A New Zealand couple who believed they’d dug up the world’s largest potato in the garden of their small farm near Hamilton had their dreams shattered after Guinness Book of World Records officials informed them that it wasn’t a potato after all.
After months of submitting photos and paperwork, the couple got an email from Guinness informing them that what they thought was a potato was, in reality “the tuber of a type of gourd,” according to The Guardian.
The potato, which they named Doug — spelled D-U-G — became a local celebrity of sorts, after the couple began posting photos of it on Facebook with a hat on it, and even built a cart to tow it around.
An official weigh-in at a local farming store put Dug at 17 pounds — equal to a couple of sacks of regular potatoes, or one small dog.
The existing Guinness record — a 2011 monster from Britain that weighed in at just under 11 pounds — will stand.