Los Angeles will get a visit Wednesday from a big potato, albeit a fake one.
“The Famous Idaho Potato Tour,” featuring a 12,000-pound model spud, will be at the KXLU 88.9 FM radio station at Loyola Marymount University from noon to 1:45 p.m.
According to The Famous Idaho Potato Tour website, this is the fourth tour for the Big Idaho Potato Truck that hauls the enormous vegetable. It’s a tradition that started as a way to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Idaho Potato Commission, and now, Tater Team organizers said it’s become a piece of pop culture.
Some people are fooled into thinking it’s real, but builders created the oversized model of the state’s most famous crop. It weighs about six tons — that’s about 1,102 times heavier than the largest potato every really grown, which weighed 11 pounds, according to the website.
If a potato ever did grow to be that big, it would make more than 30,000 servings of mashed potatoes or 1.5 million French fries.
As part of the tour, Tater Team members give back to the communities where the truck stops through a program they call “A Big Helping.”
They partner with various charities to help raise awareness, money or food donations.
For more information, or to track the potato’s progress, visit www.bigidahopotato.com.
—City News Service