Spud Saavy

The potato you've got back in the cupboard? The one that's sprouting stalks and turning into something inedible? Don't think of it as strange or gross—think of it as art! It's a Bonsai Potato, suddenly made respectable by the invention of the Bonsai Potato Kit ($15 at www.bonsaipotato.com).

The idea for this Ronco-like product came to creator Jeff Fitzsimmons when he began training and pruning an unruly spud simply to irritate his roommates. Fitzsimmons, project lead at Dillon Works! (a Mukilteo-based firm famous for creating huge, three-dimensional promotion pieces), and Mike Dillon, owner of Dillon Works!, then formed an entirely new company, Bottled Lightning! Inc., to turn their "unfocused creative energy into tangible products"—however wacky they may be.

So what does the Bonsai Potato have over traditional bonsai? It is marketed as "Zen, without the wait"—in a few short weeks, you can have a fully grown Bonsai Potato with absolutely no effort. (A traditional bonsai tree takes 100 years and constant care to reach maturity.) Barbara Hilty, winner of Bottled Lightning!'s second official Bonsai Potato contest (pictured at left, click photo for story), received the kit for her 80th birthday and, months later, had herself a prize-winning potato.

When Fitzsimmons is asked why he thought people would actually buy his peculiar product, he says, "In an infinite universe, anything is possible." Point proven. The kit includes a potato altar, gravel for the altar and the so-called "epic pamphlet" that humorously describes the "semi-ancient" art of Bonsai Potato. (You have to come up with the spud yourself.) Third Place Books and Elliot Bay Book Company also carry the kit.

Who's Building Our Dot.Com Empire?

The Bonsai Potato Kit is listed in this article as one the top 10 most bizarre Seattle-based web sites.