Big Idaho Potato Truck 2.0 unveiled

The Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) has revealed its new, 4-ton Big Idaho Potato 2.0. While the Truck is still 28 feet long and 11.5 feet high, it’s a little trimmer in the middle (10 feet wide), and two tons lighter than its predecessor.

The IPC said when folks saw the original potato, the most commonly asked question was, “Is it real?” If the potato were real, it would:

• Be the equivalent of 21,562 medium-size potatoes
• Make 20,217 servings of mashed potatoes
• Make close to 1 million french fries
• Take nearly 7,000 years to grow
• Take about two years to bake

The Big Idaho Potato Truck originally launched in 2012 in celebration of the IPC’s 75-year anniversary and was supposed to be on the road for just one year.

“After traveling 155,000 miles, visiting more than 7,200 cities and being included in more selfies than we’ll ever be able to count, the original potato became too road worn to travel and is now retired in its home state of Idaho,” the IPC said.

The original potato was donated to Kristie Wolfe, a former Tater Team member, who is in the process of turning it into a tiny house in Idaho. Wolfe has made previous tiny houses including a hobbit inn in Washington state, a treehouse in Hawaii and a reclaimed Forest Service lookout in Idaho. She will post photos of the transformation on Instagram @bigidahopotatohotel..

To see when the new Big Idaho Potato Truck will be in different areas, visit www.bigidahopotatotruck.com.