Thompson & Morgan successfully graft eggplant/potato plant

A seed and plant company in England is creating quite a stir with their latest grafted creation, which they’ve named “Egg & Chips,” after a favorite English dish of fried eggs and French fries. Although in this case the eggs are eggplants, also known as aubergine. The chips part is dead on, since the plant produces potatoes as well. The reasoning behind Thompson & Morgan’s creation is two-fold: The plant lets you grow two vegetables in the space of one and it’s just plain cool. (I’m betting this was the real impetus in its creation.)

Thompson & Morgan, based in Ipswich, has been around since 1855, but it’s only been within the last couple of years that they’ve produced weird hand-grafted plants like the “Tomtato,” introduced in 2013, which produces tomatoes on top and potatoes on the bottom. The concept isn’t actually new—during World War I, the British government tried to boost home-front food production by promoting the plant for home gardeners—but Thompson & Morgan claims to have produced the first commercially viable version.