A New Zealand Farmer Thinks He Has the Biggest Potato Ever — And He Named It Doug!
Potatoes come in all shapes, sizes, and colors — and that’s never been more apparent than now! Thanks to a New Zealand farmer, we now know what the world’s biggest potato ever looks like, and it isn’t exactly pretty.
Colin and Donna Craig-Brown found the potato by complete accident in late August when they were out in their yard weeding. After Colin’s tool hit something hard, the two began digging around it. And out came an ugly lump that turned out to be a potato! The spud comes in at a whopping 17.2 pounds and is about the size of a small dog. They decided to name the potato Doug, a pun on how it was retrieved.
As for its appearance, Donna thinks it’s got a mutant look going on (see the pictures here!). She’s not entirely wrong, as the shape is oval like a potato but has all kinds of bumps around it. It basically looks like someone melted a sack of potatoes together. Well, make that two sacks, since thats how much Doug weighs.
But that’s not the only mystery that surrounds Doug. According to the couple, they hadn’t even planted any potatoes in that part of their garden! They had been growing cucumbers there before the weeds took over. So however he got there, Doug had likely been growing for years on his own. They have since applied to the Guinness World Records. The current largest potato measured is just under 11 pounds, much smaller than the colossal Doug.
“It’s a mystery to me,” Colin told the AP. “It’s one of nature’s little pleasant surprises.”
The couple have had fun with their discovery. Colin built him a wagon to carry around their small town, to the delight of their neighbors.
“We put a hat on him. We put him on Facebook, taking him for a walk, giving him some sunshine,” Doug said. “It’s all a bit of fun. It’s amazing what entertains people.”
But Doug started getting “a bit pongy” (that’s New Zealand for smelly) after a while, so Colin cleaned him up and currently has him in a freezer. The amateur brewer has potential plans to turn him into vodka. Sounds to me like the perfect happy ending for the world’s biggest potato ever!
