the 1970s and spread like a blight across the British Isles.

The world was saved by the sea.

Potato Calories

A medium baked potato, about two and a half to three inches in diameter has about 160 calories.

More than bananas of any camber.