The growing catalogue of holy aubergines, tortillas and even municipal dusters was joined yesterday by a humble potato, cut open to reveal a crucifix. The Easter surprise for a family in Hull was to form part of a home-made fish-and-chips meal, until Linda Coles (32), sliced it and discovered the cross, formed of traceries of mould.
Ms Coles's husband Shaun (35) took the potato to his local Catholic church before he put it in the freezer. "I know it is just where it has started to rot away, but the potato looked fine on the outside, and it's just such a perfect crucifix shape." The potato's preservation will be shared by a Manchester aubergine, also cut open yesterday but this time revealing the word "Allah" in its pattern of seeds.
Conservationists from the Manchester Museum will advise on how the vegetable can be preserved, after a meeting of local Islamic community leaders to consider its future.
If preservation works, the two vegetables will join a duster from Leeds town hall which is said to bear the face of Christ in smudges of dirt and a range of other cookery ingredients with allegedly sacred properties.