Looking for a new way to wish someone a happy birthday or congratulate a colleague? Try a potato.

As more and more avenues for digital communication emerge, some websites are going back to snail mail, allowing you to send your message in an unconventional way.

“I wanted to create a brand new way of sending a message outside of apps and technology by allowing anyone to send an anonymous message…on a potato,” Alex Craig, founder of Potato Parcel, writes in an email to MarketWatch.

Based in Dallas, Potato Parcel was launched in May, and has since received 3,500 orders for potatoes. The potatoes come packaged, giving the recipient an initial feeling of “surprise and delight” only to be “confused when they open it to find a potato with an anonymous message,” Craig says. You can choose to add your name in the message, but it counts as part of the word limit.

For $7.99, you can send a medium-size potato with a message of up to 100 characters. For a $2 upgrade, you can send a large-size potato with a 140-character limit. Craig says the limits are due to space on the potato, but he landed on 140 characters because it is already familiar to customers as the Twitter character limit. Shipping costs about $4. Craig says it takes about seven days for potatoes to reach their destination.

Craig, who works full time at a mobile app agency, says he is planning on expanding Potato Parcel globally, with a franchise in the United Kingdom and plans for Australia and Canada.

Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, says these websites are initially successful because of their novelty.

“When they start, they are very unique,” Berger says. “No one has been mailed a potato or a banana before with their name on it…it’s interesting to talk about and receive.”

However, the honeymoon period ends when other companies enter the space and consumer excitement fades.

“ For a $2 upgrade, you can send a large-size potato with a 140-character limit. ”

The best way for these websites to survive, Berger says, is to maintain a low profile, or create a service that differentiates it from the competition.

“It all depends on whether someone has heard about it or not,” Berger says. “The first time it’s really exciting, after two or three times the novelty wears off.”

The enthusiasm for mailed produce messages seems to be thriving for the moment, as other websites put their own spin on the idea.

Brooklyn-based Mail a Spud went live in January and has since received “thousands” of orders, according to founder Sean Din, who asked for his last name to be shortened for professional reasons.

The website will send a potato for $9.99, which includes shipping. Din says he buys his potatoes locally, opting for more durable, high-quality spuds that weigh less than 13 ounces. The U.S. Postal Service requires that any mail weighing more than 13 ounces be mailed through the postal office desk and cannot be mailed via unattended venues like mailboxes.

Din says he has mailed potatoes to a variety of locations, from skyscrapers in New York’s Financial District to Alaska. He says it typically takes five to seven days for the potatoes to arrive, though factors like mailroom sorting can cause delays.

The right way to cheer from the sidelines

The potatoes are mailed unpackaged, with the stamps and address carved directly on the spud. Din says the spuds usually arrive undamaged, though sometimes the stamps are peeling off and the potato sustains some scratches and dents.

“I don’t suggest that you consume them,” Din says. “They’ve been through a lot.”

If you’re feeling more fruity than starchy, you can send a message via banana. NannerGram will ship your message on a banana for $8, which includes tax and shipping. The bananas are mailed in packaging, so recipients are able to eat them if they choose. The banana messages have a standard 140-character limit.

The Lehi, Utah-based site launched earlier this month, and has since received 72 orders, according to founder Konnor Willison. He attributes the initial interest to the unconventionality of receiving a banana in the mail. Willison works full time in the IT department of a private home security company.

“It’s just so random,” Willison says. “No one expects to get a banana in the mail.”

In his first two weeks of operation, Willison says he has found that organic bananas were the most durable for shipping, and he buys them green from the local grocery store. The messages are then carved into the peel with an X-ACTO knife. The bananas take three to four business days to arrive to their final destination.

Willison says the first few times he mailed the banana messages from his local post office he received some surprised reactions.

“They asked if there’s anything hazardous, liquid or perishable, and I said, ‘Yes, bananas,” Willison says. “Pretty much everyone knows me there now, though. They don’t ask me now because they know.”