Potatoes in the News

Over the past month, three quirky Canadian news stories about potatoes caught my eye (get it? get it? sorry). Links in the text are to the original news item.

Yes, it's been slow around here lately and I am reduced to this.

1. The Spud of Honour

[photo courtesy of

PEI Potato Board/Facebook]

"Tate the Tater," industry mascot for the Prince Edward Island Potato Board, was invited in August to attend a local PEI wedding. The groom, not surprisingly, works on a potato farm and the wedding took place on another potato farm. Who wouldn't want a real "bud the spud from the bright red mud" at their wedding? (to quote Stompin' Tom for the first and last time in my life).

2. The Little Potato

[photo by

The Associated Press]

One of the more interesting facts to emerge from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's recent trade trip to China is that he is known in that country as "the little potato." It's a play on words because the Chinese word for "potato" apparently sounds just like "Trudeau" but without the "r" in it. I wonder if this means they called his old man "the big potato?"

3. Smite the Unbelievers, O Lord!

[photo by

Gaston Lebreaux]

About a month ago, the latest Holy Sign from God revealed itself in a potato that was being cut up for supper at a Quebec seniors' residence. Devout residents are now drying out the Holy Potato so it can be preserved in a custom-made display case in the dining room. No word yet whether the seniors' residence has become a place of pilgrimage.

Some sceptics suggest that the markings may be the result of "hollow heart," an affliction found in potatoes grown in heavily irrigated soil during wet seasons. This condition causes cells to die and results in brown tissue at the centre of the spud.