The mighty spud will be showcased once again during Huble Homestead's fourth annual Potato Festival Sept. 3-4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
There's a full menu of potato-inspired dishes, pioneer demonstrations and friendly competitions, entertainment and a Huble garden-sized amount of fresh produce available for purchase.
"This is the last event of the summer season before we move to fall hours and everyone goes back to the grind," Krystal Leason, operations manager at Huble Homestead/Giscome Portage Heritage Society, said.
"We've got a pretty relaxing event with some pretty exciting options and, of course, the star is the potato."
One of the main attractions is that the Huble Homestead staff and volunteers have been growing several varieties of heirloom potatoes that are ready for harvest in time for the potato festival.
One of the heirloom potatoes grown at Huble is the Cariboo, which is most famous or perhaps, most infamous, and better known as the 'outlaw' potato which was developed in 1963. It thrived in the region until it was banned when the plants became entangled with industrial harvesting machinery and deemed more trouble than it was worth.
Activities are offered for the whole family including the Mr. Potato Head contest where those dud spuds are recruited to serve the public in pursuit of creativity.
"There's a competition both days for the most creative Mr. Potato Head," Leason said.
Traditional contests include potato sack races, a game of hot potato, fastest to peel a potato where children get a peeler and adults get a paring knife. There's also the longest potato peel contest.
"So there's a lot of fun going on there," Leason said. "We have a lot of live music lined up for both days. For demonstrations we'll have the blacksmith there, some of our staff will be making butter, ice cream, demonstrating natural dyes and pickling."
For the special potato-themed menu, there are sweet potato pancakes available as part of the pancake breakfast. Huble Homestead does not usually offer fries, but to honour the potato, fries will be available along with potato salad and potato soup.
The General Store is having its annual summer-end sale.
"So if you've had your eye on a piece of locally made furniture or some beautiful knitting, or whatever you may have seen in the store over the summer, you can come back for the bargain," Leason said.
Admission is by suggested donation of $10 per family.
The historic dog-friendly site is 40 kilometres north of Prince George. Travel on Highway 97 and turn right on Mitchell Road, a 6km well-maintained gravel road suitable for family vehicles, RVs and buses.
