The Potato Picker

I make no apology to Van Gogh for paraphrasing the title of his famous painting, The Potato Eaters, after I'd finished digging for the day I felt, and probably looked, like one of the sitters in his painting!

I spent a couple of hours last Sunday digging Charlotte potatoes from the comfort of their raised bed. It was the first warm and dry day for a couple of weeks, so time to get the tatties out of the ground and dried off for storing. My back was aching by the time I had finished, though I couldn't stop smiling as I saw the pile grow and grow.
I spread the potatoes on a plastic sheet on the ground to dry for a couple of hours and then sorted them into three sizes - large, medium and small. Any damaged potatoes I put to one side to use within the next couple of days and the others I packed into paper sacks to store in my Potting Shed where it's cool, dry and dark. I'll be interested to see how these store as they are salad potatoes and I feel that they probably should be eaten sooner rather than later.


I've four potato barrels to empty yet, one of Charlotte and three of Maris Bard, so I'd better start searching for some potato based recipes to test them out on - any suggestions?