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Potatoes
Potatoes are a plant.
The part we eat grows under the ground.
They grow on the roots of the plant.
New plants grow from tiny buds on a potato.
Potatoes can be cooked in many different ways.
The potato plant is a native of South America.
Spanish explorers took the plants back to Europe 400 years ago.
The British brought potatoes to Australia when they started their colony here in 1788.
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The part of the potato plant
that we eat grows underground on the plant's roots. Above ground
there are leaves, flowers, and fruit which we do not eat, and
which are in fact poisonous. Potatoes have small buds, called 'eyes', and from each of these a new plant can grow, not from the fruit of the plant. |
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Potato farmers plant potato 'eyes' in ploughed and fertilised paddocks. After about 100 days, 15 or 20 potatoes have grown on each plant. |
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Go here to see some of the ways potatoes can be cooked http://www.hugs.org/taterdex.shtml
Go here to read about potato chips http://www.howstuffworks.com/question579.htm
Acknowledge this source in your bibliography
like this:
Potatoes (2001). [Online], Available:www.kidcyber.com.au
Sydenham & Thomas, [online] www.kidcyber.com.au
April 2008 ©kidcyber
When the above-ground plants die, the potatoes are dug out using a machine called a potato harvester, which lifts the potatoes out of the soil. Then the potatoes are sorted and packed into sacks and boxes.