Colin Craig-Brown was weeding his garden. His hoe struck something huge just beneath the soil’s surface. Mr. Craig-Brown and his wife Donna knelt down and began digging around the object. What they uncovered was bigger than a basketball. It was heavier than a bowling ball. Mr. Craig-Brown scratched away a bit of the object’s skin and tasted it. That’s when he knew it was a potato.
“We couldn’t believe it,” says Mrs. Craig-Brown. “It was just huge.” The couple lugged the big spud into their garage. They weighed it at 17.4 pounds. That’s equal to a couple sacks of regular potatoes, or one small dog. It’s possible that the Craig-Brown’s potato is the largest potato on record.
The tuber is somewhat of a celebrity on the Craig-Browns’ farm near Hamilton, New Zealand. They’ve named the potato Doug, after the way it was “dug” out of the ground. Mr. Craig-Brown even built a small cart to tow Doug around. “We put a hat on him. We put him on Facebook, taking him for a walk, giving him some sunshine,” says Mr. Craig-Brown. “It’s all a bit of fun. It’s amazing what entertains people.”
The current Guinness World Records entry for the heaviest potato is a monster-sized tater from Great Britain. That potato weighed in at just under 11 pounds. The Craig-Browns have applied to Guinness to have Doug recognized as the heaviest potato in the world. (They are waiting to hear back.)
How do you grow the biggest potato in the world? The Craig-Browns don’t have any secret gardening tips. Usually, they throw a load of cow manure and straw onto their garden and see what happens. The funny thing is that the Craig-Browns didn’t plant potatoes this year. They’d been growing cucumbers in that area of their garden before weeds took over. Doug must have been self-sown. It’s quite possible the unpredicted produce had been growing for a couple of years or more.
“It’s a mystery to me,” says Mr. Craig-Brown. For now, Doug resides in the couple’s freezer. They placed him there when he started to smell funny.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. — Genesis 2:15
