A New Zealand couple, who were surviving on a tiny farm on the North Island, Newzealand. Colin Craig-brown; 62 years old, and Donna; 60 years old, firmly believe they discovered the world’s largest potato, 17.2 pounds-(7.9kgs) from their garden last August – named it Dug. As soon as they revealed the news on the internet, it quickly became the talk of the town. They became celebrities overnight and became the highlighted news in many news channels, even grasping the attention of The Washington Post.
After judging the public response, and considering everyone’s advice, they decided to file an application to Guinness World Records for “the world’s heaviest potato” – a title currently owned by Peter Glazebrook, a farmer in Britain. He broke the record in 2011 with his 11-pounds-4.98 kgs heavy potato. They gathered all the required paperwork, and photos and submitted their application to the Guinness world record.
Guinness World Record and other institutes’ Findings on DUG
After waiting for seven long months, Colin Craig-Brown received a depressing email from Guinness World which broke his heart. The email disclosed to them that their specimen of potato – which they named Dug – was not a potato at all.
The e-mail from a Guinness World Records spokesperson clearly stated that the shared specimen was a special kind of gourd, instead of being a potato. Based on this argument, the couple’s application was rejected for beating the record of the world’s heaviest potato as it could not be considered just that.
The couple was sure that it was a potato because it felt, tasted, and grew like a potato; and nobody questioned its identity earlier. Whoever had touched and tasted it, they had been sure of it to be a potato. Moreover, it was verified many times by experts in gardening, including an agronomist who studies crop and soil production, and the results have been the same. It was supposed to be a potato as per their personal research on the matter.
Also, specimen DNA testing was examined at the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research by scientists and then by analysts at SASA- (Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture). They both also disqualified the Dug as a potato.
According to the findings of the Guinness world record, the provided sample was a tuber –the stem present underneath the plant. In this scenario, the plant is suspected to be some kind of a gourd, for instance, a pumpkin, cucumber, or squash.
Also, According to the words of a New Zealand Institute researcher ‘Samantha Baldwin’, the team conducted several tests on the Dug. Based on the tests, none of the tests done on the specimen produced the reaction of a potato. For further examination, the samples were then sent to the research centers in Scotland.
The Scotland research center-SASA also verified the sample as a tuber and stated that it is more likely that it belongs to a family of gourds.
Despite the clear results, the Couple was extremely distressed and puzzled, since they never planted had the gourd in their garden.
In the end – How did Colin Craig brown come to peace
Accepting that Dug is not a potato was a hard nut for them to swallow. But after many restless nights and pouring over the data from the research center, they hypothesized that Dug came into being from the cross-hybridization of different types of cucumber they did once in the garden.
They were so emotionally attached to their discovery that they decided to save it in the freezer for as long as possible. Later, when the time comes that they have to dispose of their beloved Dug, they will create a mold of it so that their grandchildren and future generations can see the mighty tuber. Their decision was firm because it was a great success for them in years of farming.
The couple still aims to produce the record-breaking heaviest potato from their garden. They informed the media that they have already started doing extensive research about how it could happen and have already found out some factors like the potatoes need to grow over a long season with cool nights no warmer than 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29.4 degrees Celsius). They claimed to be very deliberate in their goal and will try their best to produce the record-breaking monster potato next season.