“The world’s biggest not-a-potato”
<p dir="ltr">A New Zealand couple who thought they had grown the world’s largest potato have been informed that it actually isn’t a potato.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Colin and Donna Craig-Brown were weeding their garden on a small farm in Hamilton, when his hoe hit something hard under the ground.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Colin bent down to make sure it was a potato and tasted the strange looking object, confirming to his wife that it was a “potato”.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The couple named it Dug, took it for walks and even dressed it up when they finally decided to submit the heavy 7.8kg find to the Guiness Book of Records.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The record for the world’s largest potato is currently held by someone in Britain, who grew a massive potato weighing just under 5kg.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Unfortunately, Colin and Donna’s dreams were shattered when they were told Dug was in fact not a potato.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Sadly the specimen is not a potato and is in fact the tuber of a type of gourd. For this reason we do unfortunately have to disqualify the application,” the email read.</p>
<p dir="ltr">He said he couldn’t fight their conclusion because they had submitted Dug’s DNA for testing.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“What can you say? We can’t say we don’t believe you, because we gave them the DNA stuff,” Colin told <a href="https://apnews.com/article/worlds-largest-potato-doug-a440afd3c656018c585078ed3ac18970" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AP</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Despite the disappointment, Colin and Donna still care for Dug who now sits in their freezer.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I say ‘gidday’ to him every time I pull out some sausages. He's a cool character,” he said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Whenever the grandchildren come round, they say, ‘Can we see Dug?'"</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Dug is the destroyer from Down Under. He is the world’s biggest not-a-potato.”</p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Instagram</em></p>
