Kensington - The Red Sands Tourism Group held another qualifying round on Wednesday at the Kensington Harvest Festival in search of the fastest potato peeler.
The competition was to determine the fifth and final member of the team that will attempt to break the Fastest Potato Peeling Guinness World Record.
Co-ordinator Lucie Newson said the qualifying rounds have been a great success.
"We've been at the Summerside Lobster Carnival, the O'Leary Potato Festival, the Crapaud Exhibition and Old Home Week," Newson said. "We have three males and one female so far and we'll have our final teammate after the contest today."
The object of the competition is to peel as many pounds of potatoes possible in 10 minutes.
"We had one person peel 22 pounds in eight minutes," Newson said. "That is our fastest qualifier so far."
It was Nancy Moase of New Annan who peeled her way to victory to fill the final spot of the team. She cleared just over 11 pounds in eight minutes.
The world record is 40 pounds in eight minutes, but Newson is remaining positive.
"They're just really going to have to practice a lot between now and September 10th," she said, about the team.
Newson said one thing that helps is to use a peeler instead of a knife.
"The knife takes off too much peeling. You lose too much potato which means you lose pounds," she said. "A peeler will take off less so your potatoes will weigh more once you've finished peeling them clean."
Jennifer Gallant of Kensington and Patty MacDonald of Margate were the first two competitors to sign up for Kensington's qualifying round.
"I've been jogging through the potato fields of P.E.I. dreaming of this day," Gallant joked. "And I baked 100 pounds of potato scallop just to prepare."
MacDonald was also taking the competition fairly lightly.
"She's a beautiful vegetable isn't she," MacDonald said, as she peeled the potato clean.
Winners of each qualifying round received two Paderno pots, a potato peeler, a T-shirt, $50 and a place on the team.
Moase's teammates are Lucy de Jong, Derek Doiron, Peter Llewellyn, and Cecil Scott.
The world record attempt will happen before an official judge at the Red Sands Potato Fest in Victoria-By-The-Sea held Sept. 10 between 5 and 6 p.m.
anicholson@journalpioneer.com
