This year I have grown two varieties of potato; Charlotte and Pink Fir Apple. Charlotte is an old favourite of ours. It is essentially a salad potato with firm, creamy coloured flesh, however it also chips, roasts and mashes well, though thinking about it, I've never tried it as a baked potato...hmm.
Anyway, I planted up one of our raised beds with Charlotte seed potatoes and the Pink Fir Apple tubers went into the large ex-water butt (it sprung a leak a few seasons ago and has since been used as a potato planter).
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| a few Charlottes for tea |
The Charlotte potatoes were dug up last week as all the top growth had died off. On digging through the bed I was disappointed with the size of the crop; I think this is down to the exceedingly dry weather of the past couple of months and also my lack of watering. In total the plot delivered about half a sack of potatoes, so I don't think we'll be enjoying any homegrown potatoes this Christmas, as we have done in years past.
The Pink Fir Apple is still growing away and it's been more frequently watered - easier to water a container with my trusty watering can then a whole raised bed. So hopefully the yield will be better. I've grown this variety as it is rarely available in the supermarket and, although it looks a bit odd, it takes delicious...I wonder how much longer I'll be able to resist tipping out the barrel?
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, s
o 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?
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