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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
UNIAN, screenshotsAlmost a two-kilogram potato grew in the garden of 66-year-old Anatoliy Turovets from Andriivka, Mykhailo-Kotsyubynska hromada of Chernihiv district, as reported by "Visnyk Ch". Its initial weight was 1915 grams. The man even considered contending for the Chernihiv Oblast record, but after two weeks of hesitation the tuber began to dry out.
As of Wednesday, 16 September, it remained huge.
Turovets said his son checked the information online and found that the Chernihiv Oblast record is 1400 grams. In Volyn, he said, they grew a potato weighing 2200 grams of the "Slov'yanka" variety.
He cannot precisely name the variety of his giant tuber, because he plants different varieties and regularly changes them. Among them are "Belorossa", "Slov’yanka" and other newer varieties. He noted that he tries to plant elite potatoes. In Andriivka there is an agrofirm that grows various varieties, including "Andriivske". At one time Turovets leased his land shares to it, and in return received a seedbed of early potatoes.
It is said that previously his wife Tetiana handled potato varieties, who died 25 in April. Turovets himself treats gardening work more casually: scattering fertilizers, cultivating the soil, and harvesting. While talking about his wife, the man could not hold back tears and, to hide his emotions, first went to the garden. It was there that he showed the place where the giant potato grew.
The harvest was dug up with help from the family. Son Oleksandr, daughter Iryna, and three granddaughters who came from the city joined in. According to Turovets, everyone worked diligently, joking that potatoes don’t grow on balconies.
This year’s harvest turned out particularly good. Turovets has two gardens: one about 12 sotok in area located near the house, another about 15 sotok opposite the yard. He did not plant the second one at all this year, but from one garden he gathered about as much as in previous years from two.
At the time of the interview, only trampling furrows and autumn flowers remained in the garden, which his wife had once planted.
A tractor with a plow assisted the harvest, driven by Vitaliy Koval. Turovets noted that almost no manual labor was involved in digging. Earlier he himself owned a tractor but sold it due to health problems. He himself worked in agriculture for about 15 years—driving a truck, and in season working on a combine.
The tractor owner helped him for free because they are relatives. The giant potato was found during harvest by neighbors Lena Leshchenko and Tanya Koval. They brought it to Turovets and suggested weighing it. The weight was 1 kilograms 915 grams. The women joked that this was a record, after which they continued harvesting. The entire garden was managed in about two hours.
However, over the next two weeks the potato began to lose weight. When Turovets weighed it the day before, it weighed 1815 grams, and during the next weighing — 1760 grams.
Length — over half a meter
In the house, a British cat Motya stayed for a few days. In size it turned out to be almost as big as the potato. The owner jokes that the tuber differs from a cat only in that it has no fur or tail. He did not name the potato.
Later the vegetable was measured with a ruler and tape. Its length was 26 centimeters, and during measurements of length, width, and girth in various directions the figures were 36 on 61 centimeters.
Turovets does not intend to use the giant potato for cooking. He plans to keep it and place it near icons in the house, occasionally weighing it to watch how it loses weight. He says that in his life he has never seen a potato of such size.
The entire this year’s harvest is stored in a barn, drying. The largest potato is the same one that weighed 1915 grams, but there were other large potatoes weighing about 1–1,5 kilograms. Some of the harvest were taken by the children to Chernihiv, the rest has not yet been sorted.
Part of the potatoes Turovets collects in nets for the hospital. Each year the village donates vegetables to the district hospital as assistance. Locals bring what they have – cabbage, potatoes, carrots – and as much as they can give. This year the potatoes from Turovets are set to be collected the next day.
For growing potatoes he uses manure. He does not keep his own livestock, except for chickens, so he buys fertilizer at a farm in Mykhailo-Kotsyubynske. The manure machine costs 6 thousand hryvnias. In autumn they spread it over the garden, and in spring they plow the soil.
The Colorado potato beetle is still being destroyed with chemical means, as with most farmers. However he jokes that if he treats only two sotkas, he might switch to manual harvesting or even use a vacuum cleaner or compressor.
The man plans to sell the potatoes, since this year the harvest was very large. He says that about three tons of old potatoes he already took to the landfill. He has not yet set a price for his own product. At markets they ask 10–15 hryvnias per kilogram, but Turovets himself does not intend to take the potatoes to sell and is ready to give them at the price offered.
How many dumplings can be made from a giant potato
How many dumplings can be made from a potato weighing 1915 grams, calculated by Valentina Dyachenko, a chef at the Nizhyn restaurant "Mogorich". The establishment specializes in Ukrainian and European cuisine.
According to her calculations, from such a quantity of potatoes you can make about 50 dumplings. In the restaurant one serving consists of five dumplings with a diameter of 6–7 centimeters and a thickness of about one centimeter. They are served with sour cream.
In addition to potatoes, you need eggs, onions, and flour for making dumplings. They are fried in oil.
Records of this year’s potato harvest
Recall that in Volyn a local farmer surprised with an unusual potato harvest — some tubers grew to the size of a three-liter jar. It was said that such potatoes are grown in Volyn not for the first time — large tubers are not unusual for local farmers. At the same time, such specimens of this size happen quite rarely.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Розміром з кішку: на Чернігівщині викопали 2-кілограмову картоплину (відео)". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: UNIAN.
