The offer of about 45,000 kilograms of free potatoes caused a massive traffic jam in northeast Edmonton on Saturday as thousands of people lined up in cars for several kilometres to take advantage of the deal.

The Great Potato Give Away, organized by the Edmonton Potato Growers and the Greater Edmonton Alliance, aims to promote locally grown food and draw attention to the valuable farmland being lost to urban development.

Organizers expected a couple of thousand people to come out but were taken by surprise when several thousand more started lining up on the road leading to the farm by 7:30 a.m.

"This certainly exceeded what we expected," said Michael Walters of the Greater Edmonton Alliance, a collection of community groups, small businesses, religious organizations and labour activists.

"We know there's a very serious demand for food in general, but when it's free ...."

He said at one point, the lineup of cars stretched about eight kilometres.

However, he said it wasn't as much of a "pick-and-grab" as some might have expected.

People started digging

"There were hundreds of people in line at one time, just waiting for a tractor to come and till the fields and turn the potatoes over," he explained. "Then people just started digging.

"People were pretty supportive and pretty engaged ... just looking for a way to have more of a voice in it. We were thrilled not only with the turnout, but with how educated and passionate the crowd was about the importance of local agriculture."

Four hours after the event started, potato farmer Gordon Visser had to announce to hundreds of waiting potato pickers that the supply of spuds had been exhausted.

But Walters said it was a good way to impress on city dwellers that instead of relying on food that's shipped to Canada from places such as China, they should support local growers and the effort to preserve urban agricultural land.

"We've demonstrated the significant demand for local food, which was our intent," he said.

"This land has more value than just being a holding pattern for urban growth. While the cities will continue to grow, we need to integrate agricultural land within that development."

'This is insane'

Rob Armstrong brought his kids to the event, thinking it would be fun for them and an opportunity to expose them to local farming.

"I expected it to be busy, but this is insane," he said with a good-natured laugh. "We've been waiting 10 minutes just to get to the turnoff. We'll walk up the road and see if we can get in."

But Rosa Fernandez, who also brought her kids, finally gave up.

"We saw a big lineup on the freeway," she recounted. "We thought, well, it's not that far away. We started to walk ... and somebody told us there was at least a thousand cars and it was about five kilometres away. So, we're, like, no, I don't think so. The kids are already complaining."

Not that she will give up on the event. She said she would come if it's held again next year, only she'll plan to get there ahead of time.

"The early bird gets the potato," she said.